Can you flatten a clipping mask into a new vector?

Question

I have a relatively complicated repeating vector inside of a clipping mask.There's a lot of parts that are not seen but take up a lot of disk space.I was curious if there was a way to flatten/crop/remove anything outside of the clipping mask but still retain it as a vector image.Is that possible? If so how can I accomplish that?

Answer 1

You cannot accomplish this with Clipping Masks, as they are essentially Photoshop raster effects, much like any of the effects you find in the Appearance window. However! You can accomplish what you're looking for with A) the Pathfinder tool or B) Patterns.

A) This method will be easiest if you can make the contents of your Clipping Mask into one Compound Path. If the vector is too complicated for that, however, you'll have to repeat the following steps for each object you want to cut. First, release the Clipping Mask. Then use the Pen tool to create an object that's the shape of your desired crop. Copy that shape, as we'll be pasting it in place later. Then select both the new object and one object from the original contents of the Clipping Mask. Go to the Pathfinder window and select Intersect, the third option under Shape Modes. This will create a new object by taking the overlap between the two objects and "cutting" everything else. Paste in place and repeat the above steps for each object you want to crop.

B) If the design you want to crop is a repeating pattern, I'd suggest "telling" Illustrator that. Here's how. Release the Clipping Mask and select all the contents. Then open your Swatches window. Drag and drop your selection onto the Swatches window to make a new Pattern swatch. (You should see your cursor change and gain a plus sign as you hover over an empty space.) Illustrator is now storing your design as a Pattern; you can delete the original vectors or move off the artboard at this point. Next, make an object the size and shape of the crop you want. Select it. Double check that you have the Fill on top (as opposed to the Stroke), and click the Pattern swatch you just made in your Swatches window. This will fill the shape with your pattern, and everything stays a vector! To edit the Pattern, double click the swatch. This will automatically open the Pattern Options, which you can use to make all sorts of cool designs. Have fun!