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Use Smooth Tool in Adobe InDesign CS6

Edited by Freya, VisiHow, Eng, Visihow Admin

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Video: Use Smooth Tool in Adobe InDesign CS6

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You're watching VisiHow. In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to use "Smooth Tool" in Adobe InDesign CS6 in Windows 7.

Use the Smooth Tool on Adobe InDesign CS6.mp4-canvas237 685033.jpg

Steps

1
To begin, you should open Adobe InDesign either from your desktop or by coming down to the bottom-left corner and clicking the Windows icon
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Clicking this will bring up a list of your recently used programs. You might see "Adobe InDesign" here. It has a pink-and-purple icon with the letters "ID" on it.

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2
Otherwise, click the search bar at the bottom of the screen and type "Adobe InDesign"
.

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3
Then, click "Adobe InDesign CS6"
.
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4
Click "File" on the bar at the top-left of the window
.

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5
Move the cursor to "New" and click "Document..."
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Alternatively, you could click "Open...". This will create a new document. You can also do this with the shortcut "Ctrl" + "N". For more information, refer to our tutorials on how to create a new document and on how to open an existing document.
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6
Let's just click "OK"
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7
Click "Pencil Tool"
.
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8
Let's create a line
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There is another VisiHow tutorial on how to do this. Note that some of the icons have a small black triangle in the lower-right corner. This means that these tools have an expanded menu with related tools when you click and drag the tool icon.

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9
Click the thickness drop-down menu and increase thickness
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Let's click "10pt".
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10
Click "Selection Tool"
.
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11
Click the line that you have just created
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If you have more than one line, you need to click the one you want to edit. A blue frame with anchor points will appear, indicating that the object is ready for editing.
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12
Click and drag "Pencil Tool" to open the expanded menu
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13
Select "Smooth Tool"
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The icon looks like a striped pencil. The "Smooth Tool" cleans up the shape by smoothing corners and bumpy areas. "Pencil Tool" creates a quite organic and messy shape sometimes. "Smooth Tool" is especially useful for gaining more control over how the shapes and strokes look. There are small squares, or anchor points, all within the path.
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14
In this video, note three anchor points that are close together
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They cause a quite pronounced bump.
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15
To use "Smooth Tool", click to draw over an area of the path
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You may need to draw over the area a few times to get the results you want. The tool will slowly adjust the location of the anchor points and remove any that are unnecessary.
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16
Let's draw with "Smooth Tool" over another curved line to make it smooth
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The shape will gradually become smoother and more simple. This tool is especially useful for creating polished or organic imagery. There is a lot of freedom of using "Smooth Tool" and "Pencil Tool" together in InDesign.
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This concludes our tutorial showing you how to use "Smooth Tool" in Adobe InDesign CS6 in Windows 7. If you have any questions or comments regarding this video or the program used, then just add them to the comment section below. Thank you for choosing VisiHow!