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Working With Paths in Illustrator

by | Nov 30, 2014 | Articles, Illustrator, Tutorials | 0 comments

Paths in Illustrator

When you’re working in Adobe Illustrator, paths are one of the most common things you’re going to work with. No matter what you’re doing and Illustrator there’s no way around learning how to work with paths. This means that it’s essential to learn all the tricks that you can for working efficiently with paths in Illustrator. There are all kinds of shortcuts that will help you work quicker, enabling you to create shapes without a lot of hassle. Let’s take a look at some great ways to work with paths in Illustrator.

Whether you decide to use the pen tool to draw everything by hand, or you create complex shapes like combining basic shapes, there are different tools to help you do this efficiently. What’s great about shapes in Illustrator, is that you can select a segment and delete it. You can also use the pen tool to connect to an open second and continue the shape. Illustrator has different indicators to tell you how you can interact with different anchor points. Anchor points are the points that were spread out across shapes and line segments. You can select different anchor points and use them to modify your shapes in different ways.

When you hover the pen tool over an anchor point of an open shape, Illustrator or use a diagonal line to tell you that you can continue this segment. When you loop your shape around and get to the point to where you can close that shape, Illustrator will indicate this with an open circle. This means that you can close the shape.

Paths in Illustrator

You can also use the direct selection tool to select a specific anchor point and converted to a round anchor point or an angled anchor point. This is useful when you want to round out a corner, or create a right angle in specific places.

Conclusion

Working with paths in Illustrator isn’t difficult. Understanding the different tools that you have available to manipulate paths, anchor points, and shapes will help you to work quicker and more efficiently. In the long run this can save you hours of work, because you have more control over your shapes and how they behave. Do you have any questions about working with paths in Illustrator? If so, feel free to leave your questions in the comments section below.

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