Tip of the Week: Editing Subpaths in a Compound Path

This tip was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on October 29, 2015.

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When you’re working with type converted to outlines or other complex vector shapes, you might want to tweak the appearance by editing just a subpath. To do this, start with the object deselected. Then take the Direct Selection tool and press Option/Alt while you click on one of the anchor points of the subpath (don’t click on a segment inbetween anchor points).

Now you can manipulate the subpath independently from the rest of the object.

You can move it,

rotate it,

scale it,

shear it,

or delete it.

Want to manipulate multiple subpaths at the same time? Hold Option/Alt+Shift while you click to select them.

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