Adobe Illustrator wants freehand drawing to be more natural and fluid. That is why one of its latest features, Pencil Live Preview, is aimed precisely at that.
This feature is designed for those who draw or sketch ideas within Illustrator. From now on, those who use the Pencil tool will be able to see in real time how the stroke looks as it is drawn, making the entire process much more intuitive.
Here we tell you how it works and why this small improvement can make a big difference in the way you work with Illustrator.
Drawing with Pencil step by step
As we mentioned before, the Pencil tool will be very useful for making sketches of ideas or for giving your designs a more “natural” finish, as if they were handmade. Using it is easier than you think:
- Open Illustrator and select the Pencil tool. You can also press N, it’s the keyboard shortcut.
- Go to Window and then Appearance. Click on the three horizontal lines symbol from the Appearance panel and uncheck the New Art Has Basic Appearance option.
- From the Appearance panel, select Stroke to adjust the stroke, its thickness, and more. In the top control bar, you can also change the stroke effect, opacity, and other sections.
- Finally, drag with the mouse over the canvas to draw and release to finish the stroke. You will see how your drawing takes shape.
- If you want to apply any type of effect, just go to Effects and try the different options that Illustrator offers.
Pencil Live Preview: This is how you can activate it
Those users who use the Pencil tool in their daily routine will welcome the latest update of Adobe Illustrator with open arms. From now on, when using Pencil, we will be able to see what we are drawing in real time, which will provide us with more accurate results. Put it into practice with these guidelines:
- As before, we will need to disable the option New Art Has Basic Appearance so that we can use Live preview.
- Double click on Pencil from the toolbar. From the Pencil options, check the Live preview box to enable it. Right below you can also enable Live curve fitting.
- Drag with the mouse and draw the shape you want. If you want, you can hold down the Option key (macOS) or Alt key (Windows) while dragging to make straight lines.
If you still cannot activate Live preview after following these steps, go to Illustrator > Settings > Performance (macOS) or Edit > Preferences > Performance (Windows) to enable the Real-Time Drawing and Editing option.
Edit and change the shape of your paths
If you are not satisfied with the line you have drawn with Pencil, or simply want to change it, don’t worry: you can easily edit it.
- To extend the stroke, use the Selection tool and select which part you want to extend. Then, select Pencil and hover the mouse over the endpoint of the path. When the continuation icon appears, drag to extend.
- If you want to connect two different paths, click on Selection and hold down Shift while dragging around the paths to select them. Select Pencil and position the mouse over the anchor point at the end of one of the two paths. Drag the mouse to the point of the other path and release when the continuation icon (/) appears. You will see how both paths automatically join together.
If what you want is to change the shape of a path, you need to do the following:
- Click on the Selection tool and select which stroke you want to change the shape of.
- Then, go back to Pencil.
- Hover the mouse pointer over the path you want to change. When the small star icon disappears, drag to alter the shape.
Discover other additional options for Pencil
If you double-click on the Pencil tool, you will see a list of sections that you can modify to configure its operation. You can enable or disable them as you wish:
- Fidelity: Controls the distance at which you must move the cursor to add a new anchor point in the path. You can adjust it to five levels.
- Fill new pencil strokes: Used to apply a fill to the strokes drawn with Pencil.
- Keep selected: Used to keep the selected stroke right after drawing it.
- The Option/Alt key toggles to the Smooth Tool: When using Pencil, you can press Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) to switch to the Smooth tool.
- Close paths when ends are within (x) pixels: The path closing symbol is displayed when the endpoints of two different paths are very close.
- Edit selected paths: This option allows you to define whether the selected path can be changed or merged when it is at a certain distance.
