How to Join Two Open Paths in Adobe Illustrator

The PEN is one of the most powerful tools in Adobe Illustrator:
Adobe Illustrator CS3 PEN TOOL
You basically can draw anything you like with it.
With PEN you can draw both OPEN and CLOSED paths:
Adobe Illustrator CS3 Open and Closed Paths
More often than not, in technical illustration we use CLOSED paths to represent different drawing objects — buttons, circuit boards, capacitors, door bells, car wheels, buildings, you name it… The list is infinite.
Thus the skill to join two OPEN paths into a CLOSED one is valuable in technical illustration.
Here is how to do it…

Take two open paths (click to enlarge the images):
Adobe Illustrator CS3 Path 1
To join them you need to select their END POINTS.

(NOTE: In Illustrator, you can just select the whole open paths by the regular Selection Tool (V), the arrow with black tip. You don’t need to select the end points.)

(1) Select the Direct Selection Tool (A), the arrow with WHITE tip.

(2) Drag and select the END POINTS which turn into SMALL SOLID SQUARES:
Adobe Illustrator CS3 Path 2
Adobe Illustrator CS3 Path 3 End-Point Selected
(3) Click CTRL + J to join the END POINTS:

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Path 4
(4) Do the same for the other pair of END POINTS and you have this CLOSED PATH figure:

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Path 5
Congrats!

1 Comments

  1. mathi des on November 24, 2011 at 1:28 am

    Thank you so much…….itz a g8 help..I searched a lot to get this simple solution…Thank u once again