Why has Illustrator CS4 made these decisions when rounding corners?

[dcjim]

Hello

First image is a computer readout style font with create outline applied



Next a rounded corners style is applied (font was 120 pt, corners are 6 px)



Why has Illustrator made the decisions it's made about the rounded corners? It has split the s in half and isolated the base of the t yet preserved the wholeness of the O and the e. If the difference was because the O remains enclosed then I would have thought it would have split the e into parts as it has the s.

I'd like the s and the t to remain complete. In other words the vertical line of the t would meet the base to it's right with a concave black fill as can be seen on the inside of the O and the e.

Is there anything I can do to change it's behaviour? I am new to Illustrator although I have played around with expand, ungrouping, merging and unifiying and so on.

[bigdave]

Im assuming that youve converted that text to outlines? Its rounded the corners because as youve said yourself, youve set it to 6px corners and as far as illustrator is concerned the 2 sections that make up the S are two separate elemets with corners that need rounding as requested by you.

The reason this hasnt happened with the O & E is because illustrator has read the letter as a black shape with a compound path over the top (the white shape).

If you would like the S & T to curve the other way (into the other half of the letter) you will first need to join the two sections so illustrator sees them as one.

[pcbranding]

Presuming that all the text has been outlined, then it's a 2 minute job to sort out the elements you don't like, by extending the paths of the sections you want to tweak.

Not aware of any setting as to why/how Illustrator does what it does.

[dcjim]

Hi, thanks for replies.

Yes the text has been outlined (see first sentence!)

I remember now I did try "join" but got a warning dialog that I didn't understand so I tried other things. I shall go and Google "illustrator join command" and report back!

Thanks
Jim

[dcjim]

Hmm ... but they need to be "open paths" to join? I've got two compound paths? I tried cutting the paths at points either side of the intersection (on the s) thinking that might create open paths and then do join. Illustrator let me perform the join command and when selected sure enough the s appears to be one object but the rounded corners still does the same thing.

[spottypenguin]

Then release the compound paths and join. If the join option is doing ehat you want then manipulate the nodes and combine the shapes

[dcjim]

Ah! Here's one problem for certain - I didn't realise the centre of the O or the e were solid objects themselves. I assumed they were blank space. So in the case of the O it's the corners of the centre of the Polo if you will that have been rounded. It's not that the inside of the black O perimeter got rounded also?

Cool. I shall investigate further ...

[dcjim]

Yeah yeah I get it now. Because Illustrator rounded the outside corners of say the central "hole" (that wasn't really a hole) on the O, I thought it was able to do rounded "inside" corners. That's not what it was doing. And yeah sure enough why would it?!

I guess the function would be rounded "elbows" rather than "corners"

Etc etc, sorry thinking aloud really! Thanks for your help :)

[tom thurs]

Just a random tip, if you want to join 2 points into one press cmd+alt+shift+j (on mac dunno about pc) they have to be open paths. The average command doesn't actually join them just sticks them on top of each other