About compound shapes

A compound shape is editable art consisting of two or more objects, each assigned a shape mode. Compound shapes make it easy to create complex shapes because you can precisely manipulate the shape mode, stacking order, shape, and location for each path included. Within a compound shape, you can include paths, compound paths, groups, other compound shapes, blends, text, envelopes, and warps, any of which can carry live effects. Open paths included in compound shapes are automatically closed.

Compound shapes act as grouped objects. To select components of a compound shape, use the direct-selection tool or the group-selection tool. To make changes to the stacking order of the components, use the Layers palette.


Application of compound shapes A. Original objects B. Compound shape created C. Individual shape modes applied to each component D. Style applied to entire compound shape

The shape layers and layer clipping paths (vector masks) in Adobe Photoshop are types of compound shapes. You can import shape layers and layer clipping paths into Illustrator as compound shapes and continue to manipulate them. In addition, you can export compound shapes to Photoshop. Keep the following in mind when using compound shapes with Photoshop:

• Only compound shapes that reside at the top level of the layer hierarchy are exported to Photoshop as shape layers.
• A compound shape painted with a stroke using a join other than round or with a weight in points that is not an integer, is rasterized when exported to the PSD file format. (See Using the Stroke palette.)

Related Subtopics:

Creating and adjusting compound shapes