LearnKey Adobe Illustrator Course Practice Test

What are compound paths and how do they affect fills and holes?

They create clipping masks that hide parts of objects. They convert to outlines. They add gradients to fills. They combine multiple objects into one path; holes inside shapes appear as cutouts depending on fill order.

Correct Answer:

They combine multiple objects into one path; holes inside shapes appear as cutouts depending on fill order.

Explanation:

Compound paths let you treat several shapes as one filled form while still allowing inner shapes to punch holes in that form. When you create a compound path, the outer boundary fills, and any shapes inside can act as cutouts, so you see holes in the final shape. The hole behavior depends on the order of the subpaths in the stack (which path is considered the hole relative to the others). A classic result is a ring or donut: an outer circle with an inner circle, made into one compound path, yields a filled ring because the inner circle becomes a hole in the outer shape. This concept is different from clipping masks, which simply hide parts of objects without changing the actual fill geometry, and it’s not about converting strokes to outlines or adding gradients.

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