: How do I delete an object over something, and have the shape of where it was stay with nothing there? I apologize for the title, I can't explain for my life... But the problem i'm having

@Cofer715

I would do this basically the same way as Hans described, only with a hugely important difference.

First, you'll want to expand the appearance of your two stroked paths (Object > Expand). This gives you the actual paths that you will use in the next steps.



After you have expanded them, combine them with Object > Compound Path > Make (CMD + 8).

The next step is where my method improves upon that described by Hans:

DO NOT create outlines from your text, you might want to change it in the future and if you create outlines, you can't.

Now that you have the two pieces that you wish to subtract from your text, select everything and open your Pathfinder. Ensure that the pieces you want to subtract from your text are on top. You are going to click on Minus Front, but this time you want to hold down ALT while doing so.



The result will be a compound shape, made up of your text and the shapes above it "punched out" of the text. The benefit of this method is that you can still edit your text in the future, as you can see by my highlighting it (I placed it on a black rectangle so you could see the text is actually missing the appropriate shapes and still editable).

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@Si6392903

Thank you for posting this question in the Graphic Design SE site. This can be easily done with the pathfinder window (within the top "Window" menu you can find this window).

Procedure is as follows:


Select the text and go to the "Type" menu in the top and select the option "Create Outlines".
Continue to select the two intersecting objects (in this case, the text and the elbows).
Select the "Minus-Front" option (second box) from the Path Finder.
Enjoy the result.


More information can be found in the following YouTube Video.

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