When it comes to getting that perfect brush or pencil stroke down, there are a couple of settings you should be aware of, Fidelity and Smoothness. Whether you’re using a graphics tablet or a mouse, understanding how to set these values will help you to achieve the results you’re after in your illustrations. Knowing what values to use when is key to how your strokes will be interpreted by Illustrator.
Tutorial Details
- Application(s): Adobe Illustrator
- Difficulty: All Levels
The Settings
Fidelity and Smoothness are available for four of the tools within Illustrator: The Paintbrush Tool (B), Blob Brush Tool (Shift+B), Pencil Tool (N) and the Smooth Tool (available from the Pencil Tool menu). To edit these options, double+click each of the respective tool icons or hit enter after using a keyboard shortcut to bring up the dialog box. The options will be grouped within Tolerances.
Fidelity
I like to think of Fidelity in terms of the measurements on a ruler. The smaller the value of the tick on the ruler, the closer those ticks are together. Fidelity, which can be set from 0.5 to 20 pixels, follows along the same principle. The smaller the value, the closer the path will be drawn in correlation to the input device and the greater number of irregularities and anchor points.
Let’s say you have a very detailed jittery path (such as the sutures on a skull or wacky curled hair) that you want to create. In this example, setting the Fidelity to a value lower than 5 would produce a path in close relation to how you drag the mouse or pen. Another way to think about this is that the more precise you want your path, the smaller the value should be.
The same path drawn at different Fidelity settings.Smoothness
Smoothness corresponds to the amount of curvature created by the tool along the path. The range for Smoothness is between 0 to 100. The higher the value of Smoothness, the fewer number of irregularities in the path. Think about Smoothness as the arc drawn between the two radians of an angle. Angles with a smaller degree produce shorter arcs as opposed to larger angles which produce longer sweeping arcs.
The image below represents the same path drawn with varying degrees of Smoothness. Note how the second example (red anchor points) shows the difference when a larger value is used, there are fewer anchor points and the curvature of the path is increased.
Using the Two Together
When using both Fidelity and Smoothness in concert, you create the Tolerances for how the path will be interpreted by Illustrator based on the input received by the mouse or pen. If you have a steady mouse hand or are using a pen, you may want to input lower values for both. On the other hand, if you use a mouse more regularly, you may benefit from using higher settings to achieve smoother pen-like strokes in your paths.
Not every situation will require the same settings, so keep in mind that if the path you are creating is not turning out quite right, it may be that you need to bring up (Enter) one of the tool dialogs and adjust the Fidelity and Smoothness settings.
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About the Author
Brian Rhinehart is a designer and illustrator who has worked in the media and design industry for the past sixteen years. Aside from freelancing and running Illustration Toolbox, he enjoys playing the bass, spicy foods and chasing the cat around the house with squeaky toys.
