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I am trying to thicken a Path using fx Effect and then use Pathfinder to cut Minus Front this path with another Compound Path.

The result I am getting is Pathfinder works but doesn't take into account the fx Effect. I have also tried to thicken the path with by adding stroke but Pathfinder doesn't take the stroke into account either.

More Detail: I have text that I want to display above a graphic. The text is white and blue. I want to minus the text from the graphic below. If I just do this there is no space between the text and graphic So I want to first make the text thicker then minus it from the graphic. This should result in the text above the graphic and some space between the graphic and text.

I am not looking for the easy fix, i.e. just make a stoke around the text. I want to minus the thickened text from the graphic below. enter image description here

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  • Boolean operations only work on paths, not effects or strokes. Have you tried Expanding the effect or stroke?
    – Billy Kerr
    Apr 24, 2020 at 16:33
  • As said above, these operations don't work on strokes and effects, only paths. Effects are not paths. Use a stroke instead and then outline the stroke (Object menu). Combine the stroke with the text (optional) and then trim.
    – Abhimanyu
    Apr 24, 2020 at 17:42

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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After applying the path offset do the following

Object > Expanded Appearance

Then use pathfinder to minus the front

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You can implement the following (messy) solution:

  1. make your background shape (let us call it the foil for convenience)
  2. type in your text and position it as desired
  3. arrange the text to be above the foil
  4. ensure that your foil is a compound path and that it has no strokes
  5. duplicate the layer that contains the text and the foil and then label it and lock the new layer duplicate
  6. hide the new layer
  7. select the text in the initial layer and go to effect>path>offset path and set a value as desired
  8. select both the text (with effect applied) and the foil in the initial layer
  9. use the pathfinder panel and alt+click on the minus front option - your result should be the foil with a cut out text portion
  10. lock the initial layer and then unhide and unlock the new duplicate layer.
  11. select the foil in the new duplicate layer and hide it using ctrl+3 keyboard shortcut or got to object>hide>selection
  12. turn the initial layer back on - now you have two layers;an upper one containing editable text and the lower one containing an editable compound path operation composed of a shape and editable text note: i call this method messy because changing text details involves editing the TWO instances of text AND if you need to alter the path offset for the "knockout effect", then you have to endure the tedium of first releasing the smart pathfinder operation before accessing the path offset effect and then subsequently re-assembling the smart pathfinder operation...good luck
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