Participant

Question

pushing "option-Key" results in "too smooth a action, select its anchorpoints...."

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
July 10, 2025
2 replies
279 views

hi dear friends,

iam in the Brushtool and am trying to use the brushtool in combination with the "option-Key" to resize the Brushes. But it wont work. Instead i get a small dialbar and a message on the screen "too smooth a action, select its anchorpoints with the direct selection Tool and adjust the slider"

But when i go to my Illustrator Shortcutslist, i can not find the mapping to the "option-Key".

What can i do to change this behavior to resizing the brush?

- i have deinstalled and reinstalled older versions (same problem) Now iam in the latest version 29.6.1 again.

- iam using the english version of Adobe and my Keyboard is the Apple Magic Keyboard with Iso(european) Layout. Could this make a problem?

Nooby Ps: I have a hard time finding the Bracket keys on my Magickeyboard. I have tryed every possible key Command to change the Brushessize manually with any keycomb to find the Bracketkeys. Can anyone give me a helpin hand somehow?

Running Mac Sequoia 15.5, but it didnt work in Sonoma allready.

Thank you for commenting and helping

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Brackets should be here:

G

g?ncelAuthor

Participant

thank you for showing me the brackets. and i tryed to make get another layout inn the options. didnt go well there too

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Exactly when are you pressing the key? This changing of diameter only works while you are not drawing with the brush.

ALso: which language are you using? If it's not English, then the keys might be others. In German it's the < and > (on a Mac). Other languages might be different again.

G

g?ncelAuthor

Participant

Hi Monika,

For resizing the Brush Tool you mean? i open a new File, on my canvas i go to tools, pick the Brush tool in its default, make brush stroke on the Canvas, for the next brushstroke i hold first "option-Key" to resize the brush. but before i even think about moving the mouse for resizing, there is this Sliderbar.

My magic Keyboard is a Iso, I use Adobe in english. So everything is exact the same as the default installation except the english language in Adobe. but i tryed it with the German Version also and there i had the same problem. I have no other keyboard laying around so i could try that ones behaviour.

G

g?ncelAuthor

Participant

You could check the system settings if there is something set up in the system that pops up the onscreen controls. It would override whatever you are doing in Illustrator.

But also: if you have system, keyboard and Illustrator in different languages, then things can go off the rails pretty easily.

what i dont understand is, that the pen is functioning properly and everything else too. just in the brush tool, it wont behave the right way... does this info help somehow?

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