| Keyboard Shortcuts For The Pen
http://www.sketchpad.net/drawing6.htm
Draw Faster By Making Fewer Trips To The Tool Palette
This tutorial is for applications that use the pen: Adobe® Photoshop®,
Adobe Illustrator® and Macromedia® FreeHand®. When drawing
with the pen you will inevitably have to stop mid-path and make adjustments
to anchor points, control handles or line segments.
 Note:
Different software packages use different terms for the same things, and
since this article is using mixed terminology please consult the table
of equivalent terminology for clarification of terms.
Usually, when first learning the software, the novice will
go to the tool palette to switch back and forth between the pen and other
tools. This is very time consuming and there are provisions in the software
to switch tools without having to select them from the tool palette. The
keys on both the right-hand and left-hand sides of the spacebar are used
for this purpose. Shown below are the keyboard hand positions for a right-handed
mouse:
| Left hand keys - Windows® |
Left hand keys - Macintosh® |
| Shift =Shift
Alt =Option
Ctrl =Command |
The diagram above shows the hand positions (for a right handed mouse)
to take advantage of keyboard shortcuts for drawing with the pen. This
is the quickest way to use the pen.
Mac® users will use various combinations of the Shift, Option and
Command keys, while Windows users will use parallel combinations of the
Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys.
For example, while actively drawing a path with the pen tool, Windows
Illustrator users can press the Ctrl key to switch between the pen and
the selection tool while at the same time press the Shift key to constrain
a line to 45° increments. When finished making the adjustment, the
user simply releases the keys and resumes drawing with the pen tool -
all without resorting to the tool palette.
Following this tutorial are step by step examples to drill the point.
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