BetterHandles

BetterHandles is a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that combines a tool and palette to make working with Bezier curve handles easier and more powerful:

• Select multiple handles, and collectively move, extend, rotate, or retract them
• Extend or retract handles without changing their angles
• Copy and paste handles
• Edit points numerically: anchor, in handle, out handle
• Convert multiple points from corner to smooth or vice versa
• Automatically extend new handles on multiple points
• Intuitively reshape path segments, optionally constraining handle directions
• Use slow-drag to divide the cursor movement for extremely precise moves
• Equalize a point's handles
• Add points to multiple curves at their horizontal and/or vertical tangencies
• Split multiple paths at one or more points
• Close multiple open paths, retaining endpoint handles or not
• Remove one or more points, keeping the curve as close to the original as possible
• Work with connector points (transitions between straight and curved segments)
• Remove all redundant points on multiple paths
• Snap to handles, points, or paths clearly and easily without having to use Smart Guides
• And more!

What is new in this release:

• Now fully compatible with Illustrator CS5 on both platforms
• New feature: Smart Remove points will attempt to keep the shape of the curve as close as possible to the original after removing one or more points from the path
• New feature: You can now add automatically add points to the currently selected path(s) at their horizontal and vertical tangencies
• New feature: Connector points (points between straight segments and curved segments) can be recognized and their handles automatically kept in alignment
• New feature: You can now automatically close all selected open paths, optionally honoring any existing endpoint handles
• Improvement: With Smart Guides off, the snap radius for anchor points and handles now matches the value set in Illustrator Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display > Selection > Tolerance
• Improvement: After entering a new value in one of the single point fields on the palette, the tab key will automatically highlight the next field
• Improvement: When hovering over a path with the snapping ring enabled, a small arrow shows you the path's direction
• Improvement: The annotation text next to the red snapping ring now ghosts the background for better visibility
• Improvement: You can now use smaller, boxed-style annotation text
• Improvement: You can Command/Ctrl-click on the "Set Length" button (in Multi-Handle Mode) to remove the handles (make them length zero)
• Improvement: In CS3 and higher, the right bracket key is a shortcut for Smart Remove points (when anchor points are selected) or retracting handles (in Multi-Handle Mode)
• Improvement: A selection change with the BetterHandles tool no longer counts as an Undo
• Improvement: When dragging a point, both handles on adjacent points are shown instead of just the handles nearest the point
• Improvement: When mousing down on an unselected point or path, or adding a point to any path, the surrounding handles immediately become visible
• Improvement: A button now lets you select the first point of a path when none, or more than one, of its points are selected
• Improvement: When adding a point to a path, you can highlight and snap to the path's horizontal, vertical or diagonal tangencies
• Improvement: When docked and collapsed, the BetterHandles palette now displays a custom icon
• Improvement: When reporting selected path types, single-point paths are now listed separately from open and closed paths
• Improvement: The native Info palette now displays the cursor position when the BetterHandles tool is selected
• Improvement: When moving a single handle or anchor point, the handles on adjacent points (if any) are now shown
• Improvement: When a smooth point is selected, a "link" icon now appears in the BetterHandles palette between the "in handle" and "out handle" icons
• Improvement: Illustrator CS3 and higher's anchor point and direction handle size preferences are now respected when using the BetterHandles tool
• Improvement: When moving a handle and constraining its angle with the Option/Alt key or Shift key, the point can now be moved freely (instead of in a constrained manner) with the space bar
• Improvement: When "Allow anchor point dragging" is enabled, and Option/Alt-dragging a point has extended new handles, you can now release Option/Alt and continue to freely drag the handles
• Improvement: When shift-dragging points or handles, Illustrator's constrain angle is now honored
• Improvement: You can now select the handles on up to 4000 points simultaneously
• Improvement: Option/Alt-dragging over a path segment (when no points are selected) selects all of a path's segments
• Improvement: When extending a new handle from a point that has no handles, or from a corner point that has only one handle, the new handle will be initially constrained to the tangent direction of the path at that point rather than horizontally
• Improvement: The redundant point indicator is now bolder for better visibility
• Improvement: With Smart Guides on, dragged handles and anchor points now snap to automatically generated guidelines
• Bug fix: Shift-clicking on an anchor point (with the "Equalize handles" preference off) no longer selects/unselects points that lie directly under it

Requirements:

Adobe Illustrator CS5

Limitations:

Time-limited trial