‘Pen Tool’ — The most powerful drawing tool
If you ask beginners or experienced designers which tool is the hardest to use for them, I believe 9 out of 10 people would say it is the Pen Tool.
The Pen Tool is probably the most powerful tool in Adobe Illustrator. It is one of the foundational tools of Illustrator, first introduced into design software by Adobe in Adobe Illustrator more than 30 years ago.
Using the Pen Tool, you can create any line or shape that you can conceive. It allows you to create new anchor points, add anchor points to existing paths, and remove anchor points from existing paths. The tool’s appearance changes based on what your cursor is hovering over on the artboard.
It is quite tricky to use but once you get a grip on it you can create magic.
These simple steps will teach you how to manage all those handles and curves. And finally, in the end, you can find the tutorial I made, showing you with a simple example, how to put it in a use.
Create Straight Lines
Select the Pen Tool from the toolbar or hit P on the keyboard, click to create points, each point will create a straight connecting line. If you hold down the Shift Key you will get lines at 45 or 90 degrees.
Create Curved Lines
If you click and drag you will see small handles, called bezier handles, that will form curved lines. You can combine straight and curved lines by pressing the Option Key (macOS) or Alt Key (Windows) in the transition.
Convert a Straight Line to Curved Line
With the Pen Tool selected hold down the Alt Key and the Pen Tool will change to the CONVERT Anchor Point Tool. Click on the point and pull to create a curved line. You can also move bezier handles independently.
Move Points and Bezier Handles
With the Pen Tool selected hold down the Command Key (macOS) or Ctrl Key (Windows) and the Pen Tool will change to the Direct Selection Tool. Click on the handle and pull or rotate.
Delete / Add Points
With the Pen Tool selected if you hover over an existing point, the cursor will change to the Delete Anchor Point Tool. When you hover over an existing line segment the cursor will change to the Add Anchor Point Tool.
Editing Anchor points
Select the anchor point you want to change with the Direct Selection Tool (A). You can select individual anchor points and edit the existing points and their handles. Select one of the handles and drag it out.
To continue editing an unclosed path, just select the path with the Selection Tool. Want to end your line? Press ESC on the keyboard or hold down the Command Key (macOS) or Ctrl Key (Windows) and click on the artboard to deselect and end the line.
What you can do with the pen tool is limitless once you master how to control those tricky anchor points.
I prepared a video with the previous steps, take a look, and give it a try.
Keep learning, You rock!
You can download the file here and practice!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oir0jmdv0kdmas3/AAAbgN-L8loAMJx5EdPJDhZ3a?dl=0
