creating an underbase help - illustrator

i don't know about the 'unite' function.

in illy it's copy>paste in front or back. make sure you create another layer. once you have copied the part of the design necessary for the underbase, lock off all layers except the new one and select that layer and paste. if you want to delete a stroke that you have turned into an object by object>path>outline stroke you have to make sure that object path is situated above the other object. then select the outline path and shift click on the other object to selct both and they click on minus front. make sure everything is ungrouped or it will minus out areas you don't want it to.

you could also (after outlining stroke) go to wireframe view and use the direct selection tool and just click on the outer lines and delete OR you can click on the original stoke of the original object and go to object>path>offset path and type in a negative number (-.025 for instance) then go to wire frame and delete the outer line like above.

here's a link to adobe's explanation of how to do trapping and choking colors for printing:

Adobe Illustrator * Trapping

Good info Tim. I just basically taught myself how to do this in illustrator. I'm old school photoshop from far before any cs, so I'd expand/contract colours. Illustrator is much easier for 90% of my jobs... I can still default to photoshop for complex work. Hell, I can make a nice screen with a xerox and some varsol if need be.

Select the whole design and go object>flatten transparency, then make the whole design one color, then from the pathfinder toolbar click merge, then just add a 1pt stroke(use a different color) if it's a full size print or .5 if it's a heart crest, not flatten transparency and merge again, and then just use the magic wand tool to select the stroke color and delete. And your done.

chronicdesigns81 said:

Select the whole design and go object>flatten transparency, then make the whole design one color, then from the pathfinder toolbar click merge, then just add a 1pt stroke(use a different color) if it's a full size print or .5 if it's a heart crest, not flatten transparency and merge again, and then just use the magic wand tool to select the stroke color and delete. And your done.

Click to expand...

wow. awesome. haven't travailed the magic wand tool yet.

you just saved me a lot of time. thanks!