About direction lines and direction points – Adobe InDesign User Manual
Page 582
Note:
Components of a path
A. Selected (solid) endpoint B. Selected anchor point C. Unselected anchor point D. Curved path segment E. Direction line F. Direction point
Paths can have two kinds of anchor points: corner points and smooth points. At a corner point, a path abruptly changes direction. At a smooth
point, path segments are connected as a continuous curve. You can draw a path using any combination of corner and smooth points. If you draw
the wrong kind of point, you can always change it.
Points on a path
A. Four corner points B. Four smooth points C. Combination of corner and smooth points
A corner point can connect any two straight or curved segments, while a smooth point always connects two curved segments.
A corner point can connect both straight segments and curved segments.
Don’t confuse corner and smooth points with straight and curved segments.
A path’s outline is called a stroke. A color or gradient applied to an open or closed path’s interior area is called a fill. A stroke can have weight
(thickness), color, and a dash pattern (Illustrator and InDesign) or a stylized line pattern (InDesign). After you create a path or shape, you can
change the characteristics of its stroke and fill.
In InDesign, each path also displays a center point, which marks the center of the shape but is not part of the actual path. You can use this point
to drag the path, to align the path with other elements, or to select all anchor points on the path. The center point is always visible; it can’t be
hidden or deleted.
About direction lines and direction points
When you select an anchor point that connects curved segments (or select the segment itself), the anchor points of the connecting segments
display direction handles, which consist of direction lines that end in direction points. The angle and length of the direction lines determine the
shape and size of the curved segments. Moving the direction points reshapes the curves. Direction lines don’t appear in the final output.
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