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Roger Breton
Roger Breton
Legend
August 24, 2024
Question

Pen tool : Anchor points too small?

  • August 24, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 2122 views

Win 11 v25.11.0

I have been using Photoshop for a long time and I always found the size the anchor points generated by the Pen tool to be way too small for anyone having "normal vision"?

Sadly, version after version, there does not seem to be any Preferences related to this behavior, akin to those in Illustrator.

 

Am I missing something grossly obvious?
Any help is appreciated.

    3 replies

    Earth Oliver
    Earth Oliver
    Legend
    August 25, 2024

    It took us 25 years of begging to get them to add line weights and colors to the Pen tool. Perhaps if we beg for another 25 we might get anchor size options?

    Roger Breton
    Roger BretonAuthor
    Legend
    August 25, 2024

    We'll be too old, the day they find they have nothing to do. This must be the last target on their priority list. In a way, I don't care that much. My goal is to show the students that the tool exists and that it can make better selections, at least in my experience, than any of the other tools currently in Photoshop. From there, it's "out of my hands". I'm not in production anymore. For me, "Close cutting" with the Pen tool brings back memories of my early design jobs with QuarlXpress. Those days, EPS with clipping paths were the name of the game. But, since the advent of "Transparency", things have eased up quite a bit. Layer masks never been handier and easier. But as an "Image processing" class, I want the students to see the difference. I'm not going to spend 30 minutes creating the outliine of a banana, to show them how the tool works. Besides, they'll have spent 5 classes of Illustrator with me just before starting on my Photoshop course. So, I'm sure I'll have an easy time to show them the diffierences and similarities between Illustator and Photoshop's implementation of the Pen tool. The idea is to help "learn". Beyond that point, they don't need me: once the birds have learned how to fly, they flee the nest for good.

    Spas K.
    Community Expert
    Spas K.Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 24, 2024

    Illustrator has much more settings for the anchor point sizes, handles and so on, but in Photoshop, it's a bit limited.

     

    You can increase the thickness of paths, which also bumps up the size of the anchor points. With the pen tool selected:

     

    Or Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grids & Slices, increase Path to 2px (3px doesn't make a difference).

     

      Roger Breton
      Roger BretonAuthor
      Legend
      August 24, 2024

      Thanks! Every bit "helps" although we're "losing" on the "precision" of the actual path location 😞 Sigh...

      Spas K.
      Community Expert
      Spas K.Community Expert
      Community Expert
      August 24, 2024

      Yeah, I guess while there are many uses for vector paths and the pen tool in Photoshop, it was never a priority to make it that customizable or precise.

      Roger Breton
      Roger BretonAuthor
      Legend
      August 24, 2024

      Incidentally, I asked ChatGPT the following:

       

      is therre an option to control the size the anchor points generated by the Pen tool in photoshop? They are very small and it's easy to miss them when trying to select them with the Direct Selection tool?
       
      And got the following reply:
       

      Yes, you can adjust the size of the anchor points in Photoshop to make them easier to see and select. Here’s how you can do it:

      1. Open Preferences: Go to Edit (Windows) or Photoshop (Mac) in the menu bar, then select Preferences and choose Cursors.

      2. Adjust Anchor Point Size: In the Cursors section, look for the option labeled Anchor Point Size. You can choose between Small, Medium, and Large.

      3. Apply Changes: After selecting your preferred size, click OK to apply the changes.

      This should make the anchor points more visible and easier to select with the Direct Selection tool

       

      But there are not "Anchor points" section that I can see in the Preferences > Cursor tab that I can see?

      Roger Breton
      Roger BretonAuthor
      Legend
      August 24, 2024

      I also tried changing the UI scaling to 200% to no avail.

      Could be I'm on a 4K 42" Dell monitor and Windows is having difficulty with some applications to propagate the resolution information of my display? Could be it works perfect on the Mac or other Windows system. I have a normal HD laptop I installed me second instance of Creative Cloud, I ought to give it a try there. Thanks!

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