Illustrator manipulating letters

[lovethepirk]

So I've learned how to 'create outlines' and also 'expand' and 'expand appearance'. Sometimes when I need to go into a letter and change the radius manually....case in point the "R" in the attachment...I mush fill the space in with white to work other wise the entire letter will be filled in black....

this confuses me, but I know that if I take a font expand it...then completely remove the inside and totally redo it I get this problem, if I just modify the existing lines I am okay.

 

[ALB68]

I'm not sure I understand your problem exactly. I do know that to manipulate the "white" space in that letter, that has to be done with the Direct Selection tool..the white one to the right of the black one. After changing to outlines, the white area becomes an object also but to manipulate the anchors, you have to use that tool.

 

[ibclare]

I would say, activate the selection, Invert it (shift + I), then delete or mask the letter. The letter needs to be on its own layer for this to work. Then just be sure to have your background layer the right grey color.

 

[lovethepirk]

Thanks, I think that clipping mask is a good idea but whenever I clip the letter only the inside of the R remains.

Basically the problem I am having is when you type a letter, create outlines, and then completely remove the inside control points of the "R" in the example in order to rebuild the inside curves with radius edges from scratch you have in essence removed a critical part of the letter I guess. I know this because if you stop just after creating outlines then toggle with the stroke and fill the hole that goes thru the middle of the "R" is unaffected....it stays transparent as it should.....

The moment that you remove the inside and rebuilt it the inside track and outside boarder of the letter are independent and they don't work together so if you have the outside track on 'fill' it comepletely overwhelms the inside one and it is all black.


The clipping mask seems like it would work but I am only getting the small piece and not the larger outline....see attachment.

 

[lovethepirk]

I just figured it out....I did a minus front on pathfinder and it hollowed out the letter without having to have it as a separate object....thanks