Design Nomenclature / Digital Model Making
Path
Also called vector path, outline, contour, compound path
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
The drawing primitive of vector graphics: an ordered sequence of line and curve segments, open or closed, carrying a fill rule and a stroke. The segments are usually Béziers, but the path is the object — the thing that gets filled, stroked, clipped with, and animated along.
In practice
The fill rule is the part nobody reads until a counter fills in. Non-zero and even-odd disagree precisely where a path crosses itself or encloses a second contour, which is every letter with a bowl in it.