Shortcuts And Pointers For The Pen

Table of Equivalent Terminology
The following table shows which terms are equivalent between Deneba Canvas™, CorelDRAW®, Adobe® Illustrator® and Macromedia® FreeHand® and are presented here to sort out any possible confusion where mixed terminology has been used in this web site:

CorelDRAW	Deneba Canvas	Adobe Illustrator	Macromedia FreeHand
Fill Outline Node Control Point (no equivalent) Cusp Node Smooth Node Symmetrical Node Symmetrical Line Node (or line smooth node) Combining Objects Welding, Trimming and Intersecting Objects Wireframe View PowerClip™ Envelope	Fill Stroke Anchor Point Handle Tangent Line Corner Point (cusp defined as corner point with no handles) Smooth Point Smooth Point (option/ctrl-drag handles) (no equivalent) Composite Path Combining Objects Wireframe Display Clipping Path Envelope	Fill Stroke Anchor Point Direction Point (or handle) Direction Line Corner Point Smooth Point (no equivalent) (no equivalent) Compound Path Pathfinder: Combine, Isolate and Subdivide Objects Artwork View Mask (no equivalent)	Fill Stroke Point Point Knob Point Handle Corner Point Curve Point (no equivalent) Connector Point Composite Path Merging Objects Keyline View Clipping Path Envelope

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Shortcuts And Pointers For The Pen

	Pen Tips

Pen Tip No. 1

In Adobe® Illustrator®, always click the Direct Selection tool before clicking and drawing with the Pen Tool.

First click the Direct Selection Tool	Then click the Pen Tool

The reason for this is to make sure that when the Ctrl key (Windows®) is pressed (or Command key for Macintosh®), that the next selected tool is the Direct Selection Tool instead of a different, unintended selection tool. While actively making or modifying a path using the pen, pressing Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Macintosh) will activate the last selection tool used. It is more likely that you will make adjustments to anchor points and control handles while you are drawing than it is that you will move the entire path.


Pen Tip No. 2

Tear off the pen tools in Adobe Illustrator and let it float as its own palette on the workspace.



To do this simply grab the Pen Tool button on the Tool Palette and drag it away from it. Keep it near your drawing.


Pen Tip No. 3

You can make a simulated connector point in Adobe Illustrator using the following technique:

In Illustrator 8 First, click

View > Snap To Point

This provides a means to snap points and and control handles on top of other points. This step is not necessary in Illustrator 7 because "Snap To Point" is the default.

1. Drag the first point
2. Drag a second point
3. Click to place a third point
4. Grab the handle of the second point and drag it over the third point.
5. When the solid arrowhead cursor changes into a hollow one, the handle is on top of the point. Release the mouse button.
6. At this time you can now change the direction of the first curve going into the second point. No matter how you adjust it, there will always be a smooth transition into the straight line segment.
7. To reshape the curve, drag the control handle of the first point.
8. When the desired shape is attained, release the mouse button.

The theory behind this tip is by laying the control handle on top of the third point (the far point in the straight line segment), it is assured that the curve going into the second point will be at a tangent to the straight segment. In Adobe Photoshop®, although there is no provision for snapping a handle over a point, you could drag a handle over a point and come close to it.


Pen Tip No. 4

Although Deneba Canvas™ doesn't have a connector point, it does have an arc tool which places both ends of an open arc so the tangents are at right angles. This makes it easy to create the same effect as a connector point.

To create this effect, first drag out an arc.



Next double-click the arc to place it in edit mode.


Select the point you wish to connect the tangent straight section. Either drag a marquee around it or click it.




This is what the point looks like when it is selected.




Next select the Curve tool. Press Ctrl-Shift (Windows) or Command-Shift (Mac) and click to place the endpoint of the straight section. The tangent line of the point that connects the straight segment to the curved segment can be pulled using Shift-Drag to constrain its movement.




Pen Tip No. 5

Sometimes you may want a point with only one control handle. In Deneba Canvas™ 5 and 6, Macromedia® FreeHand® 8 and CorelDRAW® 8 there are provisions for making one-handled anchor points. In Adobe Illustrator, however,  you have to drag the handle over its anchor point to get rid of it:

1. The center point has two handles. Let's get rid of one of them.
2. Drag a handle back into the point.
3. When the handle is over the point, the cursor changes from a solid arrowhead to a hollow one. Release the mouse button.
4. Now you have a one-handled anchor point.

Pen Tip No. 6

Many times you will want to close an open path (Photoshop users click here for complete instructions). Sometimes it happens that you simply get lost while drawing a path and you find yourself no longer adding points to the path. To restart a path (append to a path) in Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia FreeHand or CorelDRAW, the technique is basically the same.

1. Position the pen (for CorelDRAW users the Bezier Tool or the Freehand Tool) over an end point in the path you want to restart. When you first click the tool and before positioning the cursor over the end point in the path, the cursor will appear as follows:

	Adobe Illustrator 7 / 8
	Adobe Photoshop 5
	Macromedia FreeHand 8
	CorelDRAW 8 - Freehand Tool
	CorelDRAW 8 - Bezier Tool

2. Except for CorelDRAW while using the Bezier Tool, when you are over the point, the cursor will change to let you know that the next click will append to the path:

	Adobe Illustrator 7 / 8
	Adobe Photoshop 5
	Macromedia FreeHand 8
	CorelDRAW 8 - Freehand Tool

3. That is your cue that the next click will append to the path. Click once to restart adding line segments to the path.

4. When you are ready to close the path simply position the cursor over the other end point of the path. When the cursor is over the point it will change to let you know that the next click will close the path:

	Adobe Illustrator 7 / 8
	Adobe Photoshop 5
	Macromedia FreeHand 8
	CorelDRAW 8 - Freehand Tool
	CorelDRAW 8 - Bezier Tool

5. Click once to close the path.


Deneba Canvas™

With Deneba Canvas, restarting or closing an open path is very straightforward. To restart (append to) an open path, simply put the path into edit mode (double-click using the Selection tool), then select the endpoint you wish to resume adding segments to, (click to select it) then select the Curve tool and resume with the next point. When you want to close the path, when the cursor changes to a small crosshair, (below). This means the pointer is directly over an anchor point. The next click (or drag) closes the path:



To close an open path without adding points, put the path into edit mode, then click one of the endpoints with the Curve tool. A new segment will be added joining the endpoints.


Pen Tip No. 7

Here's an undocumented tip for Deneba Canvas. Sometimes you may want to change the angle of a tangent line without changing its length. To do this, select an anchor point and position the mouse pointer just to the right or left until the cursor changes into a hollow arrowhead:



When it does, click and drag the tangent line to change its angle...


The angle of the handle will change, but not its length.

Pen Tutorial Practice Templates

Practice Practice Practice
This page contains all the practice templates for drawing with the pen. Here are tutorials for Deneba Canvas™, Adobe® Illustrator®, Adobe Photoshop®, Macromedia® FreeHand® and CorelDRAW®. These tutorials are setup for both Macintosh® and Windows® platforms.

You might ask, "What are Photoshop tutorials doing here in the vector application section?" Using the pen in Adobe Photoshop is virtually the same as using the pen in Adobe Illustrator. Learning pen skills really belongs here with the other vector applications. I have linked the Photoshop section of the web site to these pages for learning the pen.

These tutorials are short and fun. Make sure to download the setup sheet for the application you are using. The setup is very straightforward. Except for Photoshop (which rasterizes the PDF file...turns it into a bitmap), you simply load the tutorial PDF file into the drawing application, then lock the layer containing the template, then add a new layer and draw on that new layer. The reason you keep the template on a locked layer is because the template contains vector objects which can get selected and altered otherwise. Don't worry, it's really simple. All the instructions are in the setup sheets.

The tutorials are setup in sequence starting with the easiest ones. Each one gives you a different skill. By the time you get to the last one you will see how it all comes together. They have been purposely setup to take advantage of keyboard shortcuts so you don't have to return to the tool palette once the pen tool has been selected.

The whole point is to train you to take advantage of the keyboard shortcuts so you will draw faster, smoother and more fluidly.

Download Instructions:

Instructions: 1. First download and install the free Adobe Acrobat® Reader 2. If you wish to view the PDF file only, simply click on the link below 3. To download in Windows®: Place mouse pointer on the link, then right click the mouse. For Internet Explorer®: "Save Target As..." For Netscape®: "Save Link as..." then save it to disk 4. To download in Mac®: Hold the mouse button down for a second or Control + Click and a pop up window will appear. For Internet Explorer: "Download Link to Disk" For Netscape: "Save this Link as..." then save it to disk.

FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader to read and print out the tutorials...Click Here

Pen Tutorials For Macintosh® and Windows

	Canvas 5-7	Illustrator 7-9	Photoshop 5	FreeHand 8-9	CorelDRAW 8-9
Setup Sheet	setupcnv.pdf 34.20K	setupai.pdf 15.20K	setuppsd.pdf 15.60K	setupfh8.pdf 18.50K	setupcdr.pdf 41.70K
Tutorial 1	tem1cnv.pdf 9.33K	tem1ai.pdf 3.38K	tem1psd.pdf 3.49K	tem1fh8.pdf 9.45K	tem1cdr.pdf 10.00K
Tutorial 2	tem2cnv.pdf 5.48K	tem2ai.pdf 9.03K	tem2psd.pdf 5.42K	tem2fh8.pdf 5.35K	tem2cdr.pdf 5.50K
Tutorial 3	tem3cnv.pdf 6.67K	tem3ai.pdf 8.76K	tem3psd.pdf 6.20K	tem3fh8.pdf 6.19K	tem3cdr.pdf 6.73K
Tutorial 4	tem4cnv.pdf 4.36K	tem4ai.pdf 10.10K	tem4psd.pdf 6.80K	tem4fh8.pdf 6.87K	tem4cdr.pdf 4.33K
Tutorial 5	tem5cnv.pdf 3.68K	tem5ai.pdf 6.22K	tem5psd.pdf 3.69K	tem5fh8.pdf 3.73K	tem5cdr.pdf 3.82K
Tutorial 6	tem6cnv.pdf 32.60K	tem6ai.pdf 21.30K	tem6psd.pdf 21.10K	tem6fh8.pdf 32.00K	tem6cdr.pdf 31.80K
Complete Set Macintosh	temcnv.sit 84.60K	temai.sit 61.90K	tempsd.sit 56.00K	temfh8.sit 73.00K	temcdr.sit 92.00K
Complete Set Windows	temcnv.zip 82.20K	temai.zip 60.60K	tempsd.zip 53.90K	temfh8.zip 70.70K	temcdr.zip 89.10K