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jonascreates
Known Participant
October 13, 2026
Question

Why is the text-on-path start/end-point grabber so small?

Am I using the wrong tool here, or is the clickable area for grabbing the start/end points of a text-on-path object unnecessarily small?

See attached screen recording for reference. Feels like you have to hit that one-pixel-wide blue outline around the selection square just to get it to work. I find myself using MacOS Zoom to locate it.

    4 replies

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    October 13, 2026

    Hi ​@jonascreates,

     

    Thanks for reaching out and for sharing the screenshot and screen recording. Sorry to hear about the difficulty you're experiencing with the Type on a Path handles.

    Could you please try going to Illustrator > Settings > Selection & Anchor Display and increase the Selection Tolerance from the default 3 px to around 8–10 px? In the same section, please also increase the Anchor Point/Handle Display Size, then test the behavior again.

    If the issue persists, please confirm your exact Illustrator version and macOS version, and let us know whether the same behavior occurs in a new document with a simple Type on a Path object.

    Please share your observations so we can investigate further.

     

    Thanks,
    Abhishek

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    jonascreatesAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 13, 2026

    Hi ​@Abhishek Rao 
    thank you for your quick reply and the suggested fixes. I adjusted the selection tolerance (8px is the maximum) and also dialed up the Handley Display size, restarted Illustrator and tried again:
     

    the draggable/clickable area of the type-on-a-path handle is now exactly 4px wide, which helps a bit. But if I'm honest: it has always been too small and kind of hidden as a feature. I’ve been using illustrator since 2007-ish.

    Versions:
    Illustrator: 30.8.1
    MacOS: 27.0.1

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    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    October 13, 2026

    Hello ​@jonascreates 

     

    Thanks for confirming the suggestions helped. Could you also try increasing the UI Scaling under Illustrator’s User Interface preferences to see if that helps with this situation?

     

    Looking forward to hearing from you.
    Anubhav

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