The other anchor points you’ve added will appear hollow.Ĭomplete the path by doing one of the following: The last point you add will always appears as a solid square, meaning that it is selected. Continue clicking to set anchor points for additional straight segments. Shift-click to constrain the angle of the segment to a multiple of 45°.Ĥ. Click again where you want to add the next anchor point. If direction lines appear (they look like extra lines coming out of an anchor point), you’ve accidentally dragged the Pen tool choose Ctrl + Z (windows) or Cmd + Z (Mac) to undo, and click again.ģ. Click once on the artboard where you want the straight line segment to begin.
When you first select the pen tool, a small x will appear beside the cursor, indicating that you are about to start a new path.Ģ. Select the Pen tool from the toolbox or hit P as a shortcut. You can draw straight line open paths, or closed paths.ġ. The anchor points are joined by a path, forming a line segment, which can be a straight line or a curved line. When you are drawing with the pen tool, you are placing anchor points on the artboard. So let’s get started with using the tool to draw straight lines. But with a bit of practice and perseverance, you’ll find that the ability to use the Pen tool really opens up a whole new world for you, and will become second nature to you very quickly. I’ve been teaching both Photoshop and Illustrator for several years now, and without doubt, the Pen tool is probably the most feared and avoided tool in both programs. Today we’re looking at one of the most important, and most frustrating tools for “newbies” – the Pen. So far in this series, we’ve looked at the Line Tools, the Shape Tools and the Pencil and Smooth Tools.