How to Cut Overlapping Shapes in Illustrator

Cutting overlapping shapes in Adobe Illustrator is easily achieved using the Pathfinder panel or the Minus Front/Minus Back buttons. The method you choose depends on which shape you want to keep.

Using the Pathfinder Panel

The Pathfinder panel offers precise control over shape manipulation. This is ideal for complex designs with multiple overlapping shapes.

1. Select your shapes: Click on each shape you want to interact with, holding down the Shift key to select multiple shapes.
2. Open the Pathfinder panel: Go to Window > Pathfinder to open the panel.
3. Choose the appropriate operation:
   • Minus Front: Removes the overlapping area from the topmost shape. This leaves the shape underneath intact, and the top shape will have the overlap removed from it. This is excellent for creating cutouts.
   • Minus Back: Removes the overlapping area from the bottom shape. This leaves the topmost shape intact, with the bottom shape now having the overlap area removed. Useful if you want to remove a shape entirely, only retaining the top layer.
   • Intersect: Creates a new shape from only the overlapping area of your selected shapes.
   • Exclude: Creates a new shape from the area outside of the overlapping area, useful in various creative situations.
4. Observe the result: Illustrator will immediately update your shapes based on the chosen Pathfinder operation.

Using the Minus Front and Minus Back Icons

These buttons provide a quicker way to cut overlapping shapes, particularly for simple designs.

• Minus Front: Click on this button (it looks like a square with a smaller square subtracted from the top-right corner) to remove the overlapping section from the top selected shape.
• Minus Back: Click on this button (it looks like a square with a smaller square subtracted from the bottom-left corner) to remove the overlapping area from the bottom selected shape.

Example: If you have a circle on top of a square, using "Minus Front" will cut the circle out of the square, leaving a square with a circular hole. Using "Minus Back" will remove the bottom square's portion that overlaps with the circle, leaving only the circle.

Remember to always group your shapes (Select All > Right-click > Group) after performing the cutting operations if you want to treat them as a single entity.

Several online resources provide tutorials on this topic, including YouTube videos and blog posts. These often demonstrate visual techniques, making the process even clearer. Refer to resources like this tutorial for a visual guide.