Pen tool control points too small

Is there any way to make it easier to select control points for the pen tool? It's really frustrating trying to edit paths since I keep missing the control point which deselects the whole path.
Ideally I'd like to be able to increase the size of the control points themselves, but alternatively is there a 'snap to control point' option or something so I don't have to precisely click on a 1x1 pixel dot? It'd even be good if the size of the control points increase as I zoom in, but I can't see how to do that either. I'm using CS3.
Thanks,
Sam

Sam,
View>Smart Guides may be your friends: they tell you where you are.

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Lasso tool control point with delete keyboard shortcut in PS CC

Hello,
I can not remove lasso tool control point with delete keyboard shortcut in PS cc. please help

it's a bug, view this thread
http://forums.adobe.com/message/6027062#6027062

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Pen Tool/Anchor Point Help

I often draw/trace things using the Pen Tool. I start with an anchor point (A) then click to make another (B), then I drag the first handle away from the anchor point in order to make a bezier curve. The problem comes when I need to continue the path to another anchor point (C) after the curve. If I don't move the "dragged" handle, then it warps the continued path to the next anchor point (C). What I have been doing to remedy this frustration is switching to the Direct Selection Tool then moving the "dragged" handle over top of the previous anchor point (B). Please tell me there is an easier/faster way to do this...
Many thanks in advance!

Have you studied the manual?
Illustrator Help | Drawing with the Pen, Pencil, orFlare tool
There are also plenty of tutorials on how to use the pen tool.
If you know all this and still need help, please post a screenshot of the situation.

Pen tool anchor points

Hello,
Is there a short cut on Mac or a way to add 1 handle to an anchor point that already has a handle - other than using the convert anchor tool?
When I use the convert anchor point tool, it resets the previous curve that I had already drawn, and I have to draw out the 2 handles to make the curve I had already made.
It would be much easier if one could just pull out 1 handle from an anchor point in order to tweak the curve or line.
Thanks

Here’s another trick if it is imperative to move only one handle:
With Smart Guides turned on, drag ruler guides to intersect at the handles.
With the Line tool draw a line between those intersections.
Scale that line with the scale tool and Shift held down. It will get longer at both ends.
Convert the line to a guide (Cmd/Ctrl+5).
Now you can drag one handle along the new guide and the opposite sector won’t move.

Photoshop Pen Tool: Welding Points?

I am working with Photoshop CS3 and I have 3 paths that were on different layers until I moved them all to 1 layer. I can select all of the paths with the Path Selection Tool and "Combine" them into 1 path... but this doesn't do what I need it to. I need to be able to take 2 nodes (or "anchor points") and weld them together as 1 anchor point. I noticed that combining the paths (even when placing the nodes right on top of each other) does not turn 2 nodes into 1. They are still 2 nodes on top of each other. I went to delete anchor points around these 2 nodes and that is when I noticed they weren't "welded" together. I know that in Cinema 4D you can "weld" points together and it works perfectly for what I need in C4D but I need this to work in Photoshop. Is there a way?

Sure, here you go:
The last three steps in the History panel will look like this:

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Has anyone else had a problem with the Illustrator pen tool adding points before you've even clicked the mouse? If so are there any solutions to this problem? I've had to quit and start again because this wastes so much time. Is this bug? I've also had a problem where Illustrator will sometimes freeze when I open the program with the icon but won't if I open the program by opening an illustrator file. Thanks!

steve fairbairn wrote:
How charming that Illy is now feminine – I had never thought of her that way.
It explains a few quirks (sorry girls)
Steve.
She always was. Up to 10 you could even enjoy her image while working with her. And before anyone objects: forensic experts can tell you straight away that she is not Venus: among other things, the length of her neck (Illy) is only 80% of hers (Venus).

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I recently upgraded to CS4 and started using Photoshop to do some work. Working on some clipping path with the pen tool I've come to notice how incredibly light the pen tool outline is. I cant see where or what im tracing cause I can't tell where the line is unlike the other earlier creative suites where the line was visible.
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I am having the exact same problem with Photoshop CS 4 on my MacBook OSX 10.5.7 4 GB RAM Intel GMA X3100: graphics card
When I enable Open GL in PS CS4 preferences, the pen tool line is too light, too thin to use and the anchor points aren't accurate , I have to disable Open GL to get the normal pen function back. Adobe should get us a fix to make Open GL compatable with all graphics cards. All functions in Open GL work fine except the Pen Tool.

Creating a bell-shapped (Gaussian) curve with the Pen Tool

Hello everyone,
I'm trying to create a bell-shaped (Gaussian) curve in Photoshop CS3, using the Pen Tool, however apparently I am not good enough with it... I can create a curve that resembles a simple parabola - like this one http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BhBX8ycVeL4/SIHhJYmDCgI/AAAAAAAAA-g/2Dc_Tf1Kz5c/s400/400px-Para bola.svg.png only upside-down; however I can't figure out how to further go from here in order to add the extra inflexions on the sides that make the parabola into a Gaussian curve, that would look something like this: http://naturalcureinsomnia.com/img/Bell-Curve.gif
Can anyone help? Thanks in advance!

Art,
Correct me if I'm wrong---I believe you want a schematic Gaussian curve rather than a mathematically precise one.
If so, set up two horizontal guide lines, one running through the desired apex and the other through the curve's baseline. Add three vertical guides, one through the apex and the other two equally spaced on the left and right sides of the guide through the apex.
Let point A be at the intersection of the left vertical with the baseline, point B be the apex, and point C be the intersection of the right vertical with the baseline.
With the pen tool at point A, drag horizontally to the right a fraction of the distance to the central guide. Release the mouse, move the pen tool to point B and drag horizontally to the right about the same distance or until the left half of the curve looks Gaussian. Release the mouse, place the pen tool at point C and drag horizontally rightward until the right half of the Gaussian curve matches the left.
To close the curve, release the mouse and click at a point on the baseline well beyond point C, connect from below with a path of any shape to a point on the baseline well to the left of point A, and then close to point A. Stroke the path, delete the path, and erase all but the Gaussian part.
Experiment with the ABC positions and the drag lengths until you get a decent curve. Should you want a precise curve it would be better to use one of the freeware curve programs out there. But if you want a bit of precision with the pen tool, that's possible by calculating one or two intermediate points between A and B and symmetrically between B and C and then dragging the pen so that curve comes reasonably close to passing through them.

Small imperfections in curves drawn with pen tool.

I have noticed that when drawing with the pen tool that whereever two paths segments connect in a curve, there sometimes is a small bump. I am wondering how to avoid this problem when initially drawing and/or how to fix them afterwards. Currently my solution is to add either a single anchor point or one on both sides of the offending point then removing the problem anchor point. This seems to work in most cases.

In the screenshot, that should be a smoothPoint, not a cornerPoint. In Illustrator, only smoothPoints ensure tangency between the two associated segments. You have buttons in the Control Panel by which to convert a cornerPoint to smooth (and vice-versa). Doing so auto-extends the handles if they are retracted.
If that already is a curvePoint, then you need to lengthen its handles. If you have other anchors too close to it, that will be problematic. If the visible portion of the black path with the circled anchor were the entire shape, that shape should be drawn with no more than 5 anchors.
Be aware is sometimes possible that the antialiasing of the screen preview pixels can cause the the preview to look like there are subtle kinks at the horizontal/vertical extrema of curves, but since you say you have an anchor there, the anchor is probably the cause.
When showing screenshots about path shape, it's usually better to select the path so others can actually see the anchors and handles needed to advise.
JET

FW CS4 crashes when using the pen tool for many points

Good morning,
Every time I try to create a mask with the pen tool that
requires a good
amount of points, FW crashes. I've had this happen with CS3
as well, but
with CS4 , it crashes with many less points than CS3 - has
any one
experienced this, and more to the point, any solutions?
Aloha,
Jerry
http://MauiWebDesigns.com

"FatCat" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:gkga3u$gtc$[email protected]..
> Hi Al,
>
>> I find I use CS3 for all tasks except for the few
that require the new
>> features in CS4. Both DW and Fireworks CS4 are giant
grey hawgs :-)
>
> I knew I should have stuck with CS3!
>
> My Bridge quit working, and I figured that was Nature's
way of telling me
> to upgrade. I spent all of a weekend trying to download
the software
> (akamai means smart - what a misnomer!), then when it
finally downloaded
> the installation was corrupt - did that three times -
took all night to
> download, with a lot of stalls and freezes.
>
> Then on Monday I call customer service and they tell me
that that download
> is too large - why offer it, then?
>
> Anyway, I bought the DVD, got it a few days later,
installed it and Bridge
> still didn't work! Turns out that my anti-virus somehow
kept it from
> working! I don't know why, since it was working
previously. Anyway, now I
> have CS4, but it doesn't work as well as CS3, as you'd
warned me - shoulda
> listened to Uncle Al! ;o) It only cost me $600 plus the
lost weekend and
> the hassles of using a glitchy program - live and learn!
>
> However, I'm an eternal optimist - haven't lost hope
that this will get
> fixed.
I'm optimistic too. I think it will start to sort itself out
when Intel's
new 24-Core 128-bit processors hit the market in conjunction
with Windows 8
and OS X Cervelat.
Al

Is there a hotkey to break the handles of points while you're using the pen tool?

When you use the pen tool, it smooths the points as you add them, but sometimes I don't want that, So far, the only way I've been able to combat this is by using the pen tool, pressing V to switch to the selection tool, clicking elsewhere to deselect the path, then pressing P to use the pen tool again, and then selecting the end point again.
This process is becoming very annoying over the course of long projects, and I'm hoping that someone will be able to solve it for my.
(I specifically want the hotkey for Mac, but it would be good if you could give the PC hotkey too for other people looking at this.)

Use the Alt-key to switch to the anchor-point-conversion tool temporarily. Use the command key to switch to the last used selection tool temporarily

Photoshop CC - Cannot control + click to select a different shape while using the pen tool?

I used the pen tool constantly in photoshop cs6 and would often use control + left click to select a different shape while still using the pen tool.
I'm now forced to switch to the move tool to select another layer? Why was this feature removed / changed?
Fix: After fooling around more, here is how I fixed it:
The new Direct Select Tool by default is set to "active" layers. Switch it to "all layers"
Message was edited by: Joe Horan

A new problem = Selecting multiple points with control + click + drag is selecting ALL shape layers... Jesus christ, why was this changed????
I now have to double click the shape I want to select? Why? What is the point of this?

Anchor points with pen tool askew

Hey everyone, I have been using illustrator for about 5 years now and this has never happened to me before. I use CS4 and i opened it today to trace a logo and out of nowhere, whenever i go to connect a point with the pen tool, it makes a point about a quarter of an inch in the opposite direction of where i clicked down. Usually I can make a point, then try to connect it with another and it goes exactly where i clicked down for point #2...now it's impossible to correctly trace anything since I have little control over the pen tool anymore.
I read in another forum when researching this problem that in in View > snap to point may cause this but even after unselecting it, i still have the same problem. I also tried resetting Illustrator like I read may help and nothing. I can't find the presets folder on my computer I did the key combination while opening the program.
Thank you for your time!
-Melissa

Melissa,
It could be a preference corruption or a disturbance from other applications or something similar.
To reset the former the former, you may try to Move the folder with Illy closed, or just press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (the latter is easier but changes your preference settings to defaults (spoiling any customized settings, and it may be necessary to perform the more thorough Move).
To solve things in case of the latter, you may have a look at the relavnt items, including 7, in Other options.
Or it could be something else.

Pen Tool, add new point keeps previous point selected?

This has bugged me immensely ever since the new versions of inDesign adopted this habit, is there a work-around?
Say I want to make a customly shaped frame around a photo that's imported in the standard rectangle shape and I don't want it to be a circle, rounded rectangle, or polygon that I can simply "convert shape" to. I could try editing the path with the pencil tool but typically that will create 100+ anchor points of vector disaster.
What I used to do in CS2, CS3, CS4 is grab the handy pen tool, add a point and move it where I want with the direct selection tool by simply holding CMD (ctrl).
But now, (not sure if it started in CS5, CS5.5, or CS6) when I add a new point it keeps the previous points selected. Rubbish, now I can't move the new point where I want it without moving the previous however many I created. And there's no simple 1-click method of only selecting the point I just made (that I know of). Re-clicking with the direct selection tool does nothing and clicking other selected points does not deselect them.
So in order to move the point I just made, by itself, I have to deselect all points then reselect the point I want to move, which is really tricky if it's under other objects.
Does anyone know how to have ONLY the new point selected when I add a point? Or even have no points selected so I can easily CMD+click the ones I want to move?

It looks like what is needed is some way to deselect all the points on a selected object, while keeping the object itself selected.
Using the built-in InDesign tools, the way to do that would seem to be: switch to the direct selection white arrow tool (by pressing CMD) as you have been doing. Click anywhere on the path of the object. This clears all selected points while keeping the object selected. Now release CMD to get back to the Pen tool, and add your point.
If this is too fiddly (it can be tricky to click on the path itself, although the white arrow changes subtely to show you that you're over the path), you can alternatively use the following one line script:
try {app.selection[0].select()}catch(_){};
This does the same thing: It deselects all selected points on the current page item.
To use, copy this line to a text editor. Save with the extension .jsx and place in your InDesign scripts folder. You can then assign a keyboard shortcut to the script, so that it should be very easy to deselect all the points.

Pen tool control points too small

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