InDesign CS5 Bible- P10: InDesign is a powerful tool that serves as the standard program for professional layout and design. The latest version boasts a variety of updates and enhancements. Packed with real-world examples and written by industry expert Galen Gruman, this in-depth resource clearly explains how InDesign CS5 allows for better typography and transparency features, speedier performance, and more user control than any other layout program. | Chapter 16 Drawing Free-form Shapes and Curved Paths Adding and deleting anchor points If you want to add detail to an existing path you need to add anchor points that give you more precise control over a portion of the path. Perhaps you ve drawn the profile of a face and you want to add detail to the lips or maybe you ve written your name in longhand and you need to add a flourish that your original attempt lacks. In both cases you can add smooth or corner points and then manipulate the curves associated with those points by moving them or manipulating their direction lines. The next section explains how to move anchor points and manipulate direction lines. On the other hand maybe you ve created a path that s more complicated than necessary. Perhaps you drew a hand with six fingers instead of five or a camel with one too many humps. In these instances you need to simplify the path by removing anchor points. InDesign lets you add and delete as many anchor points as you want. Tip You should always try to use as few anchor points as possible in the paths you create. The fewer points a path has the less likely it is to cause printing problems. When you want to modify the shape of a path you should begin by selecting it with the Direct Selection tool rather than the Selection tool. If you select a path with the Selection tool the path s bounding box appears with eight moveable handles. In this situation you can modify the bounding box thereby resizing the path but you can t modify the path itself. To add an anchor point 1. Select the path by clicking it with the Direct Selection tool. You can also select multiple paths and then modify them one at a time. 2. Select the Pen tool the Add Anchor Point tool or the Delete Anchor Point tool. You can use any of these tools to add and delete anchor points. If the Type tool is not selected you can select the Pen tool by pressing P the Add Anchor Point tool by pressing and the Delete Anchor Point tool by pressing - hyphen . 3. .
