# Is it possible to fill the complement of (A union B union C) with a solid color but the remaining regions remain transparent?

Without finding the intersection points in advance, is it possible to fill the complement of (A union B union C) with a solid color but the remaining regions remain transparent?

-
You have 8 regions and you can draw each region seperately as a closed path. So a macro can receive 8 bit number and pass fill=blue option to the path if it's 1 or 0 at the specific digit. –  percusse Aug 16 '12 at 13:28
@percusse: How can you get the 8 regions without finding the intersection points in advance? :-) –  kiss my armpit Aug 16 '12 at 13:39
Using geometry is one option (assuming that the circles are the same for all three and have predefined coordinates). –  percusse Aug 16 '12 at 13:40

Using the approach described in How can I invert a 'clip' selection within TikZ?:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\begin{document}
\tikzstyle{reverseclip}=[insert path={(current page.north east) --
(current page.south east) --
(current page.south west) --
(current page.north west) --
(current page.north east)}
]

\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture]

\draw [gray!20, ultra thick] (-3,-3) grid (3,3);

\begin{pgfinterruptboundingbox}
\path  [clip] (90:0.7cm) circle [radius=1cm] [reverseclip];
\path  [clip] (-30:0.7cm) circle [radius=1cm] [reverseclip];
\path  [clip] (210:0.7cm) circle [radius=1cm] [reverseclip];
\end{pgfinterruptboundingbox}

\fill [orange] (-2,-2) rectangle (2,2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

-
I haven't known whether or not PSTricks has reverse clip. –  kiss my armpit Aug 16 '12 at 14:09
I see you have defined a path around the whole page, can I use this path to fill the page with orange? –  qed Oct 25 '13 at 10:45
@qed: Sure. You can use \fill [orange] (current page.north west) rectangle (current page.south east);. Note that you need to have the options remember picture, overlay in your tikzpicture options, and you need to compile the document twice. –  Jake Oct 25 '13 at 11:04
why is it necessary to remember the position of current picture in this case? And what is the difference between current page and current picture? –  qed Oct 25 '13 at 11:15
@qed: Take a look at section 16.13.2 "Referencing the Current Page Node" in the PGF manual. –  Jake Oct 25 '13 at 11:17

needs the latest pstricks.tex from http://texnik.dante.de/tex/generic/pstricks/ available on CTAN in a few days

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{pstricks}\SpecialCoor

\begin{document}

\begin{pspicture}(-3,-3)(3,3)\psgrid[gridlabels=0pt]
\pscustom[linestyle=none]{%
\pspolygon(-2,-2)(-2,2)(2,2)(2,-2)
\moveto(0.7;90)\rmoveto(1,0)\pscircle(0.7;90){1}
\moveto(0.7;-30)\rmoveto(1,0)\pscircle(0.7;-30){1}
\moveto(0.7;210)\rmoveto(1,0)\pscircle(0.7;210){1}
\closepath
\code{eoclip}
\pspolygon(-2,-2)(-2,2)(2,2)(2,-2)
\fill[fillcolor=blue!60,fillstyle=solid,linestyle=none]}
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}


but there are still some small lines for the circles:

-
Can PSTricks have reverse clip feature as Tikz? –  kiss my armpit Aug 21 '12 at 13:09
sure, needs only one who implements it ... –  Herbert Aug 21 '12 at 13:17
I have not seen your PSTricks book because it is not available on the bookstore. Amazon.com also does not provide us with its table of contents. My question: what is the difference between the PSTricks package manuals and your PSTricks book? I am interested to know the details about PSTricks programming for hackers only (TVZ's manual on printed page number 38) and creating low/high level objects (TVZ's manual on printed page number 163-). Are both these topics elaborated in your PSTricks book? –  kiss my armpit Aug 21 '12 at 13:39
–  Herbert Aug 21 '12 at 14:12
How to completely remove the unwanted thin but visible paths? –  kiss my armpit Oct 25 '13 at 8:59