How to cut and paste a picture into a shape in Illustrator CS4

[Guest]

In illustrator CS4 I am trying to cut and paste a picture into a shape. In freehand the shortcut was so easy. I know there is one in Illustrator but cant remember what it is, can anyone tell me?

[Steve Fairbairn]

Draw your shape, put your picture immediately behind it, select both and make a clipping mask. Object, Cipping Mask, Make (Cmd-7).

[Guest]

When I use the comand 7 shortcut it comes up with an error message. I just

simple want to paste a image into a circle. No masks nodistorting, nothing

complicted.

K8

[Steve Fairbairn]

Like this:

Left: The picture, linked or embedded.

Centre: The picture with a circle in front of it (both selected).

Right: The circle masking the picture after Cmd-7.

The bits of the picture outside the mask are invisible (transparent).

[Jacob Bugge]

K8,

When I use the comand 7 shortcut it comes up with an error message. I just

simple want to paste a image into a circle. No masks nodistorting, nothing

complicted.

Which error message?

No one wants complicated, but sometimes that is the only option.

[Steve Fairbairn]

Here's the original picture. It's called PhilipFarted. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

[Guest]

Brilliant, Thanks

[PrepressPro1]

Sorry dude, Illustrator isn't Freehand, no paste into here. In illustrator you have to have a different mind set, using clipping masks. This mind set comes from a unification of the Adobe programs in the CS family. As with the Borg, resistance is futile. So to anwser the question "How to cut and paste a picture into  a shape" You can't, not in Illustrator. but you can mask a photo.

Royal farts… hu uh huha huha.

[Jacob Bugge]

K8,

What Steve said, with the addition that you may get rid of the outlying parts, by:

1) With the mask selected, in the Transparency palette dropdown select anything but Normal,

2) Object>Flatten Transparency, no need to change options,

unless you have withheld information and really want to distort the picture to fit the shape, in which case you should select both shape and picture and Object>Envelope Distort>Make with Top Object.

The procedure 1) - 2) is destructive in case of vector artwork but makes no difference with raster images, and it makes it easier to avoid accidental/unwanted selection outside the  Clipping Mask.

[Guest]

When I use the comand 7 shortcut it comes up with an error message. I just

simple want to paste a image into a circle. No masks nodistorting, nothing

complicted.

K8