Smoothing paths with the Smooth tool
The Smooth tool lets you smooth out a section of a path while retaining the original shape of the path. It does this by making the original path follow more closely the new path you drag with the tool, deleting or adding anchor points in the original path as needed. You can apply the Smooth tool in multiple passes to make a path progressively smoother. The amount of smoothing is determined by tolerance settings in the Smooth Tool Preferences dialog box. Using the Smooth tool A. Original path B. Dragging across path with the Smooth tool C. Result
To use the Smooth tool: - If the path to smooth is not selected, select it with the Selection tool
. Or Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the path to select it. - Do one of the following:
- Select the Smooth tool
. - When the Pencil tool or Paintbrush tool is selected, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to temporarily switch to the Smooth tool.
- Drag the tool along the length of the path segment you want to smooth out. The modified stroke or path may have fewer anchor points than the original.
- Continue smoothing until the stroke or path is the desired smoothness.
To set preferences for the Smooth tool: - Double-click the Smooth tool
. - Set the following options, and click OK:
- Fidelity to control how far you have to move your mouse or stylus before Illustrator adds a new anchor point to the path. For example, a Fidelity value of 2.5 means that tool movements of less than 2.5 pixels aren't registered. Fidelity can range from 0.5 to 20 pixels; the higher the value, the smoother and less complex the path.
- Smoothness to control the amount of smoothing that Illustrator applies when you use the tool. Smoothness can range from 0% to 100%; the higher the value, the smoother the path.
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