Trimming the excess from a row of ragged stroked lines used to be a challenge in Illustrator. The Scissors tool is inefficient, forcing you to cut one path at a time. The eraser tool is better and can be made more precise when paired with the shift key to constrain the angle you drag in, but even that solution is lacking. And finally, the Pathfinder doesn't deal with open paths (open ended strokes). Shape Builder to the rescue! Below is a quick tutorial to demonstrate one more reason to love the Illustrator CS5 Shape Builder tool:
First, Select both the lines and the shape you want to trim them to.
Get the Shape Builder Tool, the keyboard shortcut is shift + m.
Hold down option/alt, you'll see a minus sign appear next to the Shape Builder cursor. Trim by dragging over the excess lines in one motion. Done!
You'll find more tips on this blog by clicking on the Adobe Illustrator category. Thanks for stopping by!
Laura Coyle
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