

Want to learn how to improve your illustrations, artworks and designs.Īdobe Illustrator is a powerful and dynamic piece of software for any designer or illustrator. Press and hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and drag the direction line toward its opposing end to set the slope.Do you want to discover 5 Adobe Illustrator tools? You can also change the orientation of the direction line to bend the curve in the orientation you need. Keep in mind that the direction line determines the slope of your curve, the longer the line, the wider the arch.Note that you are placing anchor points at the beginning and end of each curve, not at the tip of the curve.
#Adobe illustrator tools series#
Continue dragging the Pen tool from different locations to create a series of smooth curves.Drag unequal handles while drawing curves Note: Press Command/ Ctrl while dragging the handles of a smooth point, to make them inequal in length when you’re drawing a curve.Ī. Opposite handles are equal and paired B. Cmd/Ctrl pressed, opposite handles are unequal and paired.To create an S‑shaped curve, drag in the same direction as the previous direction line.To create a C‑shaped curve, drag in a direction opposite to the previous direction line.

Position the Pen tool where you want the curve segment to end, and do one of the following:.A. Positioning Pen tool B. Starting to drag (mouse button pressed) C. Dragging to extend direction lines.Hold down the Shift key to constrain the tool to multiples of 45°.(You can adjust one or both sides of the direction line later.) In general, extend the direction line about one third of the distance to the next anchor point you plan to draw. Drag to set the slope of the curve segment you’re creating, and then release the mouse button.Position the Pen tool where you want the curve to begin, and hold down the mouse button. The first anchor point appears, and the Pen tool pointer changes to an arrowhead.Instead, draw widely spaced anchor points, and practice shaping curves by adjusting the length and angles of the direction lines. Using too many points can also introduce unwanted bumps in a curve. The length and slope of the tangent direction lines determine the shape of the curve.Ĭurves are easier to edit and your system can display and print them faster if you draw them using as few anchor points as possible. You can create a curve by adding an anchor point where a curve changes direction, and dragging the direction tangent lines that shape the curve. You can also simply press Enter or Return to leave the path open. To leave the path open, you can also press Esc, select a different tool, or choose Select > Deselect.To leave the path open, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (macOS) anywhere away from all objects.A small circle appears next to the Pen tool pointer when it is positioned correctly. To close the path, position the Pen tool over the first (hollow) anchor point.Complete the path by doing one of the following:.Previously defined anchor points become hollow, and deselected, as you add more anchor points. The last anchor point you add always appears as a solid square, indicating that it is selected. Continue clicking to set anchor points for additional straight segments.Click again where you want the segment to end ( Shift-click to constrain the angle of the segment to a multiple of 45°).If direction lines appear, you’ve accidentally dragged the Pen tool choose Edit > Undo, and click again.

