: Why I should use a Compound Shape in illustrator? When I download some stock icons, many times I see that the shapes are "compound shapes", and I do not understand why anyone would use this

@Caterina889

I believe you mean Compound Shape and not "composite track".

Compound shapes allow multiple objects (paths) to be treated as a single object.

From the Adobe FAQ:


Compound shapes let you combine multiple objects and specify how you want each object to interact with the other objects. Compound shapes are more versatile than compound paths because they provide four kinds of interactions: add, subtract, intersect, and exclude. In addition, the underlying objects are not changed, so you can select each object within a compound shape to edit it or change its interaction mode.


When looking at something such as the map icon, there are 4 separate paths there; 2 for the teardrop and 2 for the circle. By using a Compound Shape, it allows the artwork to have a "hole" in the center and the fill can be uniformly altered with a single click, as opposed to multiple clicks for fills, and then masks to create "holes".

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