Ai2025 - The Pencil tool has become unusable again! There's no accuracy—it’s too smooth! SOLVED!

[ncic]

UPDATE!!!
ADOBE HAS FIXED THIS BUG

Hi folks

Adobe has been quick and responsive and fixed this bug in the version 29.0.1 update

Go to you CC app and you should see the version there under the update section.

Thanks everyone for the team effort voting and posting to solve this bug.

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I’m here to post about the same issue I did in 2014.
The Pencil tool has become unusable once again! It’s smoothing too much, even on the maximum accuracy setting (left first slider tick).

Back in 2014, when Adobe rewrote the Pencil tool, you removed the previous numeric settings and replaced them with four ticks. All of them were too smooth and took too much control over the path, leading to imprecise bubbly and smooth drawings.

I made a post about this back then, and Adobe was super nice to respond by adding a fifth lowest left tick with the previous lowest accurate settings, which I’ve been using for nearly 20 years now: "fidelity[0.5px], smoothness[0%]".
Here is the post I made in 2014:
PLEASE PLEASE adobe. The new pencil tool has become unusuble to me

Now, after the 2025 update, the pencil tool once again is smoothing too much, even on the lowest accuracy setting. This is making mine and my colleagues work impossible because the tool doesn’t generate enough anchor points to create the detailed and organic edge illustrations we need. Not everyone is looking to draw smooth, bubbly shapes!

This is crucial in an free hand drawn operation such as the pencil tool because anchor points act as the resolution of the path, determining the type of edges you want to express in your drawings. The character of the edge is essential for the final look.

Why shouldn't we have more control over the path resolution, allowing for higher values? Currently, Illustrator seems to be leaning towards reducing the resolution of our paths, limiting our creative control leaning towards more smooth bubbly or geometric style.

Inkscape is fantastic in this regard as it doesn't limit the resolution the artist gets to add to the path. It has a numeric setting where you can set what you need. Unfortunately inkscape falls short on other aspects of the freehand pencil drawing process, for instance you can't redraw over and over again and sculpt your path with the pencil tool as you can in illustrator.

With this post I’m requesting:

(1) To fix the bug and bring back the ability to generate more anchor points on the path for accuracty on the lowest tick with "fidelity[0.5px], smoothness[0%]"

(2) I'm also making an additional feature request for the ability to add even more anchor points than that by adding an even lower sixth tick that generates even more anchor points, with a setting like "fidelity[0.2px], smoothness[0%]"

Alternatively, and idealy, please bring back the numeric values like you had before that allow us to set the path resolution more precisely, similar to how Inkscape still handles it.

This won’t slow down the application in any significant way—today's machines can handle it. I've pushed Illustrator to its limits for many years, and higher resolution paths have never been an issue. There's no reason to hold back on giving users more control over the paths and the style of their illustrations.

I would love to assist in testing it out.

Please Adobe.

Thanks

MacBook Pro Apple M1 Max PRO 64GB RAM.
macOS Sonoma 14.7 (23H124)

Here follows some comparisons of anchor point generation to show the bug and the feature request on the bottom:

(Please click the images to see the anchor point amount better, thanks)

BUG IMG 1:1

BUG IMG 1:2

BUG IMG 2:1

BUG IMG 2:2

BUG IMG 3:1

BUG IMG 3:2

ADDITIONAL FEATURE REQUEST IMG 4:1:

[BriannaStarr333]

Same! Agree with everything said above. Its terrible now!

[Michelle30475706c8ti]

Same issue here with the pencil tool! Couldnt work out what was going on, it really slowed me down at work today! any existing path I wanted to amend with the pencil tool, trying to make a corner pointed etc, just turns into curves! Hope this gets sorted!

[Monika Gause]

Same issue here with the pencil tool! Couldnt work out what was going on, it really slowed me down at work today! any existing path I wanted to amend with the pencil tool, trying to make a corner pointed etc, just turns into curves! Hope this gets sorted!

By @Michelle30475706c8ti

If you want to make the engineers aware of your urgency, please upvote the bug report on Uservoice that is linked somewhere in this thread.

[charlie231312800zkq]

im also having this same problem, did they ever figure it out? or is it back to 2024 for now? 

[gordyland]

I would love to re-install 2024, this has crippled my day-to-day workflow. I’m having a hard time telling clients that the software is broken. 2024 isn't on my machine anymore. Is there anyway to get it?

[Monika Gause]

Just open the Creative Clou app. https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html

[gordyland]

Legend!!!

[mini_pig]

Just here to add a big disappointed urgh me too! This is such a blow to my work, it makes things impossible. I'll be reinstalling 2024 until it's fixed. 

[AmandaHearn]

I'm adding to the chorus. The tool is entirely unusable. Several I normally use lack the ability to be precise. Things are looking blobby and juvenile.

[Anubhav M · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone,

Our product team has tried fixing this problem with the latest update for Illustrator v29.0.1. Would you mind updating Illustrator to check if it helps resolve the problem?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[di_7576]

SO MUCH BETTER! Thank you!!! 

[gordyland]

I'm not showing any update available. Is this AI beta you're talking about?

[ncic]

@gordyland 

Mine wasn't showing up either at first.

It's a regular app update and not a beta or pre-release

Go to Apps/View updates/check for updates button top right

See if it shows up

Otherwise probably wait a little. Mine wasn't showing up until a few days after announcement

[JohnSouthgate]

Once you turn off live feedback then it's working nicely again in the Beta version thanks

[susannahl23429837]

Thank you! It works great. I really appreciate your team's quick response. Why was the pencil changed in the first place? 

[fmwl2001]

Yay!!!  Finally my pencil tool  is working again.

 I haven't written any complaints, but I have kept checking here to see if you updated it.  Thank you for finally getting it fixed!

[Priscila26389024dy02]

It worked! thanks

[ruy mejia]

THANK YOU!

[wojciech_6771]

Hey, I have to admit that you've positively surprised me. The pencil has returned to its functionality and closes the path. THX!

[Amber28678663gmm0]

Hello everyone,

do these steps and it will work again.

Alright, to delete the preferences manually we need to delete the Illustrator preferences folder.

To do that you need to:

• Close the App first
• Go to finder
• Go to folder from the “Go” menu from top menu bar
• Search for ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe
• Then look for the Illustrator Version ## Settings folder
• Right-click on the folder and click on “Move to Trash”

Then open the application from the Creative Cloud app.

[default0s6pjpzu9761]

My version says 29.0 and says im Up to date.

Do i need to uninstall reinstall to get version 29.0.1 ?

Thanks

Mike

[Monika Gause]

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@default0s6pjpzu9761  schrieb:

My version says 29.0 and says im Up to date.

Do i need to uninstall reinstall to get version 29.0.1 ?

Thanks

Mike

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Just open the Creative Cloud app and search for updates.

[default0s6pjpzu9761]

Hi Monika,

yes, that is what i did.

see screen shot.

[Monika Gause]

And "About Illustrator" does not show version 29.0.1?

[default0s6pjpzu9761]

correct.