With one Objects on Path group selected, the Selection and Objects on
Path tools show a round handle beyond the top of the group's first
object, joined by a line to its attachment point. Dragging it adds the
angle the pointer turns about that point to the group's Rotate, previewed
while dragging and kept as one undo step on release
(object.objectsOnPath.options). Shift turns in 15 degree steps, Escape
cancels the drag, and the pointer shows the rotate cursor over the
handle.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md, docs/mcp.md.
Path Precision Tools gains the Shared Edge Merge Tool, kept out of the
toolbars (All Tools drawer and Object › Plug-ins › Path Precision Tools,
no shortcut), and Keep Shared Points Together:
- Shared Edge Merge Tool (sharedEdge): over two paths touching at two
coincident anchors (tolerance 0 to 3 pt) hovering shows the two
stretches and the merged edge; a click replaces both with it, half way
between them, or following the upper (Shift) or lower (Alt) path. Both
paths stay closed or open, anchors either stretch has inside are
matched on the other, one undo step.
- Making ends: near anchors meet on a click and an anchor one path lacks
is added to match; Shift+Alt asks for this inside a stretch.
- Keep Shared Points Together: an option that makes Slide Anchor Along
Path, Extend Path and Set Anchor take coincident anchors along. Nothing
else in the app changes.
- Shared Edges section in the Anchor Inspector: brush diameter,
coincidence and the option.
- Commands addon.pathtools.mergeEdge and movePointsTogether, params
validated and covered by the command sweep.
- Cursor stand-in, catalog rows in every language, docs and tests.
Path Precision Tools gains two tools, kept out of the toolbars (All Tools
drawer and Object › Plug-ins › Path Precision Tools, no shortcuts):
- Corner Tool (cornerTool): editable corners on any path through the
existing Live Corners. Hover shows an eligible anchor, a click cuts a
corner with the tool's radius and kind, a drag sizes it (Shift: whole
values), a corner's marker selects it and loads its values, resizes it
and removes it at 0 or on a double-click; a corner never grows past
what fits; an Alt-marquee cuts every eligible anchor inside.
- Corners section in the Anchor Inspector: radius, kind, selected count,
Apply to Selected Anchors.
- Slide Anchor Along Path (slideAnchor): a drag runs an anchor along its
curve, the neighbouring segments refitted by the keep-shape kernel;
Shift snaps where the tangent is a multiple of 45° from the constrain
angle.
- Commands addon.pathtools.cornerSet, cornerRemove and slideAnchor, one
undo step each, params validated and covered by the command sweep.
- Cursor stand-ins, catalog rows in every language, docs and tests.
Path Precision Tools gains the Parametric Shape Tool: ten kinds of shape
(rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star, ring, arrow, cross, heart, gear,
speech bubble) that stay editable as numbers.
- Geometry in vectorcraft_pathops::addons::pathtools::shapes: each kind's
outline, corner rounding limited to the middle of a side, a fingerprint
of the outline, recovery of centre, size and rotation after a move,
turn or scale, and recognition of plain rectangles, ellipses and
regular polygons.
- The tool (parametricShape, All Tools drawer and Object › Plug-ins ›
Path Precision Tools only, no shortcut): drag from the centre (Shift:
45° steps), arrow keys change the count and values while dragging,
handles edit a selected shape, double-click places one.
- Commands addon.pathtools.shape.create / .set / .convert, one undo step
each; params checked (counts 3..1000, sizes up to 16384 pt).
- A shape keeps its numbers in one object-data entry (vc-pathtools-shape)
that SVG export already leaves out; anchor edits make it a plain path.
- Parametric Shape panel, cursor stand-in, catalog rows in all 25
languages, docs and tests.
A built-in add-on under Object › Plug-ins › Smart Pen:
- The Smart Pen Tool draws and edits Bézier paths without switching
tools: a click adds the next segment straight or curved (a panel
toggle; Tab flips the segment being placed or the last one), a drag
makes a smooth point (Alt breaks the handle, Shift snaps to 45°, Space
moves the point), a curve after a straight segment joins it tangent.
- On existing paths it selects and moves points, removes a point keeping
the shape (Alt-click), toggles smooth/corner (double-click), drags
handles, reshapes a segment by dragging it and inserts a point on it
(Alt-click); it closes, continues and joins open paths.
- The Smart Pen panel: next segment straight or curved, remove points
keeping shape, make smooth, make corner, retract handles, close or
join.
The tool stays out of both toolbars as shipped; the All Tools drawer
lists it under the add-on's heading. Commands are addon.pen.*; the
existing Pen tool, commands and menus are unchanged.
A built-in add-on under Object › Plug-ins › Path Precision Tools:
- Anchor Eraser Brush: painting over selected paths removes the anchors
under the brush that the outline can do without within a tolerance,
refitting the handles beside them (Alt ignores the tolerance, Cmd/Ctrl
deletes without refitting, pen pressure can scale the brush); one undo
step per stroke.
- Extend Path tool: dragging an end of an open path carries it on
straight, by stretching its last curve or along the circle it curves
on, or shortens it back along itself.
- Measure & Inspect tool: drag to measure distance and angle; hover a
path to read segment and path length, area, curvature, tangent and
anchor angles and handles, in the document's units.
- Anchor Inspector panel: the selected anchor's position and handles as
numbers, with Make Smooth (auto-smooth rule), Make Corner, Equalize
Handles, Remove Points Keep Shape, Add Points and three ways to close.
- Add Points at Crossings and Split at Crossings.
The tools stay out of both toolbars as shipped; the All Tools drawer
lists them under the add-on's heading. Commands are addon.pathtools.*;
the existing commands, tools and menus are unchanged.
A click with the Scissors tool cut the path whether or not Alt was
held, and the cursor stayed the Scissors cursor. The reference app's
shortcut list has "Switch Scissors tool to Add Anchor Point tool" on
Alt (Option).
While Alt is held, a click with the Scissors tool now does what a click
with the Add Anchor Point tool does: on a segment it adds an anchor
point with path.insertAnchor in one undo step, and the path is not cut.
The cursor is the Add Anchor Point tool's while Alt is held. When Alt
is let go, the cursor is the Scissors again and a click cuts.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md, crates/tools/src/cursors.toml.
Draw freeform paths with the Pencil tool says a small star appears on
the Pencil when it is ready to draw a freeform path, and Reshape paths
with the Pencil tool says the star disappears over a selected path the
drag reshapes. The Pencil cursor had no star.
- New Cursor::PencilNew: the Pencil's crosshair with a small star where
the closing cursor has its ring. It becomes the crosshair with Use
Precise Cursors and as a system cursor.
- The Pencil shows it before a press when neither find_extend nor
find_redraw (the lookups the press uses, within Edit Selected Paths)
finds a selected path under the pointer. Over such a path and while a
stroke is drawn, the cursor has no star.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md.
The old pen glyph was a crude pentagon with a floating dot and a stray
stem. Redraw it as the precision instrument it is: the pen-tool icon's
nib — sharp point on the hotspot, shoulders flaring to their widest
two-thirds back, a narrower flat heel, a slit widening into the round
breather hole — swung round onto the selection arrow's midline
(arrow_axis), so holding Cmd/Ctrl to swap between the Pen and the
selection tools no longer rotates the cursor under the pointer.
Badges keep their meanings (*, +, -, o, /, j, ^, ~) and multi-stroke
ones now draw all halos under all ink via strokes(), so neighbouring
strokes no longer cut each other into blobs.
With Shift or Alt held (Alt only while Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool
is off), a Pencil press on an end of a selected open path draws a
straight line that continues the path, but before the press the cursor
was the plain straight-line cursor. Draw straight lines with the Pencil
tool says a path-continuation icon appears on the Pencil over that end:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/draw-shapes-and-paths/draw-shapes/draw-straight-lines-with-the-pencil-tool.html
Over such an end the cursor is now PencilContinue, the straight-line
cursor's line leaving a small filled square.
The check is the one the press makes (Edit Selected Paths, the same
end lookup). Away from the ends, with Edit Selected Paths at 0 pixels,
with nothing selected and while the line is drawn, the cursor is as
before.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md and docs/ui-parity.md, where the
duplicate Pencil lines and rows left by earlier merges are cut to one.
A Pencil or Paintbrush stroke released within Close Paths When Ends Are
Within of its start closes, but the cursor gave no sign of it. While the
pointer is where a release would close the stroke, the cursor is now
PencilClose (PaintbrushClose for the Paintbrush), the crosshair with a
ring, as Draw straight lines with the Pencil tool describes:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/draw-shapes-and-paths/draw-shapes/draw-straight-lines-with-the-pencil-tool.html
The check is the one the release makes, on the end the stroke would
take (snapped for the Pencil). A straight line (Shift or Alt held at the
press), a stroke that continues a selected path, a stroke that redraws
one and a smoothing drag show no ring.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md, docs/ui-parity.md.
The PencilStraight entry in cursors.toml now says the cursor does not
show while Alt is also held with Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool on, and
that the line follows 45° steps from the Constrain Angle. The parity doc
says the Option/Alt straight line waits for #3959.
With Shift held before a press, the Pencil now shows a new cursor,
PencilStraight: its crosshair with a short straight line where the
closing cursor has its ring. The cursor follows the rule the press uses
to start a straight line, so it shows exactly when the press draws one.
With Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool on and Alt held too, the Smooth
cursor shows as before. Once the press is down, and with the
Paintbrush, Shift leaves the tool's own cursor. Use Precise Cursors
turns the new cursor into the plain crosshair.
Draw straight lines with the Pencil tool describes a straight-line icon
on the Pencil while Shift or Alt is held:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/draw-shapes-and-paths/draw-shapes/draw-straight-lines-with-the-pencil-tool.html
The Pencil and PencilClose entries in cursors.toml, the PencilClose doc
comment and the closing-cursor line in docs/target-app-parity.md said Alt
held while drawing closes the path. A drag started with Shift or Alt
held draws an open straight line and does not show the closing cursor,
so the texts now say Alt is pressed after the drag starts and name that
exception.
With Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool off, holding Alt when a Pencil drag
starts now draws one straight segment from the press point to the
pointer, at the angle the pointer takes, as Shift does at 45° steps.
Pressed on an end of a selected open path, the line continues the path
from that end. Both ends snap to Smart Guides as a stroke's ends do, and
the line stays open when Alt is still held at the release. Shift and Alt
together keep the 45° steps.
Before, a drag started and released with Alt held drew a closed freehand
path. Alt pressed after the drag has started still closes the path at
the release, and with Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool on, Alt still switches
to the Smooth tool. Before a Pencil press, Alt no longer shows the closing
cursor.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md, docs/ui-parity.md.
Illustrator links type in an area or along a path (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/manage-text-area.html); until now only area type threaded here. Type on a path that overflows ends its line where its text stops fitting, so a story flows on from it, and its red out port, just past its end bracket, loads the Selection tool with the text as area type's does. A new frame threaded from it at a point is type on a path of its shape.
Holding Alt while drawing with the Paintbrush, or with the Pencil while
Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool is off, closes the path at the release,
but the cursor did not change. The reference app's Paintbrush shows a
small loop while Alt is held, and its Pencil shows a small circle.
Cursor::PaintbrushClose and Cursor::PencilClose show while Alt is held
with the Paintbrush, and with the Pencil while that option is off,
before the press and while drawing. Both tools still borrow the
crosshair, so the closing cursors are drawn as that crosshair with the
PenClose ring. Use Precise Cursors turns them into the plain crosshair,
as it does PenClose.
With Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool on, the Pencil shows the Smooth
cursor while Alt would smooth: with Alt held before a stroke begins to
draw, and through a smoothing drag even after Alt is let go. Before, it
showed the Smooth cursor whenever Alt was held, also during a stroke
that kept drawing, and not during a smoothing drag once Alt was let go.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md, crates/tools/src/cursors.toml.
VectorCraft had no Objects on Path. A click with the Objects on Path
tool attaches the selected objects to the path clicked. The tool is in
Edit Toolbar's Modify section and the Blend tool's flyout, and Object ›
Objects on Path › Attach and the context menu with two or more objects
selected choose it. The objects and the path go into an Objects on
Path group with the path at its bottom.
- object.objectsOnPath.attach orders the objects column by column from
left to right and top to bottom in each column. The first one sits
on the path's first anchor, the last one sits on the end of an open
path, and the rest are spread evenly by length; a closed path takes
them all the way round. Each object's attachment point (Pivot, one
of nine, default the center of its bounds without strokes) sits on
the path, and the object is turned to the path there. An object that
was rotated by an angle other than a multiple of 90° is first turned
to the nearest multiple of 90°. Rotate tilts every object by that
many degrees counter-clockwise. Symbol instances are measured by
their art. Guides, compound paths, type, paths without length and
graphs are refused with a reason.
- After every edit the objects go back on the path: editing the path
moves them, an object moved on its own goes back, and objects moved
into or out of the group in the Layers panel join the end of the
path or leave it. Scaling, shearing or reflecting the whole group
keeps each object's scale, shear or reflection, and the objects are
spread evenly along the transformed path again. Undo takes the path
and the objects back in one step, and a copied group stays live on
its own path.
- object.objectsOnPath.options changes Pivot and Rotate, and
object.objectsOnPath.expand leaves a plain group. Both act on the
groups that `ids` names, or on the groups of the selection when
`ids` is not given.
- The native file keeps the group live; SVG, PDF and the other exports
write plain art. The tool highlights the path under the pointer, has
a cursor entry, and Escape during a press cancels the click.
Part of #2545
Docs: docs/mcp.md, docs/target-app-parity.md.
Node editing as the public manual describes it: Direct Selection's anchor squares (hollow
or filled), Reshape Segment over a curved segment, Group Selection's plus (also Direct
Selection with Alt), the arrow hollow while a drag snaps, and Alt-copy arrowheads. The
Anchor Point caret, the Curvature pen and Free Transform's side-shear arrows (ShearH,
ShearV) are drawn in code. Lasso, the freehand, symbolism and other tools return cursors
of their own that borrow their old look until drawn (Cursor::stand_in).
crates/tools/src/cursors.toml lists every Cursor value, when it shows and its hotspot,
for whoever draws them; `cargo xtask cursors` (in ci) warns about a missing, unknown,
repeated or incomplete entry and never fails. The busy cursor is listed as missing (G1).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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