Draw and edit paths

Take your vector drawing and painting to the next level with Illustrator on the iPad and Apple Pencil. Illustrator's popular drawing and painting tools – Pen, Pencil, Paint Brush, Blob Brush, Eraser – will provide you a smooth and precise design experience on the iPad. It's very simple to find and use them – they are available in your left toolbar just like Illustrator on desktop. For details, see Illustrator workspace on the iPad.

Draw with Pen tool

• In the left toolbar, tap the Pen tool  .
• To create an anchor point, tap on artboard to create corner points or tap and drag to create smooth points. While working with the Pen tool, you can also adjust the handles of a smooth point without changing to a different tool.
  

Useful tips and tricks

To use the primary touch shortcut, touch and hold the touch shortcut circle. To use the secondary shortcuts, touch and hold the shortcut, then drag your finger or thumb to the outer ring. For more information on the touch shortcuts, see Touch shortcuts and gestures. 

Here are some handy touch shortcuts that you can use with the Pen tool:

• Move a point along a path: To move an anchor point along a path when drawing, enable the secondary touch shortcut (outer circle ring).
• Convert corner to a curve: Double-tap on points to convert points from corners to curves and vice versa. 

 When drawing with the Pen tool, you can use keyboard shortcuts to control anchor points.

See also: Draw with the Pen, Curvature, or Pencil tool in Illustrator on the desktop.

Draw with Pencil tool

1. In the left toolbar, tap the Pencil tool  .
2. To draw a free path, drag the Pencil tool freely on the artboard.
3. If you hold while drawing and then continue from that point, you create a corner point.
4. If you press the primary modifier anytime while drawing with the pencil tool, you create straight lines at 45˚ or 90˚.
   
5. If you press the secondary modifier while drawing with the Pencil tool, you can create freeform straight lines.

Set smoothing for Pencil

To set the smoothing of the Pencil tool, tapat the bottom of the toolbar. 

Simply specify a smoothing value or use the slider to choose a value that works the best for you. The minimum smoothing is 0 and maximum is 10, which means smooth curves.

Draw with Paint Brush tool

Use Paint Brush tool to stylize the appearance of paths. You can apply brush strokes to existing paths, or you can use the Paint Brush tool to draw a path and apply a brush stroke simultaneously.

The different types of brushes are displayed in the Paint Brush tools panel: Document, Art and Calligraphic. You can achieve the following effects using these brushes:

USe paint Brush tool

Create your own Brush

Apply brush style to a path

Add to Favourites

Here's how you add a brush to your favorites:

1. Tap   on the toolbar on your left. 
2. Tap again to choose   and avail the Paint Brush tools panel.
3. Click the Art or Calligraphic brush option you want to add.
4. Click on the star icon to save your selected brush in the Favorites section.

See also: Brushes in Illustrator on the desktop.

Paint with Blob Brush tool

Use the Blob Brush tool to paint filled shapes that you can intersect and merge with other shapes of the same color.

Set the size for Blob Brush

To set the size for Blob Brush, tap at the botom of the toolbar. Type a size (in points) or use the slider to choose a size that works the best for you. The default size is 8pt.

Set smoothing for Blob Brush

To set the smoothing of the Blob Brush, tapat the bottom of the toolbar. 

Simply specify a smoothing value or use the slider to choose a value that works the best for you. The minimum smoothing is 1, which means zero smoothing, and the maximum is 100, which means smooth curves.

To learn how to set smoothing effect in Blob brush while or after drawing a stroke, see Manage app preferences.

Set Blob Brush options

Edit with Eraser tool

For quick editing, Eraser tool is available upfront in the toolbar. Tap  to use the Eraser tool. To set the size of the eraser, specify the size in the Eraser size option at the bottom of the toolbar or choose a value using the slider.

To use the Eraser tool, drag over the area you want to erase.

See also: Eraser tool in Illustrator on the desktop.

Edit path with Direct Selection tool

To view anchor points on a path, tap   on the toolbar. 

With the Direct Selection tool, you can easily create angles and curves in your designs or change the path direction.

When you select an anchor point, a contextual widget showing common actions is displayed on the canvas. Tap the following options in this widget to quickly edit the path directly from the canvas. Alternatively, you can tap an anchor point and choose these path editing options from the taskbar.

See also: Adjust path segments.

Edit path using contextual options

To edit the path, use the Heads Up Display (HUD) that appears on selecting the path or use the path editing options by tapping in the taskbar.

A.) Cut Path: Tap this option to delete the anchor point on the path to cut the path. See also: Cut, divide, and trim objects in Illustrator on the desktop.

B.) Convert to Curve: Tap an anchor point and then tap this option to convert the connecting path into a curved line.

C.) Convert to corner: Tap the anchor point and then tap this option to convert the curved path into a corner point. The path joining this anchor point will convert into straight lines.

D.) Join path: Tap this option to join two paths together through an anchor point. See also: Join two or more paths in Illustrator on the desktop.

E.) Simplify path: Tap this option to remove unnecessary anchor points and generate a simplified optimal path for your complex artwork, without making any significant changes in the original path shape. See also: Simplify a path in Illustrator on the desktop.

See also: Edit paths in Illustrator on the desktop.

Related resources

See the following articles to do more:

• Draw and edit shapes 
• Fonts and typography 
• Create text designs on a path 
• Add colors and gradients
• Create Repeat patterns 

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