Understanding Paths and Anchor Points

Each version of Adobe Illustrator has new tools, effects, and techniques for manipulating curves and fills. The tools can be pretty overwhelming for beginners to understand. But one thing we need to keep in mind is that all the tools in Illustrator essentially manipulate paths, anchor points, and fills. Paths are lines, which can be straight or curved. Closed paths are objects such as circles or stars, in which the start and end of the path are the same point. Open path objects do not have the same start and end points. Anchor points are the points that control the direction and curvature of that path as well as the start and end points.

next section >