Illustrator Basics - How to handle overlapping points

When using the live corner widgets in Adobe Illustrator you can end up having two points stacked directly on top of each other. This can lead to issues when working with the path in Illustrator or in other software suites. The traditional methods for dealing with overlapping points like the unite feature, or the simplify feature, either don't work or modify the appearance of the path too much. In this quick video I show you my simple work around for eliminating two points that overlap because of live corners intersecting.

[@CopperSparrow]

You sure made my evening by sharing this. I had exactly that overlapping issue and I just couldn't find this solution myself. Took me an hour to find this answer! Offset Path it is! Thanks!

[@davewatkinscreative]

Great to hear! I'm glad this technique was able to solve the problem for you.

[@vietdo493]

It's useful! Thank you!

[@armanbagheri7615]

Well i was looking for how to join two corners and this video helped me you go to Objects - path - and join 😅 nice 👍

[@sunilchristian3430]

Thank you!

[@davewatkinscreative]

You bet! Thanks for watching.

[@lorenzoyagong7156]

Thanks man my ocd kicking on this one. glad I found thiis video!

[@davewatkinscreative]

I know right? It bugged me for a long time that there wasn't a simple solution to this problem.

[@caynik]

Great tip!

[@davewatkinscreative]

Thanks!! It bugs me that I can’t find a better way to fix this issue. This will have to do for now.

[@natazer]

This is a feature that has plagued me for YEARS! Years I tell you.

[@davewatkinscreative]

Same here! It was such a relief when I came up with this solution. I love having clean files!

[@FRSHGOST]

great tutorials my man

[@davewatkinscreative]

Glad you think so!

[@shishka3116]

I, personally, have the feeling the Adobe programs getting more and more unstable and clunky. Feels like the users who earn their money with this program are not the core audience anymore. Programs just don't perform professional anymore. I would claim that 80% of the stuff inside the features isn't really being used. But this is where Adobe spends their energy for. Basic features, like the path tool, on the other hand, don't get the love they need. But these basic features are the features used by professionals since years.

[@davewatkinscreative]

I agree on a lot of your points. The core path editing tools are what I use in Illustrator and they haven't changed much in the last 15 or so years. I can understand that Adobe wants to increase their user base and as long as they don't neglect the pro community the creation of new features is how they'll do that. If I had to drop all of my creative software and only keep one piece it would be Illustrator.

[@shishka3116]

​@@davewatkinscreative I can't say with confidence if this also applies to Illustrator, but what I noticed with the path tool in photoshop is, that it actually was downgraded. How can they downgrade such a simple tool as the path tool you might ask. Well, at one point in the last years they made points bigger and the »precision« less accurate to probably let the tool appear »easier« (it was sometime when graphic apps such pro create and canvas risen). By precision, I mean the distance between the points you're able to put on a certain zoom-level. This is not noticeable in Illustrator as you use the path tool differently with as less points as possible, but in photoshop the path tool is often used for cutting out objects. In this technique, you put as many points as necessary on complex edges to get a detailed cut-out. This is less precised since the mentioned update, because the path tool points are so clunky and not precised that you have to zoom in to get a more detailed cut out, which makes the process more time-consuming. Now, this is a special case on an individual level, but I come across such downgrades every here and then. And they all scream quantity rather than quality. And I can image where this UI decision come from... We know Adobe has to face competitors like Canvas, which are easy to use for non-graphic designers and probably preferred by many people. I get it. But what they don't understand is that we as graphic designers have to face these apps too. We're on the same boat. We literally fight for our right to exist sometimes, and it doesn't help when we someday have a super reduced »professional« program which can't do more than such apps - what is our advantage when every app can do the same. Don't get me wrong, it's not about making the programs easier to understand, this is ok for me. But it's a bad decision when they downgrade the functionality because of this.

[@kimberbearly7909]

oh i see, anyway another was is cut the points with the scissors tool, selected both point and selected join.

[@davewatkinscreative]

I'm afraid that still doesn't work - If all you do is cut and rejoin, the same overlapping issue I'm talking about is still there. What you can do is cut the point where the overlap happens, slide one of the main curved sections out of the way, find the small overhanging path that was sandwiched in the middle delete that, slide the original curve back into place and then select and join the two remaining points. It's a lot more steps to take especially if you have multiple instances of this issue on the same path.

[@kimberbearly7909]

@@davewatkinscreative Not for me Dave. Just cut twice and select the two point and Ctrl J which joins the two points. perfect Just take a few seconds

[@davewatkinscreative]

I'm sorry but I'm not seeing the same thing you are. If you try to cut in the same location twice you'll get a warning the second time that you can't use the scissor tool to cut on the end point of a path. Anyways even if there was a process for cutting, selecting, rejoining that worked to eliminate the overlapping point issue I'm talking about ... the offset technique I demonstrated would still be more effective because it would eliminate multiple instances of the issue on the same path all at the same time versus having to manually correct each case.

[@kimberbearly7909]

@@davewatkinscreative I will send you a video

[@sahhaBoy]

i hate how difficult and unintuitive illustrator is. I've been using it for several years now and compared to almost all other adobe products this one is so frustrating... even the simplest things are difficult to achieve. unexpected things happen all the time making the process tedious. they should learn a lot from XD or photoshop, one would think that the products share the same designer principles

[@duypham9300]

Astute graphic has an plug-in call "vector first aid" can fix this problem in just one click

[@davewatkinscreative]

I'm not surprised! I worked with Astute Graphics a few years ago to create demo videos of one of their new plugins. They've built an incredible arsenal of tools so it makes sense they'd have a plugin that could fix this issue. That being said, it's still useful to know how to fix this problem in Illustrator if you don't have access to an Astute subscription. Thanks for watching.

[@duypham9300]

I agree with your method, but I will take 1 step further which is doing offset that path again with a negative value

[@anwarhosen3051]

আমি বাংলাদেশ থেকে।

[@kimberbearly7909]

Why not just select one of the points and use delete point tool?

[@davewatkinscreative]

If you use the delete anchor point tool on a point that has a handle extended you'll lose that handle and the appearance of your path will change. This technique maintains the appearance of all of the curves while removing the extra points.

[@CopperSparrow]

It would've ruin the shape.

[@teroblepuns]

Wth I never realised that rounding corners adds overlapping points

[@davewatkinscreative]

Right? Although the artwork looks fine with the overlapping points it can cause problems depending on the circumstances. I feel like there should be an easier way to expand the appearance of a path where rounding the corners to their extreme limit caused this overlap.... but instead this work around is the best way I've found to deal with it. Hope you found the vid helpful.

[@caynik]

Point of live corners is to keep it alive so you can adjust it as desired.

[@davewatkinscreative]

@caynik you're totally right. Being able to modify live corners after the fact is priceless but in certain cases these overlapping points can cause problems and it would be handy if they could be expanded without needing to use the trick I shared in this video.

[@caynik]

@@davewatkinscreative agreed.

[@briansolis9007]

Your voice sounds dramatic. I like your tutorials. But can you get to the point next time because some of the words are time consuming

[@davewatkinscreative]

Thanks for the feedback. I struggle trying to find the balance between detail and speed when making these videos. At least my voice is entertaining though.