Adobe Illustrator CS3 - Manual (Page 83)

ILLUSTRATOR CS3
User Guide
77
Tilt Varies in angle, roundness, or diameter based on the tilt of a drawing stylus. This option is most useful when
used with Roundness. It is available only if you have a graphics tablet that can detect the direction in which the pen
is tilted.
Bearing Varies in angle, roundness, or diameter based on the pressure of a drawing stylus. This option is most useful
when used to control the angle of calligraphic brushes, especially when you’re using the brush like a paintbrush. It is
available only if you have a graphics tablet that can detect how close to vertical the pen is.
Rotation Varies in angle, roundness, or diameter based on how the drawing stylus pen tip is rotated. This option is
most useful when used to control the angle of calligraphic brushes, especially when you’re using the brush like a flat
pen. It is available only if you have a graphics tablet that can detect this type of rotation.
Split a path
You can split a path, graphics frame, or empty text frame at any anchor point or along any segment. When you split
a path, keep the following in mind:
• If you want to split a closed path into two open paths, you must slice in two places along the path. If you slice a
closed path only once, you get a single path with a gap in it.
• Any paths resulting from a split inherit the path settings of the original path, such as stroke weight and fill color.
You may need to reset stroke alignment from inside to outside.
1 (Optional) Select the path to see its current anchor points.
2 Do one of the following:
• Select the Scissors tool and click the path where you want to split it. When you split the path in the middle of a
segment, the two new endpoints appear on top of the other, and one endpoint is selected.
• Select the anchor point where you want to split the path, and then click the Cut Path At Selected Anchor Points
button
in the Control panel. When you split the path at an anchor point, a new anchor point appears on top
of the original anchor point, and one anchor point is selected.
3 Use the Direct Selection tool to adjust the new anchor point or path segment.
Note: You can divide an object into separate component faces by using the Knife tool (a face is an area undivided by a
line segment).
See also
“Cut objects with the Knife tool” on page 236
Tracing artwork
Trace artwork
If you want to base a new drawing on an existing piece of artwork, you can trace it. For example, you can create a
graphic based on a pencil sketch drawn on paper or on a raster image saved in another graphics program by bringing
the graphic into Illustrator and tracing over it.
The easiest way to trace artwork is to open or place a file into Illustrator and automatically trace the artwork with the
Live Trace command. You can control the level of detail and how the tracing is filled. When you are satisfied with
the tracing results, you can convert the tracing to vector paths or a Live Paint object.