Win7 Pro, 64-bit. 16Gg RAM
I am new to Illustrator. I have the CS4 version, and chose (maybe bad idea for someone new to the SW) to use it to make vector a scan I was placing in a Photoshop (CS6) document. When Placing I of course put it on its own layer and it became a Smart Object. I now have uncontrolled fill behavior.
First, I am trying in Illustrator to get different areas as defined by a bunch of paths to be black or transparent (or white if that's what I have to have). There is one all-inclusive "outer" path, and small interior shapes. The art I scanned called for one contiguous shape in black -- but with cut outs (closed interior areas) to be transparent -- therefore all these paths/borders, making shapes needed for definition of the silhouette, which I turned into paths in Photoshop and then opened the file in Illustrator.
As Illustrator booted I noticed that this CS4 version seemed to be having trouble with a Registry setting/item. During boot the sw showed an error about the Registry and called an Adobe routine for reg fix. This happens every time I boot Illustrator. I mention this in case it is relevant (not likely, though.)
The desired result is a black fill of the outside path with all the narrow cutout shapes "inside" remaining transparent. I'd settle for white! I have selected all the inside paths in Illustrator and set them to the front while setting the outside path to be "at the back". I expected the fill to be behind the other shapes. I can still select them through the black fill and specify a color fill but then the dialog/tool is finished the shape still does not show against the black.
I can imagine that an inside path at the top level cannot force transparency down through the other fills. Perhaps I have to close off segments of the whole background fill and fill those one by one.
suggestions, anyone?