Pathfinder: Explained

August 05, 2008

If you aren’t familiar with Illustrator’s extremely handy “Pathfinder” palette, you might sit down for a few moments to play with it, because it is a true time saver, and an excellent tool for manipulating paths. First, of all let me say that “Pathfinder” is a horrible name for this palette. It doesn’t actually “find” paths. It makes it easy to combine paths, divide objects, subtract shapes, etc.

Above is a screenshot of the pathfinder palette. You’ll notice 11 buttons right away. In this tutorial, I will be explaining the 5 buttons on the top row, and the differences between them. The bottom 6 buttons are a little more advanced, but I’ll give you some pointers about those at the end of the tutorial.