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I've got a very complex texture that I have running WAY over the art board and I need to clean it up for a client. How do I get rid of every point outside of the art board?

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    What kind of file are you delivering your client?
    – Ryan
    Oct 14, 2014 at 23:27

3 Answers 3

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I would make a rectangle the same size as the artboard and turn it into a Clipping Mask.

To do this:

  1. Group together all the layers you wish to trim by selecting them and entering Command + G.
  2. Next, make a rectangle with the same dimensions as your artboard, and center horizontally and vertically.
  3. With the rectangle layer in front, select both objects, enter Command + 7,
    • Or go to Object → Clipping Mask → Make.

And voilà. You will only see the parts within the dimensions of the rectangle. Simply double-click the new object to access the clipped information or enter Command + Alt + 7 to get rid of the clipping mask.

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  • thats perfect. but after doing that, how can i actually keep the resulting paths without the mask rect? i want to copy and paste in photoshop as a shape, but i get a black rect.
    – pvinis
    Apr 24, 2015 at 13:37
  • Does not cover all cases, indeed. I've tried exporting to wmf and found that the image still has the size of the bouding rect of the artwork. Jun 2, 2016 at 11:52
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    What's the point of an artboard if not cropping everything outside it? Aug 3, 2017 at 23:35
  • As a note, don't click the mask button on the layers pallet. That doesn't work, but command + 7 does (as stated in instructions lol) Sep 23, 2017 at 20:16
  • One extra step to properly remove the outside bits, after the above, select it and then click 'Pathfinder > Trim'
    – 00-BBB
    Mar 29, 2022 at 15:46
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The clipping mask will not remove the paths and points that are off the artboard — it will simply hide them.

I would use the Crop pathfinder.

  1. Create your artboard sized rectangle on top of the other objects
  2. Select all the objects and Crop in the Pathfinder Panel. This will remove all vector objects that fall outside of the rectangle.

The resulting object will be a Group of paths — the top "cropping object" is still there — it will lose it's fill and stroke — but if you need them then you simply reapply fill or stroke.

This will not work on bitmap images or type that not been expanded.

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If you want it in photoshop id save it in GIF or PNG since wokking paths wont be useful in photoshop anyway and this will corp everything beyond an artboard off + preserve transparency.

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