Enter Beziér Pen Tool - Part 1

Ah, the beautiful stepchild of computer graphics. The stepchild because it’s usually ignored and neglected by introductory users, beautiful because mastery of this tool can reveal smooth, sexy curves that would make any designer blush. Correctly pronounced bez-ee-ay I must admit I have heard it pronounced bez-eer and bez-ire. However, more easily ‘the pen tool’.

A quick history

The name of the tool comes from the Beziér curve. The Beziér curve is a production of, the French mathematician, Pierre Beziér’s mathematical equation for the curve of a line. He designed cars in the 1960’s. Whoopdy doo!

Choosing a medium

I am going to focus on four popular graphic design tools right now. Windows Paint, Corel Draw…just kidding.

1. Adobe Photoshop
2. Adobe Illustrator
3. Macromedia Fireworks
4. Macromedia Freehand

Choosing your medium (the program with which to use the Pen Tool) may be difficult. The best answer is very vague; it depends on what your goals are for your work. The type (vector vs. pixel), the presentation format (web vs. print), and the overall style are things you should review before choosing your program. A quick chart below is meant to give you a very rough idea of where to start. This chart is not the end all be all to base all designs on. That is the topic of an entirely new article.

The tool

Overall, the tool looks the same in each program. Take a look below.

• Adobe Photoshop
  
• Adobe Illustrator
  
• Macromedia Fireworks
  
• Macromedia Freehand
  

The black arrow in the bottom right (Illustrator and Photoshop) and the top right arrow (Freehand) indicates that there are more options for the Pen Tool hiding under this button. For Instructions on those options, see future posts.

Terminology

Timeout. Let’s discuss terminology for a second, each click creates a node or point (for teaching purposes the word point can get confusing, ie: telling someone to, “Point to the point with the pointer” is horrible english, but just bad teaching). Depending on the program, the node could be represented by an open square or a filled square. Lines are created when you make at least two nodes. Shapes are created when you end by clicking on the first node you created. Closing the shape is when you make that final click on the first node you made.

Note: Photoshop can do a great job of confusing the hell out of beginners by making it appear as if the shape is closed, when in actuality it’s not. Be aware.

Connect the dots

The very first time you use the tool you’ll likely get “click happy” like everyone else does. I call this connect the dots. Just as with connect the dots, straight lines are placed between each click. Click on the canvas and move the mouse. You’ll notice that there is a straight line connecting from your original node to your mouse. When you click again it places another node on the canvas. At it’s most basic form, this tool allows you to make a series of connected straight lines.

Test it out, make some lines and shapes. If you need some direction…

1. Make a line (2 nodes).
2. Make a 3 node triangle.
3. Make a 4 node trapezoid.
4. Make an hour glass using 12 nodes.

Your results may look something like this:
(Examples were completed in Macromedia Fireworks)

1. 2 node line
   
2. 3 node triangle
   
3. 4 node trapezoid
   
4. 12 node hour glass
   

Using the tool in this fashion is beneficial because it allows us to create custom shapes. But what about curves? Hey Jeff, you mentioned curves in the intro but this has all been a big tease! Gimme a sec, I’m almost there.

Avoid the pitfalls

At this point (no pun intended), users begin mimicking curves by creating many nodes very close to each other. See below.

The curve on top (not even truly a curve) is a series of 6 nodes. The curve on bottom is a properly created curve, it uses a cool 3 nodes. The line on the top is an ugly attempt to make a curve. So at this point, I say, “Unnacceptable” to the top curve. What most beginners do to compensate for that ugly curve is add more nodes. See below.

Although this may make the line appear rounder to the untrained eye, all it really does is make the whole thing more cumbersome. Computer Graphics aren’t all about aesthetics (how it looks); function plays a large role. Say for instance you’ve created the above line using 30 nodes, 2 days into working on this design you decide that the line needs to change. To now move a section of this line becomes a chore. It’s not clean with all these pieces. If the line uses 3 nodes then adjusting the curve becomes extremely easy.

Creating a curve

Start over. Create a new canvas. Select the pen tool. Left click anywhere on the canvas but instead of releasing immediately hold the button down and drag out away from the point. You should see something like the following.

I’ve labeled the picture. The line that drags out is called a handle. The tiny little points at the end of the handle are called handle points. Depending on your source the handle could be called wings, anchor handle, curve handle, curve lines, etc. and again the handle points have many slang names. To speak mathematically for a moment, the line that you are dragging out is the tanget line of the curve, or the line that reveals the slope of the curve.

Now that we have a nice node with handles we need to create another node with handles in order to make a beautifully curved line. So, to the right left click, hold down the mouse button, and drag down away from the node. This should result in a curve similar to the one below.

Now that you have that down, challenge yourself to make the following shape.

The handles revealed.

This is where I leave you. We’ve come a long way in one day. Practice, practice, practice! Do not give up. No one is great with this tool at first, it takes experience. There are many other sub functions and advanced functions of the Pen Tool and more to come in future posts. In the meantime, play with the tool and see if you can master curves.

A nice soft setting made in Photoshop using only techniques you now know and some fills.