Draw with the Pen tool

The Pen tool  lets you draw lines and curves by creating anchor points which are then connected by either straight or curved lines. As with the shape tools, the Pen tool creates content within an SVG element.

Pen Tool

Lines

Use the Pen tool instead of the Line tool when you want to draw a series of connected lines.

To draw straight lines:

1. Press p or select the Pen tool from the toolbar. (If you've used one of the shape tools, you may need to click and hold the shape tool icon to select the Pen tool from a pop-up menu.)
2. Click the stage where you want the first line segment to begin.
3. Click again where you want the segment to end.
4. Continue clicking to set anchor points for additional straight segments. The active anchor point appears larger than other anchor points to indicate that it's selected. Previous anchor points become deselected as you continue to add new points.

Curves

You draw a curve by creating control handles that shape the curve between two anchor points. The length and direction of the control handles determine the degree of curvature.

To draw curving lines:

1. Press p or select the Pen tool from the toolbar. (If you've used one of the shape tools, you may need to click and hold the shape tool icon to select the Pen tool from a pop-up menu.)
2. Click the stage where you want the curve to begin and hold down the mouse button. Drag the cursor to create a control handle.
3. If you don't want to add more segments, click where you want the curve to end. Otherwise, continue clicking and dragging to create anchor points and curved lines.

You can adjust the control handle of an existing curve by selecting the path, then clicking the starting anchor point for the curve with the Pen tool.

More complex paths

Combine straight lines and curves. You can draw a mix of straight lines and curves in the same path. When you set each anchor point, click to add a straight line segment, or click and drag to add a curved segment.

Closed paths. You can draw closed paths to create shapes of greater complexity than allowed by the shape tools. To close a path, make your final click on the initial anchor point.

Anchor points

Anchor points indicate the start and end of each line segment. You can add, remove, or adjust anchor points from your paths by using the Pen tool options in the tool options bar.

To move an anchor point, make sure the Pen tool option is selected, then drag the anchor point to a new location.

To add an anchor point, either select the Add anchor point option or hover over the line until your pen cursor becomes an "Add anchor point" cursor. Click the path to add another anchor point.

To remove an anchor point, select the Delete anchor point option, and click the anchor point you want to remove. The path will change to fit the remaining points.