Tool Tip Tuesday: Pen Tool and Anchor Point Tools

The Pen Tool is one of the most useful tools in Adobe Illustrator. It’s used to create anchor points for lines and shapes. Hidden under the Pen Tool is a menu of other tools associated with anchor points. The Add Anchor Point Tool adds an anchor point to an existing stroke, while the Delete Anchor Point Tool instead removes an anchor point. The last tool in this menu, the Anchor Point Tool changes the type of anchor point from a corner without control handles to a curve to a corner with control handles.

Keyboard Shortcuts:
Pen Tool: P
Add Anchor Point Tool: + (plus sign)
Delete Anchor Point Tool: - (minus sign)
Anchor Point Tool: Shift-C

The Direct Selection Tool works hand in hand with the Pen Tool and other anchor point tools. To learn more about this tool, check out this Tool Tip Tuesday.



I created the illustration shown in the video for a scientific paper on glacier dynamics.

adobe illustrator,scientist,science communication,science,scientific illustration,