Adjusting anchor points on paths

When you draw a curve with the Pen tool, you create curve points—anchor points on a continuous, curved path. When you draw a straight line segment, or a straight line connected to a curved segment, you create corner points—anchor points on a straight path or at the juncture of a straight and a curved path.

By default, selected curve points appear as hollow circles, and selected corner points appear as hollow squares.

To convert segments in a line from straight segments to curve segments or the reverse, you convert corner points to curve points or the reverse.

You can also move, add, or delete anchor points on a path. You move anchor points using the Subselection tool to adjust the length or angle of straight segments or the slope of curved segments. You can nudge selected anchor points to make small adjustments.

Deleting unneeded anchor points on a curved path optimizes the curve and reduces the file size.

To move an anchor point:

Drag the point with the Subselection tool.

To nudge an anchor point or points:

Select the point or points with the Subselection tool and use the arrow keys to move the point or points.

To convert an anchor point, do one of the following:

To convert a corner point to a curve point, use the Subselection tool to select the point, then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) the point to place the tangent handles.
To convert a curve point to a corner point, click the point with the Pen tool.

To add an anchor point:

Click a line segment with the Pen tool.

To delete an anchor point, do one of the following:

To delete a corner point, click the point once with the Pen tool.
To delete a curve point, click the point twice with the Pen tool. (Click once to convert the point to a corner point, and once more to delete the point.)
Select the point with the Subselection tool and press Delete.