From the course: Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Fundamentals

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Connecting the dots

Connecting the dots - Illustrator Tutorial

From the course: Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Fundamentals

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Connecting the dots

This Chapter is all about the Pen tool, which creates a Path Outline as a series of Anchor Points, and Control Handles. These points and handles act like dots and they connect the Dot Puzzle, with Illustrator drawing straight and curving segments in between, but these two kinds of dots, Anchor Points and Control Handles serve different purposes. The Anchor Points lock down the segments. Like stops on a subway, these points serve as arrival and departure points for the Path Outline. You can move a point, but if you do, the path moves with it. The Control Handle is not an anchor, it's a magnet. You drag towards you with a Control Handle, the path comes towards you. You push away with a handle, the path goes away. The Control Handle loves the path, it hates the path. It says, come hither, it says get lost. The Control Handle is where Adobe as a company started, it's part of the original post script. Here is how the Control Handle, the Anchor Point, and the Pen tool that makes them work.

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