How to Make a Compound Path in Illustrator (Ctrl+8 / Cmd+8)

Ctrl+8 (Cmd+8 on Mac) combines selected paths into a single compound path object — a genuinely different operation from grouping, since it actually merges the underlying geometry rather than just bundling separate objects for unified movement. **What actually changes**: a compound path takes on one single fill and stroke applied across all its component paths together, and any areas where the original paths overlapped become transparent holes rather than staying filled. This transparency behavior is the entire point of the operation — it's how you create a shape like a letter with a counter (the hole in an 'O' or 'A'), a ring, or a donut shape where the inner region needs to show whatever's visually behind it. **Fill rules and why holes sometimes don't appear**: Illustrator determines which overlapping regions count as a hole using one of two fill rules, accessible in the Attributes panel — non-zero winding (the default, based on path direction) or even-odd (based simply on how many times a region is overlapped, regardless of direction). If a compound path's expected hole appears solid instead of transparent, checking and toggling this fill rule setting in the Attributes panel is the most common fix. **Releasing back to separate paths**: Ctrl+Alt+8 (Cmd+Option+8) reverses the operation, splitting a compound path back into its original individual path components, each regaining independent fill and stroke properties rather than sharing one unified appearance. **A practical use case**: creating a custom donut or ring icon is a textbook compound path workflow — draw two concentric circles (one larger, one smaller, both selected), apply Make Compound Path, and the smaller circle's interior automatically becomes a transparent hole rather than requiring you to manually mask or clip one shape against the other. **Related shortcuts**: Ctrl+J (Cmd+J) for joining open path endpoints (a different operation focused on connecting line segments rather than merging fill behavior), and the Pathfinder panel's Unite operation, which produces a visually similar merged outline but without preserving see-through holes the way Compound Path does. **Multiple holes in a single compound path**: a compound path isn't limited to just two component paths — combining a large outer shape with several smaller inner shapes creates a single compound path with multiple separate transparent holes, useful for something like a slice of Swiss cheese or a decorative pattern with several punched-out openings. **Editing a component path after compounding**: individual paths within a compound path remain separately editable with the Direct Selection tool — you can still reposition, resize, or reshape one component's anchor points without needing to release the compound path first, since compounding merges their fill/transparency behavior but not their underlying geometric independence. **Compound paths and stroke appearance**: because a compound path shares one single stroke setting across all its component paths, a stroke applied to a compound shape with a hole will appear consistently around both the outer boundary and the inner hole's edge, which is usually the desired look for something like typography with counters, but worth double-checking visually if a component path was expected to have different stroke styling.