Pen Tool

1Choose Pen Tool

On the Main Ribbon Bar, switch to the "Edit" category. Find the "Pen Tool" tool button on the "Edit Tools" panel. Click to select it. As shown below.

2Choose the most Suitable Drawing Options

When the Pen Tool is used as the current editing tool, a series of related options will appear on the right control panel. As shown below. Unlike the options of other drawing tools, the options of the Pen Tool are only valid for the line or curve to be drawn. In other words, once the straight or curved segment has been drawn successfully, the change option setting is invalid.

• Draw Bezier: Draw a Bezier curve in the standard sense. The path consists of a series of curved or straight segments.
• Draw Spiro: The drawing process is basically the same as that of drawing Bezier curves, but the resulting path will be replaced by a spiral.
• Draw Zigzag: The paths drawn are all connected by some straight line segments, without any curved segments.
• Draw Paraxial:The paths drawn are all connected by some straight line segments, and each adjacent straight line segments are perpendicular to each other.

Draw Bezier	Draw Spiro
Draw Zigzag	Draw Paraxial

• Shape: Here you can specify the overall shape of the curve or straight line. For example, triangle or ellipse. By default, the stroke width of each point on the curve is equal. But if you specify the shape, the pen width of each point will change as the shape changes. But sometimes this kind of change is not so great that it cannot be seen directly by naked eyes.

  Shape = None	Shape = Triangle In
  Shape = Triangle Out	Shape = Ellipse

3Draw Bezier Curves or lines

Any path is formed by connecting a series of straight or curved segments. Therefore, the drawing process can be decomposed into sub-processes such as drawing straight and curved segments.

3.1Draw first anchor point

Position the Pen Tool where you want the path to begin, and click to define the first anchor point. If want to draw a line segment, do not drag. But to draw a curve segment, hold down the mouse button and drag. Then the first anchor point and first direction line appears.

3.2Draw a line or curve segment

Draw line segment	Draw C-curve segment	Draw S-curve segment

Complete to draw a line segment is only to click again where you want the segment end. But for Curve, you need do as following:

• Drag to set the slope of the curve segment you are creating, and then release the mouse button.
• To create a C shaped curve, drag in a direction opposite to the previous direction line. Then release the mouse button.
• To create an S shaped curve, drag in the same direction to the previous direction line. Then release the mouse button.

3.3Continue to draw

Continue dragging the Pen Tool from different locations to create a series of smooth curve or line segments as previous step.

3.4Complete drawing a path

Double-click anywhere complete the path. To close the path, position the Pen Tool over the first anchor point. Double Click or Right Click to close the path.