how to add anchor point in illustrator

How to add curves to a straight line in illustrator

April 9, 2014

adobe illustrator adobe illustrator, anchor points, smooth lines

Say you have a shape that you want to add some curves to.

straight-line

Here I want to add some curves to the bottom straight line (it's the outline of a super hero cape). Here's how you do it.

1. Add some anchor points.

Select your shape, find the straight line you want to add a curve to, and add anchor points where you want the curves to appear.

First select the 'Add anchor point tool'

add-anchor-point-tool

Then add your anchor points by clicking on the line where you want them to appear (more dots should appear on the line).

add-anchor-points

See where the straight line used to have no anchor points between the ends. Now it has two.

2. Add some curve.

Select your direction tool (shortcut – A)

direction-tool

then select the anchor point(s) you just added, and pull them in the direction you want your line to curve.

anchor-points-added

See how that bent our line? Next let's smooth it out.

3. Smooth it out.

If you want jagged lines, you are done. If you want these to be curved, we need to convert these anchor points to 'smooth'.

Using the same selector tool (short cut – A), select the anchor point you want to convert and then go to the top Illustrator and select 'Convert Selector Points to Smooth'.

smooth-curve-with-anchor-points

That should now smooth out your line and give it some nice curve.

Happy drawing!

Links that help

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6246a.html#WS49B38026-E630-4b8e-8ABF-2AA6C629AE59a