The pen tool is NOT doing good :-(

I just update the Ai CC and now the pen tool 'close' all paths
even without closing.
What is going on?

Daniel Ulysses,
From the OP alone, I should have suggested your resetting the preferences or something similar as the first thing to try, but it is rather strange to have it suddenly in two versions at the same time.
The usual list of things to try is as follows.
You may try the following (you may have tried/done some of them already) and see whether it helps (the following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file; 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences):
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder http://www.bugge.com/Family-and-friends/Illy/illy.html (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5); Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Similar Messages

The lines I create with the pen tool are not showing up in After Effects.

I'm working on a project where I need straight lines. I've added the lines using the pen tool on solid layers, but they are not showing up before or after rendering. I can see where they are supposed to be when I isolate the layer they are on. I have the lines at one pixel, solid white and the layers are on top of everything else. I took a screen shot. Can anyone help me?

Well, I am still not 100% sure why the pen tool lines/masks are not showing up but I was able to work around it. I already had the stroke effect applied and set to all masks. Looking into this though, it seemed that they were only not showing up on the new solid layers I had created. I duplicated the layers the masks were working on instead and it seems to resolve the problem for now. Thanks for your help!

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

I just recently up graded from AI CS6 to AI CC and I am having issues with my pen tool. If I create a starting point and then make another point it does not allow me to make the secnd point an end point. The pen tool stays active and I either have to clic

I just recently up graded from AI CS6 to AI CC and I am having issues with my pen tool. If I create a starting point and then make another point it does not allow me to make the second point an end point. The pen tool stays active and I either have to click to isolate the path or I have to return to the first point and close the path. Please help.

artisttouch,
If you cannot close the Pen Tool by switching to another tool, as a temporary measure you may try pressing P (for Pen).
To solve it, you may try the list.
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
If possible/applicable, you should save curent artwork first, of course.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Ai Beginner, Can I make the pen tool function like it does in Photoshop?

I have been using photoshop to do various things over the last few years, and I am trying to move over to Illustrator. The biggest problem I have already is the function of the pen tool in Ai as opposed to Ps. I have to select an entirely different tool to move points? I can't just hold control and move the point? Is there a way that I can make the hot keys and what not function like the pen tool does in Ps. Why the change in the first place?
(Also, I am using CS4)

A feature request maybe? But then there's no-one from Adobe listening out there anyway, so what's the point?
That's not at all true I have made many feature reques and had quite a few realized. Although one of the bestones was killed.
But if you make a feature request the right way and you give a good argument for it they will look at it and see if they think it is practical for them to implement.
The key is practical and a really good reason for the feature.
And I do know from experience.

Why does the pen tool remove previous line when I add new anchor points??

Why does the pen tool remove previous lines??
Video here: http://youtu.be/8AmPUkD88h0
It removes the hairline on the face, when I add more anchor points. Why? And how do I correct it?

The ins and outs of the new and changed behaviors in the re-engineered pen tool have been disussed here on this forum and I'm sure a little detour to the help files will also shed some light on this...
Mylenium

Why does the type tool and note tool close my InDesign program? [was: InDesign CC technical]

Why does the type tool and note tool close my InDesign program?

Install the CC Desktop app, or try Help > Updates....
If all else fails, you can try Crash | Launch, selecting Type tool, but there are other bug fixes in the update.

Does photoshop elements 13 have the pen tool and where is it?

Does Photoshop Elements 13 have the pen tool and if so where is it?

I don't understand what you mean about the white line, but many tools in PSE are actually groups of tools. The blur tool shares a slot with the sharpen tool and the Smudge tool. Click hold on the one that's visible for a popout menu, or keep tapping the R key till the blur tool comes into view.

I am using the pen tool to clipp an image. Sometimes when I apply the mask WITH NO FEATHER it still appears to be feathered? Does this have to do with Anti-aliasing

I am using the pen tool to clipp an image. Sometimes when I apply the mask WITH NO FEATHER it still appears to be feathered? Does this have to do with Anti-aliasing?

I am using CS6 and when I use the pen tool, it deletes the inside image not the outside image

I have been using photoshop cs5 and cs6 for a while but I have never encountered this problem. Whenever I use the pen tool to trace an object and I close the traced object, it deletes the object i traced and not the background. It is really anoying and I cant change it. I have spentt a fair amount of time trying to change it but i dont know how. Can someone please help I have also looked online but there is nothin to help.
Thankyou Alex

Hi,
It's probably the path operations setting.
The default setting in photoshop cs6 is Exclude Overlapping Shapes and you could also use Combine Shapes.

What happened to the 'Shape Mode' shortcut keys on the Pen Tool?

For the longest time I've used both the Shape and Pen Tools for drawing vectors in Photoshop, but with CS6 I noticed a lot of weird behaviours. The one that is really getting to me is the lack of 'Shape Mode' shortcut keys when using the Pen Tool. When on the 'Shape Tool', fo example Cirle or Rectange, you can press the Shift to change the Shape Mode to 'Add', Alt to change it to 'Subtract' or both together to get 'Intersect'. This functionality used to exist on the Pen Tool too, but in CS6 I can't seem to get it working.
A collegue suggested to move over to Illustrator for all my Vector needs, and I know that this a good advice. However the lack of quick/integrated changing between 'Shape Modes' in either product (now) makes drawing things alot slower (for me).
Am I missing something, or is this feature now ommited in Photoshop CS6. If it is does anyone know if its possible to script something to allow this kind of behviour in Photoshop or Illustrator?
cheers,
Jon

The modifier keys "Alt|Opt", "Ctrl|Cmd" and "Shift" work differently depending on the tool being used but the individual keys seem to provide somewhat related functions.
For example the "Shift" key tends to be a constraining key Rectangle tools are constrained to square ellipse tools to Circles. However if there is an Active selection when you hold down the skey when you drag out a new selection it does not reset the current selection instead the new selection is not constrained and is added to the current selection. Shift constrains Transform tool to current aspect ratio, Shift constrains Line tools to vertical, horizontal or 45 degree angles. Pen tool like line tool shift constrains the angle.
The "Alt|Opt" key changes the way tools operate. Transforms are from the center not from the side or corner being dragged. Selection tools like the rectangle and ellipse will cause the intal drag out be from the center however it there is a Active selection dragging out a new selection will be subtracted from the current selection. This key changes the Pen tool from draw mode to anchor point adjusting.
The "Shift" and "Alt|Opt" modifier keys can be used together to have an operation be both constrain and from the center.
The "Ctrl|Cmd" key seems to change the way a tool works on a control anchor point. The Pen Tool changes from Pen Draw mode to Direct Selection tool to facilitate moving the point. Transform can be distorted a single corner point can be moved and distort the rectangle bounding box.
These keys may have other functions I don't know about. Photoshop has many features so many I don't know if any one person know and uses all of them. For the rest of us they seem to be Photoshop hidden secrets.

Better ways to work with the pen tool

I'm finding the pen tool a real aggravation to use... first off you cannot hardly see the points once a path is completed. Even blowing the artwork up really big doesn't help much.
Then its really easy to loose the ability to move individual points... at least I've found that at one point I can select and move the points easily with keyboard and somehow I loose that ability and seems to difficult to regain it. Instead I'm moving the whole path.
I wondered if any of the plugins out there might be dedicated to making the pen tool points easier to manipulate and edit. Just making them easily visible would probably be enough.

Jacob Bugge wrote:
Harry,
The Direct Selection Tool is the one to use for moving Anchor Points after the path has been drawn. Always work on paths without anything selected when you start; this is one place where Smart Guides are your friends because they let you see highlights of what you may select.
If you Click an Anchor Point, you will see that it is shown as a filled square; the other (non selected) Anchor Points are shown as hollow squares; you can select additional Anchor Points by ShiftClicking them.
With the desired Anchor Point(s) chosen, you may ClickDrag (either of them), or use the Arrow keys, or Object>Transform>Move, to move it/them.
You can also ClickDrag across the desired Anchor Point(s), starting from an empty spot with no fill (normally outside the path).
If I'm following you above... I do not see that behavior here. I speaking particularly of your third and fourth points.
You are talking about doing point 3 and 4 with direct select right?
To make it simple I'll just work with one point on a closed path :... I first click on an empty part of art board, then click a single point. At that point all the points light up and show there handles. The clicked one is a solid red dot, the others are a hollow dot with red stroke.
Now according to what I got of your comments, I should be able to move that single selected point with the arrow keys.... but I cannot.
Far as point 4, same thing applies... It is good to know that I can select multiple points that way, but after selecting ... the keyboard arrows do nothing to the selected points. But at least I can quickly pull mutiple points around with the mouse... so thanks for that bit.
Are you able to select a point on a closed path, and control it with arrow keys?
Is there some circumstance I may have initiated inadvertantly that would prevent the arrow keys moving points around.
I pretty sure there was while early on where I was moving individual points with keyboard but cannot get it to happen now.

Any way to temporarily ignore smart guides while using the pen tool?

I'm having a hate and love relationship with Smart Guides. When I want them they're bad; when I don't they're good.
While trying to do some things with the pen tool, I am frequently faced with the smart guides snapping my tool around without my wanting it snapped. I'm not really that good with the pen tool yet, so it's making an uphill climb even harder when they interfere.
Now I know that I can disable smart guides by doing Ctrl-U, but this has the side effect of releasing my pen from the current curve I'm working on. When I click the end of that curve to start where I left off it changes the anchor to a corner instead of curve and messes up what I was going on. This wouldn't be such a problem except that I sometimes want the guides while I'm still on the same curve so I don't want to fully disable them as I'm working and then have to re-enable to fix a spot, know what I mean?
So, is there a key I can hold down to temporarily turn disable smart guides or ignore them in some way? I've hit quite a few keys trying this out so I'm guessing no. This probably indicates I just need to improve my skill to learn how to work with this best.

At least up to Illustrator 13, there is a trick or rather a lousy hack that involves the Snap to Grid command and its talent to temporarily disable any Smart Guides functionality. The following has to be prepared in case you're going to execute the hack as an action:
1. In the Actions Palette, create a new Action set. Call it 'Disable Smart Guides'.
2. Within the Action set, create a new action. Call it 'Disable Smart Guides', assign an F-key to the action, let's say F3, and hit Enter.
3. In the Actions Palette menu, select the Insert Menu Item command and go to View > Snap to Grid
4. Stop recording the action
5. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid
6. In the Gridline Every text box, enter 0,01 mm. It's the minimum value you can set here.
7. In the Subdivisions text box, enter 1000, the max. value accepted here.
Now, take any document, turn on Smart Guides, make sure Snap to Grid is turned off, and start drawing a path. Hit F3 and continue drawing the path. Hit F3 again as soon as you need your Smart Guides again.
As you can see, after hitting F3 to enable Snap to Grid, the path will not be interrupted when placing the next point. And as you've got a kind of microscopic Grid settings, Snap to Grid has almost no influence on where the points are placed. In fact, it still snaps, but due to the absurd Grid settings it's rather negligible.
This palpable workaround was originally invented by a young lady located around Edmonton in Canada.

Drawing with the Pen tools

This question was posted in response to the following article: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-73a0a.h tml

Correction: same issue -- pen tool drawing shows up only on the digital image on the screen. Not when printed. Well sounded like a good theory.
Problem remains: how to get pen tool drawing, made on photographs, to print.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Drawing with the Pen tools o photographi
Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 20:08:05 +0000
Curt, believe I found the answer:
Create a new blank page, the size of the photograph to be worked on. The blank page is what the pen tool responds to only.
Add the photographic image to the new blank page (same size).
Now you can use the pen tool over the photographic image. When finished drawing, flatten the image with drawing, and print.
Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 21:00:54 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Drawing with the Pen tools
    Re: Drawing with the Pen tools
    created by Curt Y in Photoshop General Discussion - View the full discussion
Perhaps you are talking about stroking the line?
Set the color and size with brush, then in Path window click on Stroke Path with Brush.
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Using the pen tool, how best should I build or construct this image?

Hello,
I'm trying to recreate a certain image with the pen tool.
I have already tried using Live Trace using the "Simple Trace" setting. Live Trace did a pretty good job but not with enough accuracy or fidelity to the original image as I would like.
I am pretty rusty with Illustrator now, but I remember from past lessons that the basic idea is that artwork in Illustrator is divided into layers, objects, and elements within objects. But one of the biggest principles with Ilustrator is the order these layers, objects, and elements are stacked. Elements are stacked to create an object. Objects are often stacked, each object on its own layer, to create the entire piece of artwork.
Also, the lower an element, object, or layer is in a stacking order, the further towards the back it appears in the image.
Also, the higher an element, object, or layer is in a stacking order, the closer to the front it appears in the image.
So, in Illustrator, you don't so much draw or paint a piece of artwork, but, instead, creating artwork in Illustrator is more a matter of building it or constructing it.
So, with all that said, below I have an object I would like to create with the pen tool. It is a fleuron. It is at least fairly complex.I am not sure how to build it or construct its parts. What would come first, second, third? What would be on the bottom layer, middle layer, top layer, etc.?
I know there is no one way to reproduce this object with the pen tool. Whatever way you would use or would like to share is fine. I guess, more specifically, I'm not afraid of rigor and working hard, but I'm also not necessarily looking for rigor. Instead, what I am looking to do is work smartly and efficiently. I'm looking for what might commonly be considered "best practice."
So, how would you advise I approach the object below? How should I build or construct it?
Thanks! : )

As for the simple graphic itself, this is what I would end up with:
One Group containing:
One red-filled, unstroked Compound Path consisting of three subpaths.
One white-filled, unstroked Compound Path consisting of 18 subpaths.
The reason I would compound the red paths and the white paths is simply so I could apply to them different fills with one move, should I want to.
The reason the two Compund Paths would be grouped is simply so the whole graphic can, when finished, be moved, rotated, scaled, flipped, skewed (i.e.; transformed) as if it were a single object. (Which it would be; a Group is a logical object, just as a "set" is a logical object.)
As for how I would actaully draw the graphic:
First I would roughly evaluate it to get an idea of what I want to end up with in terms of clean, tidy, paths (as already describe above.)
Second, I mentally devise a "plan of attack" by which to achieve that; just studying the shapes a little more deeply for anything that can be exploited to minimize the work:
Are there any repetitive elements of the shape that can be accomplished by duplication, moving, scaling?
Is there any symmetry that can be accomplished by duplication and flopping?
Is there any simple geometry that can be accomplished with basic shape prmitives (whole or partial ellipses, rectangles, polygons)?
Third, I always try to also consider whether the process of drawing the current graphic and/or portions of it might be of future use to me, and if so, can I exploit other software features to save me time and effort later. For example, consider a single one of the ess-shaped "coils" of the middle tapered "spiral" grouped together with its white highlight. Such a graphic, colored in black and white and stored as an ArtBrush with its Colorization set to Hues & Tints would let me stretch and scale that basic shape along other-shaped paths. Similarly stored as a PatternBrush, it might do multi-duty for many things suggestive of coils, like rope or jewelry chains.
Then I just start drawing the necessary paths, using my default Graphic Style (.25 black stroke, no fill). As I proceed, I store (as Brushes, Symbols, etc.) any intermediate things that I think I might find useful later. For the graphic at hand, I then optimize the paths I've drawn by combining them (cutting, joining, path operations) into the fewest, cleanest, and simplest paths necessary to define the shapes. I then store the finished graphic as a Symbol, Brush, etc. if I think it might be of use later.
Regarding Layers, Groups, etc., etc:
It sounds like you (like many beginning AI users) are way over-thinking the matter of stacking order. Yes, it's good to use some sensible amount of organization as your illustrations and designs become more elaborate, but you don't have to fret so much over it. The principles are very very simply.
Layer really don't even enter into my mind when creating such a graphic, because the paths of which it consists are all going to be grouped, and all the contents of a Group have to exist on the same Layer anyway. Multiple Layers would only come into play when this whole graphic is used as one element in the overall page layout. For example, suppose several instances of this object will exist on a page layout to serve as dividers between ads or stories arranged in columns in a page layout. I may choose--if it makes organizational sense to me--to put all the copies of this object on a Layer dedicated to them. The Layer on which they reside may or may not include other graphics; it's just a question of what makes organizational sense and editing convenience to me while I'm working the file. For example, having the copies of this graphic on a separate Layer would allow me to lock that Layer to avoid accidently selecting the graphics when I'm editing text objects that I've organized on another Layer.
Don't think of Layers as some oppressive "right or wrong" thing that you have to decide upon at the start of every little thing you draw. It's nothing but an organizational convenience that is driven almost entirely by common sense. The mechanics of it are really very very simple in principle.
Look: Everything you create or import in an Illustrator document is an object. Just like sheets of paper in a tablet, each of those objects (each path, text object, raster image) is going to reside somewhere in the z-order (think front to back) of the document's object stack. You can't do anything to prevent that. It's the way the program works. The file is basically just a list of things that the output device has to draw. Being a list, it has a first object, a second object, and so on. Objects higher in that list are nearer the "front"; objects lower are nearer the "back." Normally, objects in front obscure objects behind them, wherever they "overlap."
Now, considering that what you have is just a list of objects, as that list grows and grows, doesn't it eventually just make sense to be able to "bracket" or "label" contiguous portions (contiguous is key here) of that list for organizational and manipulative purposes? That's all Groups and Layers are; brackets around sections of the list.
Consider that an Illustrator file (like most computer files you create) is really just a text file. So suppose you have written a technical manual in a word processing program. Would you write that manual as one big, honkin' text string, or would you "bunch together" contiguous portions of the story under some labeling scheme of subheads? After that, wouldn't you similarly "bunch together" contiguous subhead sections as chapters?
So you can think of Groups as "subheads," and Layers as "chapters" in your Illustrator document's list of objects.
Sure; if you're working on a page layout document, sometimes it makes sense to go ahead and set up some of this structure at the start (just as when writing a book, it makes sense to start with an outline). So you might go ahead and define a Layer for printer marks, another for the diecut, another for text, another for images, another for background fills.
The very next designer might decide to structure the very same project a little differently. He might, for example, decide there's no reason not to keep the text objects on the same layer with the raster images. There's no hard & fast right & wrong her. You do what makes sense for the project at hand.
Now in this context, back to your simple graphic: I don't need a PrinterMarks Layer, a DieCut Layer, or a TextObjects Layer to draw this graphic. I just need the default Layer 1. For convenience, I may want to add a TraceThisStuff Layer onto which I put the original raster image, just so I can conveniently isolate it (lock it, dim it, etc.) while drawing the paths on Layer 1. On the other hand, I can really just as easily leave the raster image that I want to trace on Layer 1 and reduce its opacity and lock/unlock it at the object level. It's up to me.
But for that matter, revisit my "third level" of evaluation described above. In reality, I would very likely not even start drawing this graphic in the document for which it is intended. I would just as likely open an existing JET_Dingbats.ai or a JET_Ornaments.ai or CustomerName_StyleGraphics.ai file or template, draw the graphic there and when done, just copy it and paste it into the current document file. That's how you, over time, build yourself a reasonably organized "personal library" of re-usable resources that save you countless hours of repetitive work in the future.
JET

The pen tool is NOT doing good :-(

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