Adobe Illustrator is a fantastic vector creation tool and you can create a lot of things without ever using the Pen Tool. However, if you want to use Illustrator at its full potential, I personally believe that you need to master and become proficient in working with the aforementioned Pen tool. The inner workings of it aren’t easily explained in text form so that’s why I resorted to Pen Tool exercises. Remember that it is a tool that needs patience, and a lot of practice until you really master it.

一個多貝插圖是一個夢幻般的向量生成工具，你可以創建很多事情而沒有使用鋼筆工具 。 但是，如果您想充分利用Illustrator的潛力，我個人認為您需要精通并精通使用上述Pen工具。 它的內部工作原理不容易以文本形式解釋，所以這就是我訴諸Pen工具練習的原因 。 請記住，這是一個需要耐心的工具，并且需要大量練習才能真正掌握它。

筆工具 (The Pen Tool)

When you have been using Adobe Illustrator as long as I do, you tend to forget how difficult and confusing it can be for beginners. Way back in 2007 I got inspired by a PDF document by the University of Massachusetts that is no longer available. They had one exercise that sparked the idea to create my own extended version.

當我一直使用Adobe Illustrator時 ，您往往會忘記它對初學者來說有多困難和令人困惑。 早在2007年，我就受到馬薩諸塞大學(University of Massachusetts)不再提供的PDF文檔的啟發。 他們進行了一次練習，激發了創建我自己的擴展版本的想法。

這個怎么運作 (How it works)

You simply follow the numbers and the instructions to complete the exercise. The point you need to aim at in each step is the center of each numbered colored dot. Depending on the instructions, you either have to click, click and press, or click and press and then drag, while sometimes holding down the shift or alt/option key. The document is created in 2 layers. The bottom layer, called template contains the instructions, and is locked. The top layer is the ‘working layer’. This layer is unlocked, and by default already selected. So this is the layer you’ll be working on.

您只需按照數字和說明完成練習即可。 您在每個步驟中要瞄準的點是每個編號的彩色圓點的中心。 根據說明，您必須單擊，單擊并按下，或者單擊并單擊然后拖動，同時有時按住Shift或Alt / Option鍵。 該文檔分為兩層。 稱為模板的底層包含指令，并被鎖定。 頂層是“ 工作層 ” 。 該層已解鎖，并且默認情況下已選擇。 這就是您將要處理的層。

Once you have done these exercises several times I hope you’ll understand the Pen tool and its quirks a little better.

幾次完成這些練習后，希望您能更好地理解Pen工具及其怪異之處。

I’ve used big colored dots for you to click in with the number inside. There are 3 different colors: BLUE, RED and GREEN. The BLUE ones don’t require any dragging, but involve clicking, and often clicking and pressing. The RED ones, involve dragging, and sometimes a key needs to be pressed as well. The GREEN ones also involve dragging, but this time dragging one of the handles of the anchor point you’ve just created, while holding down a key first (alt/option). The document is more extended as it now contains 3 pages, starting with the easiest exercises first, and ending with an actual drawing of a simple tree, and a random swoosh shape.

我用大色點讓您點擊里面的數字。 有3種不同的顏色： 藍色 ， 紅色和綠色 。 藍色的不需要任何拖動，但需要單擊，并且經常單擊并按下。 紅色的涉及拖動，有時還需要按下一個鍵。 綠色的也涉及到拖動，但是這次拖動您剛剛創建的錨點的手柄之一，同時先按住一個鍵(alt / option)。 該文檔的內容有所擴展，因為它現在包含3頁，首先是最簡單的練習，然后是一棵簡單的樹的實際圖形和一個隨機的旋風形狀。

Once you have done these exercises several times I hope you’ll understand the Pen tool and its quirks a little better. To be honest if you want to become proficient in Illustrator you can’t live without it. The Pen tool can be used for many purposes like re-tracing a bad logo that you got from a client or creating your own art or virtually anything else you can dream up.

幾次完成這些練習后，希望您能更好地理解Pen工具及其怪異之處。 老實說，如果您想精通Illustrator，就離不開它。 筆工具可用于許多目的，例如重新查找從客戶那里得到的不良徽標，創建自己的藝術品或幾乎可以做的任何其他事情。

Photoshop的鋼筆工具 (Photoshop’s Pen Tool)

When you become good at it you can use it in Adobe Photoshop too. One example could be to remove an image from its background. You draw a path around it. However, the Pen Tool doesn’t work in exactly the same way. For example, you need to hold down the option/alt key for combining curves with straight lines instead of just clicking in the anchor point. Adobe should make the Pen behavior the same in all their apps, that would make things easier. Unfortunately I said that in 2007 and now 13 years later its still not fixed, so don’t get your hopes up :)

當您精通它時，也可以在Adobe Photoshop中使用它。 一個示例可能是從背景中刪除圖像。 您圍繞它繪制一條路徑。 但是，鋼筆工具不能以完全相同的方式工作。 例如，您需要按住option / alt鍵以將曲線與直線結合起來，而不是僅單擊錨點。 Adobe應該在所有應用程序中使Pen行為相同，這將使事情變得更容易。 不幸的是，我說過，在2007年和現在的13年后，它仍然沒有得到解決，所以不要指望了:)

下載 (Download)

• Download the Illustrator Pen tool exercise document for CS5 or higher

  下載CS5或更高版本的Illustrator筆工具練習文檔

This document is just a starting point, but I hope it helps you to understand how the Pen tool works, and how you can get better and better in mastering this essential tool. Enjoy!

本文檔只是一個起點，但我希望它可以幫助您了解Pen工具的工作原理，以及如何在掌握這一基本工具方面變得越來越好。 請享用！

This article first appeared on Veerle’s Blog 4.0

本文首次出現在 Veerle的Blog 4.0上