How to smooth paths in Adobe Illustrator
6 minute readTools and Techniques for Smoothing Lines and Simplifying Shapes
Creating smooth paths in Adobe Illustrator is essential for achieving clean, professional designs. Whether you're drawing freehand or refining an existing shape, smoothing your lines can drastically improve the visual quality of your artwork. There are several tools available for this purpose, each designed to simplify the process of smoothing paths and refining shapes. In this guide, we'll explore different methods to smooth your lines and simplify your designs, from adjusting tool settings to using specialized features. By understanding how to effectively smooth and simplify your paths, you can take your Illustrator work to the next level.
Skip ahead to:
Pencil Tool & Fidelity Preferences
The Pencil Tool allows you to draw freehand paths, and adjusting the Fidelity preferences will affect how smooth or rough those paths are.
Select the Pencil Tool from the advanced (Window > Toolbars > Advanced) toolbar, it’s stacked under the Shaper Tool (click-and-hold the Shaper Tool to display the stacked menu and release cursor when hovering over the Pencil Tool), or use the keyboard shortcut N on your keyboard.
To adjust the fidelity in the Pencil tool preferences, doubleclick on the Pencil tool in the toolbar to open the preferences dialog.
Fidelity controls how closely the tool follows your hand-drawn lines. A lower fidelity will give you a more precise, jagged line, while a higher fidelity will create smoother curves by simplifying your path. Click OK to apply your preferences.
With the Pencil Tool selected, click-and-drag to draw freehand. If you forgot to select your artwork before choosing the Pencil Tool, you can still use the Cmd/Ctrl keypress to access the Selection Tool while the keypress is held down.
If you have an existing path and want to smooth it, simply select the path with the Selection Tool (V), and use the Simplify menu option (Object > Path > Simplify). It will automatically smooth and reduce the points on your path, and you can use the pop-up slider to make further adjustments.
The only negative that comes from using the Simplify option from Adobe Illustrator is the tolerance settings. You can, without realising, get undesirable results that include the path no longer having the original geometry and would require a lot of anchor point work to fix.
The Smooth Tool
The Smooth Tool is a fantastic way to refine a path that is already drawn and smooth out any jagged areas.
Using the Selection Tool (V), click on the path you want to smooth. To locate the Smooth Tool, navigate to the Advanced toolbar, click-and-hold on the Shaper Tool and release on the Smooth Tool stacked in the menu.
The Smooth Tool will open a moveable task bar that allows you to adjust the smoothness of your path with a slider, or you can click the auto-smooth button to apply a default smoothness level.
You can also use the Smooth Tool in a click-and-drag motion over the path you want to smooth. The longer you drag over an area, the more smoothing Illustrator will apply. You’ll see the anchor points and path segments become fewer and smoother.
Some negatives that come with using the Smooth Tool option is when you have complex shapes and artwork. The Smooth Tool does allow you to only select certain anchor points to affect using the Direct Select Tool (A), but this can still make for tricky selection when you have multiple layered shapes and anchor points to navigate.
Astute Graphics’ Smart Remove Brush Tool
Astute Graphics offers powerful plugins for Illustrator, including the Smart Remove Brush tool. This tool intelligently removes extra anchor points and path complexity without altering the shape of your original path.
To use the Smart Remove Brush Tool, you need the Astute Graphics VectorScribe plugin, which you can try for free for 7 days when you register for an account.
The Super Smart Remove Brush Tool can be found stacked under the PathScribe tool in the advanced toolbar.
With the tool selected, click-and-drag the brush over your path. The tool will automatically remove unnecessary anchor points and smooth out your path by reducing excess complexity.
As you brush over your path, you’ll see it automatically smooth out, removing unnecessary anchor points while maintaining the shape of the path. This tool is ideal for paths that have too many points or are too complex for manual smoothing, as the native Simplify or Smooth Tool options can alter your original path’s shape.
You can adjust the Smart Remove Brush’s settings within the tool’s preferences (doubleclick the tool in the toolbar to open the Smart Remove Brush Tool preferences dialog). Using its variable tolerance setting, you can choose whether to remove fewer points (prioritizing the path’s geometry) or more points (at the likely cost of some distortion). The brush size can be adjusted, and the tolerance setting can be controlled by using keypresses or through a pressure-sensitive stylus.
Full documentation of this tool and all the other functions and features available from Astute Graphics can be found on the dedicated documentation website: https://docs.astutegraphics.com/vectorscribe/smart-remove-brush-tool
Try it for free for 7 days
You can try Astute Graphics for free for 7 days with just your email address. Find out more here…
