Help Please

[JJLAPIN1988]

Hello,

What would be the best and quickest way to fill the permiter following the outside of the Die of this file with white. I copied the die and thought I could put a big stroke with white to the Outside but it would only stroke to Center.

Any Ideas or solutions would be appreciated. 

Thank You

[Kurt Gold]

You may try the Shape Builder tool or Live Paint.

[JJLAPIN1988]

Thank You

[Tina_Irvine · Accepted solution]

Hi @JJLAPIN1988, to fill the space outside of the die lines with white: (a) Duplicate the outer dieline lines, join the duplicated items together to create a new shape, (b) draw a large box the size of the entire outer area, and (c) knock out the new shape from the large box (there are various methods of doing this).

Here are the steps:

Part a)

• Select the outside area of the dieline
• "Copy"
• "Paste in front" and then use your Pathfinder tool > Unite

That will give you the main/new shape. If you need to knockout areas, duplicate inner shapes and use your Pathfinder tool to knock these out as well. You can also use the shapebuilder tool (shift + m) to knock out areas. Fill the new shape with a new colour so you can see it easily.

Part b)

• Draw a box the size of your artboard (it might be easiest to not fill it with a colour. You can use a stroke colour if you wish)

Part c) There are three options which you can try:

• Select the large box and new shape. Knockout that shape by using Pathfinder > Exclude
• OR... with the large box on top of the new shape, select both of these items. Object > Compound Path > "Make"
• OR... (this is my preferred method) you can create a Clipping Mask by following this tutorial (2:26 is the most relevant part of the video, but it's good to watch the beginning, too) https://www.adobe.com/ca/learn/illustrator/web/crop-using-masks?locale=en-CA&learnIn=1