Edit Drawings with the Pencil Tool


All three of the tools in the Pencil tool tearoff can be used to edit curves. You can use the Pencil tool itself to not only draw curves but to modify existing curves. The Smooth tool irons out zigs and zags, making your curves flow more smoothly. And the Erase tool works like a pencil eraser to eliminate part of a curve.

To use the Pencil tool to edit a curve, first select that path (line) with a selection tool. Select the Pencil tool again, and then click and drag on a curve to change that curve, as shown in Figure 4-6.

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Figure 4-6: Redrawing a selected line segment using the Pencil tool

Smooth a Line

The Smooth Tool Preferences dialog box works much like the Pencil Tool Preferences dialog box does. You open it by double-clicking the Smooth tool.

Fidelity as applied to the Smooth tool defines how closely Illustrator adheres to the smoothing line you draw over an existing curve. Higher fidelity values remove more anchor points as you sweep over a curve. A fidelity value that is too high removes all nuance and detail from the drawing. A high smoothness setting smoothes out more rough edges in your drawing.

To use the Smooth tool, first double-click the Smooth tool and define the degree of fidelity and smoothing you want to use, and click OK. Then use the Selection (or Direct Selection or Lasso) tool to select the curve to be smoothed. Finally, click and drag with the Smooth tool along the path you want to apply smoothing to, as shown in Figure 4-7.

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Figure 4-7: Smoothing out rough edges in a drawing with the Smooth tool

Erase a Line

The Erase tool deletes selected sections of a path. There are no preference settings for the Erase tool; it simply does its thing and deletes anchor points and the line segments between them. The concept to keep in mind is that you are deleting anchor points, not bunches of pixels (as you would with an eraser tool in a program such as Photoshop).

Tip  

In addition to deleting points, you can use the Erase tool to remove sections of a path between two points. Illustrator then adds new end points to the new path segments.

To erase a section of a drawing, follow these steps:

  1. Select an object using the Selection tool or Lasso tool.

  2. With the object selected, click the Erase tool (in the Pencil tool pop-out).

  3. Click and drag with the Erase tool along the outline of the selected object to erase a section of the path, as shown in Figure 4-8.

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    Figure 4-8: Touching up a scanned and traced drawing by deleting a section of the curve with the Erase tool

    Note  

    To make a line less smooth , you can choose Effect Distort And Transform, and then experiment with using the Roughen, Twist, or Zig Zag effects to add wrinkles and twists .

The Erase tool is versatile. You can use it on any path and in any place within a line. If you want to make a clean cut in a line, click and drag across the line (as if cutting with a knife ).

Caution  

If you just point and click on a path with the Erase tool, you'll delete the entire line segment. If you need help zeroing in on anchor points with the Erase tool, you can convert the display from the Erase icon to cross hairs by pressing CAPS LOCK on your Mac or PC keyboard. This approach sometimes makes it easier to identify exactly where you are erasing.




How to Do Everything with Illustrator CS
How to Do Everything with Adobe Illustrator CS
ISBN: 0072230924
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 175
Authors: David Karlins

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