how to connect edges seemlessly?

[artgarden71]

Hi, I'm new, and trying to trace a flower painting with the pen tool, (I know I can live trace it, but I need to trace it by hand for simplicity's sake). Anyway, I am wondering if there is a way to make edges but up against each other seamlessly, or is it just a matter of making some larger some smaller in order to overlap? That is't really working for me. I tried pathfinder, but it just made it into one object. I need them to stay seperate with seperate colors, but have seamless edges where the edges meat. Is there a particular tool or technique you can suggest? Thanks! Also, Illustrator forum should allow Illustrator format images to be uploaded to it, IMO. Weird that I have to go in and change them to Jpeg. Its late and I'm too tired to do that, but if you have advise without a visual, I would be so grateful. Imagine if the image was like the Community Guidelines image on the top right of this page. How would you make the shapes meet at the edges so precisely when they are odd shapes? That image is more precise, floral shapes are odd. 

[Mylenium]

From your description it sounds like you are doing double work, which is completely unnecessary. When tracing one would only care to actually capture the distinct edges with paths. any area thereafter can easily be created by using e.g. Live Paint and then expanding the appearance. Since it's based on the same paths it will also ensure that adjaccent areas butt up against each other.

Mylenium

[artgarden71]

Thank you! But, the painting is very complex, tonal, and blended, so the live paint would, I think, turn out way too complex. I guess I could have it just do a few colors, but I need to control that in the drawing, because I know which petals I want to keep, and which to discard, so I'm drawing them. I also find that I have this same problem frequently while drawing, because I'm a painter, and I'm painting over tons of colors with edges of shapes, so I kind of want to learn to do it manually, to understand how to manipulate edges, and use live paint later. But you're right, it is extra steps, if Illustrator knew what I wanted to keep and not keep in the flower.

[Doug A Roberts]

If you use Pathfinder > Merge on your shapes, it'll remove overlapping parts and you will end up with shapes that abut as you see them:

[artgarden71]

Oh perfect, thank you! This is mostly it! The little problem though, is that the shapes dont all overlap. Some shapes have spaces between them because I couldnt trace one edge against another perfectly. I guess I'll have to overlap all of them, to use this method you show. It gets a little confusing where things are when they're overlapping though. I wish I could have edges join that are not touching, and have the colors remain seperate in the shapes as this method you show.

Also, I am trying to turn the illustrator file into a Jpeg to show you, but the only option is PDF, this site wont allow the PDF. Is there a way to make it a Jpeg?

[Doug A Roberts]

You need to export a JPEG or PNG to upload to the forum (File > Export). It is inconvenient to not be able to upload AI files, but the forum software wouldn't know what to do with them anyway.

[artgarden71]

Thank you! My school website allows Illustrator and Photoshop files to be uploaded to the instructors for online classes. I feel like Adobe should be able to manage this, but, hey, everyone's a critic, right?

Anyway, I brought the photo into Photoshop and changed it into a Jpeg to post here. I think what I want is for Illustrator to be able to connect the puzzle pieces together with a magic tool of some sort. When I was drawing over the image, the shapes looked fine, like the bottom image shown. The file on the top is after I turned off the flower I was tracing. I should have lowered the opacity, not sure how. But, there is not such a magic tool, is there in Illustrator? That will connec these shapes?

[Ton Frederiks]

Actually, you can embed an Illustrator file (sort of...).

You can save the Illustrator file as PDF with "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" checked (the default).

If you edit your post (click the 3 dots...) you will notice a very small icon below the contents of your post.

Put on your glasses and click the chain icon to embed the PDF.

If someone opens the embedded pdf in Illustrator, they will get the original Illustrator file.

[Doug A Roberts]

Ah, the old edit-attach switcheroo!

[Monika Gause]

There is no need to cut the shapes in a way that they share the same border. Usually you just leave them overlapping each other. Which also serves the purpose that the arrangement can be edited.

[Doug A Roberts]

This would be my next question: what makes you think the shapes need to share borders? What problems do you think overlapping shapes are causing/will cause?

[artgarden71]

I just think that when it's a complex image with hundreds of shapes, and I'm bringing them to front, sending to back, etc, it could get confusing as to what is on top or bottom of another. I could be wrong! (Of course.). I included the image above.

[artgarden71]

Thank you! I wasn't sure if that was something that illustrators did. Do you think in the image above, (community guidelines, would they redraw the blue shape next to the orange shape, or simply overlap?