Adobe Illustrator CS3 - Manual (Page 78)

ILLUSTRATOR CS3
User Guide
72
See also
“Drawing tool gallery” on page 26
“Select paths, segments, and anchor points” on page 68
Add or delete anchor points
1 Select the path you want to modify.
2 To add an anchor point, select the Pen tool or the Add Anchor Point tool, position the pointer over the path
segment, and click.
3 To delete an anchor point, do either of the following:
• Select the point with the Direct Selection tool and click Remove Selected Anchor Points in the Control panel.
• Select the Pen tool or the Delete Anchor Point tool, position the pointer over the anchor point, and click.
Find and delete stray anchor points
Stray anchor points are individual points that are not connected to other anchor points. It is a good practice to find
and delete stray anchor points.
1 Deselect all objects.
2 Choose Select > Object > Stray Points.
3 Choose Edit > Cut or Edit > Clear commands, or press Delete or Backspace on the keyboard.
Disable or temporarily override automatic Pen tool switching
You can temporarily override or disable automatic switching to the Add Anchor Point tool or Delete Anchor Point
tool.
• To temporarily override switching, hold down Shift as you position the Pen tool over the selected path or an
anchor point. This is useful when you want to start a new path on top of an existing path. To prevent Shift from
constraining the Pen tool, release Shift before you release the mouse button.
• To disable switching, choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > General
(Mac OS), and select Disable Auto Add/Delete.
Smooth and simplify paths
You can smooth the appearance of paths as well as simplify paths by removing excess anchor points.
See also
“Drawing tool gallery” on page 26
“Keys for editing shapes” on page 464
“Select paths, segments, and anchor points” on page 68
Smooth paths
1 Select the object.
2 Select the Smooth tool .
3 Drag the tool along the length of the path segment you want to smooth out.