Force a Closed Path with the Pencil Tool
Okay, raise your hand if you use the Pencil tool. Not many folks out there, I know. But it it can be useful in some circumstances, especially if you use a tablet and stylus. So here are two Pencil tool tricks you should know about.
First, you can draw all day with the Pencil tool and not figure out how to close the shape into a frame (a closed path). When you let go of the mouse button, it always seems to result in an open path! The trick is the “make better” key: Hold down the Option/Alt key after you start drawing, and don’t release it until you’re done (release the mouse button first). This forces InDesign to close the shape, even if ou end the path far away from where you started.
Second, if you find the Pencil tool leaves you with far too many points on the path, you probably need to double-click on the Pencil tool before using it. That opens the Pencil Tool Preferences dialog box:
Try dragging both the Fidelity and the Smoothness sliders all the way to the right and click OK. Now the freehand paths you draw will contain as few points as possible. Then if you need to fine-tune it, you can always either drag over the path again a bit, or add/remove points with the Pen tool.
(Hey, that’s a third tip… You can replace a part of any path with the Pencil tool just by dragging over it… did you know that? Anne-Marie mentioned it back in this post last year.)
Hello David,
Yes, I try to use it as often as I do in AI, a lot.
By default, the initial settings place many points (lot more than in Illustrator) as it can create with some care, practice and patience, precise runarounds or contours of objects in pictures, that later can be turned into frames e.g. for picture copies pasted above magazine headlines or names.
They can also be used to interact with outlined text or other vector content using the Pathfinder panel.
One of the things this tool cannot do is to edit the text wrap line around objects, while the Pen tool can add/delete points on it.
Another complain (a bug) is that the closing line (holding the Alt key) does not start EXACTLY from the last point drawn, but it creates another point placed somewhat further that closes the path onto the starting point with a straight line.
*raising hand*
O yes, I use the pencil. I started late to use it. But after I have learned, that I can reshape objects, I started to love it.
Recently used it for a quick effect. Simply drew a rectangle, got the pencil tool, made side to side quick movements down one side of the rectangle, in random quick sharp movements.
Added a drop shadow, and a quick ripped page effect is done.
I did use the pencil tool with the wacom tablet before, not very successful, but then again, I was useless with the wacom anyway.