Adobe ILLUSTRATOR 10 Using Manual page 50

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Using Help | Contents
4 Continue smoothing until the stroke or path is the desired smoothness.
Erasing the path with the erase tool
The erase tool lets you remove a portion of an existing path or stroke. You can use the
erase tool on paths (including brushed paths), but not on text or meshes.
To use the erase tool:
1 Select the erase tool
2 Drag the tool along the length of the path segment you want to erase (not across the
path). For best results, use a single, smooth, dragging motion.
Anchor points are added to the ends of the new paths.
Setting preferences for the pencil and smooth tools
You can set preferences for the pencil tool and smooth tool. The preferences include
tolerances that control how sensitive the pencil and smooth tools are to the movement of
your mouse or graphics-tablet stylus, and whether you want the path to remain selected
after you draw it.
The tolerance is calculated in number of pixels. The larger the number of pixels you
specify, the smoother and less complex are the paths.
Note: You can also set preferences for the paintbrush tool (see
brushed paths" on page
the segment tools (see
(see "Drawing flares" on page
To set preferences for the pencil tool and smooth tool:
1 Double-click the pencil tool
2 Use the Fidelity and Smoothness sliders or enter values in the text boxes:
Fidelity controls the distance (in pixels) in which curves can stray from the smoothed
•
mouse or tablet data when using the tool. The lower the fidelity value, the more
angular the curves; the higher the value, the smoother the curves.
Smoothness controls the amount of smoothing (by percentage) applied when you use
•
the tool. The lower the smoothness value, the coarser the path appears; the higher the
value, the smoother the path.
3 To keep the path selected after you draw it, select Keep Selected. This option is selected
by default.
4 To edit a path only when you are within a certain distance of it, select Edit Selected
Paths, and enter a distance.
5 Click OK.
Drawing with the pen tool
Use the pen tool to draw a path that you can't draw using the simpler drawing tools.
The pen tool lets you create straight lines and smooth, flowing curves with great precision.
Using Help | Contents
| Index
.
79), the pen tool (see
"Drawing line and arc segments" on page
65), and the grid tools (see
or smooth tool .
| Index
"Drawing and editing
"Drawing with the pen tool" on page
67), and flare tool
"Drawing grids" on page
Drawing
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50),
69),
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