Participant

Question

Pathfinder effects on live text in apperance panel

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 7, 2025
3 replies
1646 views

I'm trying to create a pretty complex appearance for some live text. In the attached image I've replicated what I am trying to achieve, outside of the appearance panel. But when I try to create this in the appearance panel for live text I can't get it to work. I have tried the following:

1) Apply fill in appearance panel

2) Transform the fill down a few pixels with 1 copy

3) Apply the subtract pathfinder effect

Strangely the subtract has no effect, though other pathfinder options like Add do work. Ultimately there will be other fills layered above and below this. If anyone can help me achieve this result on live text in the appearance panel it would be much appreciated!

seanp32462606Author

Participant

Sorry, here is the example file, it won't let me upload a .ai file!

Example.pdf

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Pathfinder effects sadly do not work that way. As pixxxelschubser already wrote, you need to use knockout groups.

And then group the text or apply an additional appearance to the layer.

In this example I also made one of the text objects into a compound shape, which is not necessary for knockout groups. And then the second appearance is on the layer

test-textappearance.pdf

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

Ich würde eine Knockout Gruppe verwenden (anstelle eines Pathfindereffektes).
Das PDF liegt im Anhang.

Ein Hinweis:
Eventuell wird die Datei in Illustrator nicht sauber dargestellt. Ctrl+E (Vorschau CPU) kann Abhilfe schaffen.

Knockout-P.pdf

seanp32462606Author

Participant

Thanks! This definitely works, but I shoul've been more clear about the final result I need, which includes additional fills above and below this effect (see the example AI file in my other comment). It doesn't seem like this solution will allow this since the knockout applies to all the fills. But I will definitely explore knockout groups a bit more.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Can you upload a demo AI file and describe what you want as a result?

Also: it would be necessary to know what you will apply on top.

seanp32462606Author

Participant

Thanks! Here is an example file showing the desired result, which is essentially hatched shading on the underside of 3D lettering. I can achieve it with a compound group, but would like to do it as a single appearance with one editable text object.

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