How to cut out a shape from text.

[Tom23887579l3am]

Hi all, Thanks for clicking on my post! I have a question regarding cutting out shapes from text in Illustrator. I am guessing it is simple, but since I am a noob I cannot figure it out for the life of me. Please refer to the attached screenshot, I am trying to cut out the RED CIRCLE from the 2 BLUE RECTANGLES. Please note there is a stroke on the circle, and I would like that to be cut out of the text as well. You can also access the ai file here, if you would like to give it a shot yourself - you may have to download it to edit.

Thanks for reading this far and have a fantastic day/night!

[Jacob Bugge]

Tom,

You can:

1) Select the circle , change the stroke colour to full black and give it a full black fill,

2) ShiftClick the 2 blue rectangles to also select them,

3) In the Transparency panel Make (Opacity) Mask with both Clip and Invert Mask ticked.

That ought to rid you of the unwanted parts in the appearence of the artwork. You can also use white in 1) and tick Invert Mask.

[federico platon]

Selrct test and use Text: Convert to Outlines.

Select all rhe objects, open the Pathfinder panel: divide

Select and ungroup, and with the direct selecion tool pick up the needed pieces and copy them, paste elsewhere.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

You can try this:

Select All and choose Object > Path > Outline Stroke

With everything selected, drag with the Shape Builder Tool (Shift M) while holding down the Alt key over the areas you want to remove.

[Tom23887579l3am]

Thanks for your help, Ton! It worked!