Inkscape Boolean Path Operation Shortcuts

Union (Ctrl+Plus / Cmd+Plus) merges every selected path into one single combined outline, removing any interior boundaries where the original shapes overlapped — the direct equivalent of Illustrator's Unite operation, and the most commonly used of the four Boolean operations for simply combining multiple shapes into one clean, unified form. Difference (Ctrl+Minus / Cmd+Minus) carves the shape of whichever path is on top out of whatever path or paths sit beneath it, leaving a hole or notch precisely where the two originally overlapped. Stacking order matters critically here: Difference always subtracts the top object from what's below it, so getting the intended result depends on the two shapes being arranged in the correct front-to-back order before running the operation, which is worth double-checking (via the Objects panel or a quick Page Up/Page Down stacking adjustment) if the result comes out inverted from what you expected. Intersection (Ctrl+Asterisk / Cmd+Asterisk) collapses the selection down to only the region every selected path has in common, discarding everything else — the fastest way to build a new shape defined purely by the overlap between two or more existing shapes, useful for a technique like creating a lens or vesica-piscis shape from two overlapping circles. Exclusion (Ctrl+Caret / Cmd+Caret) does the conceptual opposite of Intersection: it keeps the non-overlapping regions of the selected paths and removes whatever area they had in common, producing a shape with a hole precisely where the originals overlapped — genuinely useful for a design that needs a visible gap or window exactly where two elements cross, rather than either a solid combined shape (Union) or the pure overlap alone (Intersection). Converting an object to a path (Shift+Ctrl+C / Shift+Cmd+C) is a necessary prerequisite step for applying Boolean operations to certain primitive shapes, and it's worth understanding precisely why: a basic Rectangle or Ellipse object, as covered on the tools category page, is stored internally as a parametric shape defined by properties like width, height, and corner radius rather than as a generic list of nodes — most Boolean operations and all node-level edits require genuine path geometry to operate on, so Object to Path bakes the parametric shape into an explicit, editable path first, at the irreversible cost of losing those original adjustable numeric properties. How this compares directly to Illustrator's Pathfinder panel is worth being explicit about, since it's a genuine, meaningful difference in workflow rather than just different key bindings for the same thing. Illustrator's Pathfinder operations live as clickable icons in a dedicated panel, with no default keyboard shortcuts bound to most of them — reaching for Unite or Minus Front in Illustrator generally means clicking a small icon with the mouse. Inkscape instead binds all four of its equivalent operations directly to symbol-key combinations from the very start, which means Boolean path work in Inkscape can happen almost entirely without touching the mouse once you've learned the four symbol keys, a genuinely different and more keyboard-forward default workflow than Illustrator offers out of the box. A practical sequence combining several of these: draw two overlapping shapes with Rectangle or Ellipse, convert both to paths with Shift+Ctrl+C if they're still parametric, then apply whichever Boolean operation matches your intent — Union to merge them, Difference to cut one from the other, Intersection to keep only their overlap, or Exclusion to keep everything except their overlap — a four-way decision that covers the large majority of combined-shape construction in vector illustration work. Stacking order deserves a broader mention beyond just Difference, since all four operations are sensitive to it in some way even though only Difference is directionally asymmetric in its actual result. Union and Intersection produce the same outcome regardless of which selected shape happens to be on top, since combining or overlapping is inherently order-independent — but the resulting combined path's fill and stroke styling still inherits from whichever object was furthest back in the original stacking order, which is worth checking immediately after any of these four operations if the result's appearance looks unexpected. Undo behavior across all four Boolean operations is consistent and worth relying on without hesitation: Ctrl+Z immediately after any of them fully restores the original separate shapes exactly as they were, since Inkscape treats each Boolean operation as a single undoable step regardless of how many objects were involved in the original selection — genuinely useful for experimenting freely with different Boolean combinations on the same set of shapes without worrying about permanently losing the ability to try a different operation instead. A final practical note on performance: running a Boolean operation on paths with a very large number of nodes (from, say, an imported and traced bitmap image rather than hand-drawn geometry) can be noticeably slower than the same operation on simple hand-drawn shapes, since Inkscape has to calculate the new combined geometry across every one of those nodes — worth keeping in mind if a Boolean operation on complex, high-node-count paths seems to hang briefly rather than completing instantly the way it does on simpler shapes.