Indesign Pen Tool automatically closes paths

Thank you for clarifying. Until you figure out why the path is closing itself, you could either right click the image and edit in Photoshop, or use the Pencil button in the Links panel to jump to Photoshop. Once there you could create a reliable path, save and close and it will be available as a clipping mask back in InDesign. Not ideal, but it would only be a few more clicks and it would avoid this undesirable behavior.

~Barb

Why are you creating clipping paths in the first place? In the old days designers were forced to make clipping paths in Quark to cut objects out of their backgrounds. Once InDesign showed up on the scene with transparency support, Adobe preached the gospel of  layer masks in Photoshop, and then placing native .psd files.

I haven't made a clipping path in nearly 20 years, and suggest you do the same.

Continuing on Chad's thought, Ctrl+click on the document (Cmd+click on a Mac) tells InDesign (and Photoshop and Illustrator) that you have completed a path. The next click or drag will start a new one.

~Barb

That’s actually the Pen tool, not the Pencil tool but nonetheless are you holding down any modifier keys when this happens?

I think we are all hung up on your wording. Your images show the use of the Pen tool—so I think your title is correct—but a closed path is one that completes itself (like a circle) and an open path does not (like a line). From your screenshots, it looks like InDesign didn't close the path, it started a new path. Is this correct?

~Barb

Are you talking about the Pen tool or the Pencil tool. The title of your posting says "InDesign Pen Tool automatically closes paths". The text says, "When we create a clipping path in InDesign CC 2017 using the Pencil tool..."

First of all, if you want to create an accurate path I would suggest using the pen tool rather than the pencil tool. Secondly, what you are showing appear to be open paths. A closed path is one that becomes a closed shape (for example: a square is a closed path). Also a clipping path is something that is created in Photoshop. It can be utilized in different ways using Object>Clipping Path in InDesign or at the moment of importing using Import Options. You can define a shape for silhouetting in InDesign and use InDesign's Paste Into feature to put the image inside that silhouette. That is the closest that I can think of to creating a clipping path in InDesign. If I am misunderstanding your intent here then please provide more details as to why you've chosen this method to silhouette images.