Introduction to Live Corners in Adobe Illustrator

Introduction to Live Corners in Adobe Illustrator

Live corners are a fast and easy way to manipulate corner points in Illustrator to change their shape. You can easily create complex shapes from simple paths using live corners, so let me show you some quick examples and then you can get started working on your own projects.

 

First I'm going to show you how Live Corners work on a square.

 

When you first switch to the direct selection tool, all the corners are usually selected. You can manipulate them all together by clicking and dragging the live corner widget until you're satisfied with the corner radius.

 

Screenshot of Adobe Illustrator. There are two squares. One has all four corners rounded. 

If you want to manipulate one point, just click the corner you want, release, then click and drag it. Note that the selected corner widget looks different from the unselected ones.

Screenshot of Adobe Illustrator. There are two squares. One has a single rounded corner..

 Screenshot of a square in Adobe Illustrator. There are widgets in each corner and the top right widget is highlighted.

You can select multiple corners at once by holding down the shift key while you click each one.

 

Screenshot of Adobe Illustrator. There are three sets of shapes set up as befores and afters. One square becomes an arch. One square becomes a droplet. One square becomes a leaf.

 

 

As you can see, manipulating multiple points at once can give you different effects. One thing to keep in mind is that pulling multiple points at once can reduce the maximum achievable corner radius. So if I'm manipulating one point I can pull it all the way to adjacent anchor points before it turns red. If I'm pulling multiple corners, I can only go as far as the new anchor points that the tool is creating.

 

Screenshot of Adobe Illustrator. There are two squares. One has a rounded corner that is highlighted in red.

 

You can also change the type of corners you use. One option is to double click the selected points you want to change and select the type you want from the dialog box. Our options include a rounded corner, which is the default, inverted, and chamfer.

Screenshot of Adobe Illustrator. There is a dialog box that has options for rounded, inverted round, and chamfered corners.

Screenshot of Adobe Illustrator. There are three squares. One has rounded corners, one has inverted rounded corners, and one has chamfered corners.

 

Alternatively, you can hold the alt or option key while you click the selected points and it will cycle through the different options.

 

If you get creative, you can modify basic shapes easily, but you can also get a feel for using the pen tool more easily if you have trouble with Bezier curves.

Screenshot of Adobe Illustrator. There are three sets of shapes set up as befores and afters. The first is a square that turns into a sparkle shape. The second is a star that turns into a flower shape. The last is an angular line that turns into a wave.

 

Don't forget to experiment as much as you can and have fun with it!

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.