How to cut off lines sharply with the pathfinder

Question

So, I have this logo I'm making for a client which has a two diamonds behind a text. The diamonds should be cut off wherever the name of the company begins, like this:

For now there's just a rectangle

behind the text to get this result. However, to finalize the logo I want to cut off the lines so I can export it properly.

I've tried using pathfinder to subtract the rectangle from the diamonds and I've tried recreating the diamonds with separate lines and removing the unwanted parts with the pathfinder tool which gets me this result

but it's not working. The closest I could get, using the shape builder, was this:

but I want the lines to have sharp edges, as shown in the first image.

Any advice on how to achieve this?

Answer 1

Stroked paths can't have angled end caps. You can't cut a stroke at any angle. That's simply not how strokes work in Illustrator. Strokes can only have one of 3 end caps... rounded, square, or arrowhead.

You can create your own arrowheads which somewhat mimic angled caps. SEE HERE That can be a challenge because you may need to precisely determine the angle necessary before creating arrowheads.

I'd hazard a guess that what most users will do is expand the stroked paths. This way the stroked paths become shapes. With shapes, Pathfinder will cut things as you are expecting. The only reason it's not working for you is the fact that they are strokes. Pathfinder doesn't really work great with strokes.

Merely select the paths and then choose Object > Expand from the menu. Then proceed with Pathfinder like you've been doing.

From a production standpoint, you would want to expand any strokes when finalizing a logo. It's never a good idea to leave live strokes on a final, deliverable, logo. Reason being is that as strokes, they can mistakenly be changed when a logo is scaled. By expanding all strokes, you ensure that the weight of the strokes remain consistent with the overall design you intend.