Any Faster Way to Punch Out Dozens of Shapes from Background?

[jozsef_laszlo_2402]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a packaging design in Adobe Illustrator 2024 where I need to punch through small vector shapes (like stars and outlined text) using the Shape Builder Tool so that the box material shows through underneath (i.e. not printed with white ink). The goal is to subtract these from a background shape and leave transparent holes for print.

Problem:

This process has become extremely slow:

• Each option+click lags for 2–3 seconds

• Illustrator becomes sluggish after a few dozen deletions

• Using a MacBook Pro M1 2020 (8GB RAM)

I've attached a screenshot showing what I’m working with.

Question:

Is there a faster or more efficient way to “punch through” multiple small outlined shapes from a background shape using Shape Builder without the performance hit?

I'd really appreciate any tips or workflow tweaks that could help. This is for a commercial print job and time is tight, so speeding this up would save a ton of frustration.

Thanks in advance!

[Jacob Bugge]

jozsef,

Your 8GB RAM is on the low side, but there may be other things to change (too).

Why the Shape Builder?

I believe another approach may be simpler and snappier.

Can you show the raw artwork you have been starting out with, such as the background coloured bands and text and stars (including a falling one)?

Unknown to most, it is quite easy to directly show images in posts, hence the following general suggestion:

Please show images by using the Insert Photos button (looks like moon over mountains) for each at the top of the reply box which makes everything appear right there in your post together with your text, rather than he more conspicuous Drag&drop attachment which requires helpers to open a new tab for each image and wait for its showing, then go back and forth; and if they just click it and wait for its showing and press the X to get back to the text, the image is gone so they have to open it again and wait to see it again.

[Monika Gause]

8 GB of RAM is not sufficient.

You could try and color them all black, group them and apply them as an opacity mask to the background. This will not create paths for cutting, so it might not fit your requirements.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

jozsef,

After another look, I believe you can do it in this simple way, see the crude sample below with white punch out parts, two yelllowish/reddish background parts, and a blue background, given that all the parts to punch out are the same colour:

1) Lock the blue background, then select everything (else) and apply the Pathfinder Divide; this makes the artwork form a Group that still looks like the original artwork to the left;

2) Deselect (you can click an empty spot on the Artboard/workspace), then with the Direct Selection Tool click one of the white parts to punch out, then in the dropdown Select>Same>Fill Color, then press Delete; this changes the artwork to be the yelllowish/reddish Group in front of the blue background to the right as desired.

Click to get closer

[jozsef_laszlo_2402]

Thanks so much, this method worked perfectly. Really appreciate it!

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Jozsef, and thank you for sharing.