How to enter exact anchor points coordinates in Illustrator?

I’ve not been able to find an answer to this on the interwebs…so thought I’d ask the Illustrator experts here: Is there any way to directly enter the coordinates of an anchor point on a path?

Yes, and no. (Great answer, huh?)

It’s easy to determine what the actual coordinates of any specific point are - just select the point with the Direct Selection tool and you can look at the top, or in the Transformation Panel, or in the Info palette (which can be turned on in the Windows palette.)

But if you were to type in the coordinates you want for that point, it will move, but nothing else will.

If you want to shift the whole shape, you have to use the Black Selection Arrow on the whole item, and choose a corner or side point, and then specify in the little "Selection Box Reference " diagram which point you want to move to that coordinate.

illus 2

Tutorial on using it here:

:slightly_smiling_face:

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Thank you! The thing that kept blocking me was that often when I would select an anchor point, the transform was showing the x,y of the whole shape. I was trying to change the width of a tab slightly smaller, so moving individual anchors was what I wanted.

I never did figure out exactly why some of the points could be selected and moved, and some couldn’t be.

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Select the individual points with the Direct Selection tool, (if you need more than one, hold down the Shift key or drag a selection rectangle around them), and then you can move just those points.

I use the keyboard arrows to nudge them just a bit and it usually does enough of an adjustment to take care of kerf. :slightly_smiling_face: