How do I create a rectangle with an open corner in Adobe Illustrator?

Question

I'm brand new at creating icons.

I have an issue regarding changing the shape of a rectangle. The bottom one is what I have. But I'd like to change the rectangle to look something like the top rectangle.

I have of course tried to get it to work by using the Pathfinder palette. But it gives a different result than I expected.

How do I do this properly?

Answer 1

Select the point you want to delete with Direct Selection Tool ( shortcut A) and then press delete button of your keyboard.

Answer 2

Starting with your top rectangle:

1. Select the Add Anchor Point tool. It's part of the pen tool, so click and hold the pen tol button in the toolbox to have it show: it's a pen with a plus sign. The shortcut key is =.
2. Click on the rectangle path to add anchors to it. Add anchors at the points where you want the gap to be: one at the start of the gap, one at the end.
3. Select the Scissors tool. It's part of the Eraser tool, and looks like, well, a pair of scissors. Shortcut is C.
4. Click the lower right anchor of your rectangle. This will cause the closed path to open, and the single anchor is now split into two, overlapping anchors.
5. Select the Delete Anchor Point tool. It's part of the pen tool and it's a pen with a minus sign. The shortcut key is – (minus).
6. Click both (overlapping) lower right anchors to delete them both.

Answer 3

The reason you are getting an unexpected result is because you are working with a path, not a fill object. Pathfinder works differently with the two of them. (See Comparison below)

If it doesn't matter to you whether the object is a fill or a path, then I suggest trying this: Go to the top menu with your path selected, click Object > Expand; Now, try to use your Minus Front Pathfinder. It should be what you were expecting.

Step 1 - Expand:

With your path selected;

Click on Object > Expand.

This dialog box will pop up, just hit OK.

Step 2 - Cheating a little bit: Draw another Rectangle above the first:

Step 3 - Pathfinder:

Use the "Minus Front" function:

And you're done!

The reason this happens is that illustrator handles paths and fills as different entities. Basically, instead of making a fill object (What you were expecting to happen), it created another path that contoured to the pathfinder result.

By "expanding" the path, you get a fill object that you can manipulate easier with Pathfinder. Note how the first image has a single path in the center, while after being expanded, it becomes a fill.