Adobe Illustrator

Shape Editing

Direct Selection Tool

The Direct Selection tool lets you directly select individual anchor points or paths by clicking on them. When selecting an object or shape with the Direct Selection tool no bounding box will appear, just the points and line segments.

Selected and Non-Selected Points

To fully understand the Direct Selection tool, we need to look at the anchor points on a shape. When the anchor points on a shape have a solid blue outline, they are selected. When the anchor points on the shape have a blue outline, they are active but not selected. If a bounding box is active around the shape, you are using the Selection ...