Illustrator Pen Tool detailed

Recently saw a lot of novice said pen tool how difficult to control, in fact, mastered the law is very simple.

The curve is controlled by the anchor point and the type of anchor point has

1. Smooth point: There are two associated control handles, change the angle of one handle will also change, changing the length of one handle does not affect the other. This allows us to create a combination corner by dragging the length of a handle of a smooth point to 0, or by dragging the end of the handle to the anchor point to coincide. The smooth point is to boot the path along the path, without serious or abrupt changes to the path. You can further control the direction of the curve by adding a smooth point to the smooth curve and dragging the control handle of the smooth point.

2. Right angle point: the intersection of two lines, it does not exist control handle, only by changing its position to adjust some of the direction of the line.

3. Curve Corner point: Two different curve segments at a corner intersection of the anchor point. Such anchors also have two control handles, but there is no connection between them, respectively, to control the two different curves on both sides of the curve corner. Note: Some people may feel that they can not draw two curves together, let alone produce control of the two curves of the curve corner point. We can add an anchor point to the middle of a curve, which produces a smooth point, and then hold down the ALT key while dragging one of the handles, or break the two-handle connection with the type of anchor, so that you can successfully create a corner point of the curve.

4. Combination Corner point: is the focus of the curve and line, only a control curve of the handle. How the combination corner points are created has been said above.

In short, if the path is smooth and curved is a smooth point, if there is a corner of the use of a corner point, anchor points should always be added to the path changes in the place.

Two. How to use pen drawing

We create an anchor point each time we use the Pen tool to click on the artboard. Unless you want to create a corner point with a twist at the current anchor point, do not click to create an anchor point. If you want to create a smooth point, the first thing we need to do is consider what the curve is like at this point, then click the mouse to create an anchor point, be careful not to loosen, continue dragging the mouse along the tangent direction of the point curve to the direction of the curve to the point of development in the future, that is, along the trend of the curve drag. Even the endpoints that are just beginning and ending are created like this, do not assume that endpoints can be ordered. Then in the control handle to specific adjust the direction of the curve, pay attention to control the rule of the handle is always the curve of their own end like a magnet pull to themselves.

We see how the "S" shape is drawn, first from the top, the top curve is horizontally to the left, so we click on the pen and drag a distance to the left, and then the middle curve moves horizontally to the right. Click again horizontally to drag the same distance to the right. Finally the bottom of the point of the trend is horizontal to the left (although there is no point behind it, but I believe everyone is still very easy to see the direction of it), continue to click to drag the same distance to the left. Done!

If you click Not to drag, the point is a smooth point that is created by dragging. The point is a curve corner, and if only one of the points before and after the point is a smooth point that is dragged, the dot is a combination corner, and if the point is the point before and after it is clicked and not dragged, then the point is a rectangular point.

The anchor points can also be superimposed in the illustrator, clicking the Pen tool again at an existing anchor points minus the anchor point, but if you hold down SHIFT and then click, you can add two anchor points together, and don't forget to drag, with a three-or four-handle anchor. In fact, still two anchor points are just stacked together. Note that such a method applies only if the first point is not an endpoint (can be an isolated point). If it is the endpoint we can drag the later points onto it, they will automatically attract the superposition, this method all the points are applicable. Everyone try this with a superposition point will be "8" to understand the fun of it.

Through the above methods I believe that the rough shape of the plot has not been a problem, in the following work is to adjust the handle angle and length or add and subtract anchor to get the curve you want!