Editing points and curves
Dropping points is only half the job. The craft is in shaping them, deciding where the line rounds like a cheek and where it snaps into a hard corner like a jaw. This page is your full guide to editing an outline: the Curvature tool, the Peak, Smooth, and Simplify options, deleting points, and the transform tools that scale, rotate, shear, and skew a whole selection at once.
1A drawn line is only rough clay
When you first drop points, FoundryInk runs a gentle default curve through them, which is a fine starting point but rarely the final line. The real character of a drawing comes from deciding, point by point, where the outline should be soft and where it should be crisp. That is editing, and it is the difference between a lumpy blob and a confident shape. Everything on this page works on points you have selected, so keep Select Points close at hand.
2Curvature: the master shaping tool
Curvature is how you bend the line through a single point. Pick the tool, grab a point, and drag up to round it off or drag down to sharpen it into a corner. That one gesture, up for round and down for pointy, controls the entire feel of the outline as it passes through that anchor. Work along your line point by point, rounding the soft spots and sharpening the crisp ones, and a flat outline gains real shape.
3The Curve group appears when points are selected
Select one or more points and a contextual Curve group of tools appears, giving you three one-click shapers: Peak, Smooth, and Simplify. Where Curvature is a fine dial you drag, these are fast presets you tap. They act on your whole selection at once, so you can round a dozen points or sharpen a run of corners in a single click. Most cleanup passes are a mix of Curvature for feel and these three for speed.
4Peak: snap corners crisp
Peak forces the selected points into hard corners, so the line arrives and leaves at a sharp angle with no rounding. Use it for anything that should read as an edge: a jaw, a knuckle, the corner of a book, the point of a nose. Select the points that should be crisp, click Peak, and the softness vanishes into clean angles. It is the fastest way to give a shape structure and bite.
5Smooth: round points fully
Smooth is the opposite of Peak: it rounds the selected points all the way, so the curve flows through them like water. Reach for it on cheeks, bellies, shoulders, clouds, and anything organic. Select the points along a soft stretch, click Smooth, and a jagged run melts into a graceful arc. Paired with Peak, these two cover almost every outline you will ever draw, hard here, soft there.
6Fewer points equals a smoother line
Here is the golden rule of vector: fewer points draw smoother lines. Every point is a place the curve is forced to pass through, so too many points introduce tiny wobbles the eye reads as lumps. A clean, sweeping curve often needs only three or four well-placed anchors, not twenty. If a line looks bumpy, the fix is almost never adding points, it is removing them.
7Simplify: thin a crowded line
Simplify is the cure for too many points. Select a crowded stretch of outline, click Simplify, and it drops the points that barely change the line, keeping only the ones doing real work. The curve stays the same shape but rides on far fewer anchors, which makes it smoother and much easier to rig. It is the tidy-up you will run after every Freehand stroke.
8Delete Point: remove one on purpose
Sometimes you want to remove a specific point rather than let Simplify decide. Delete Point takes out the exact anchor you target, and the curve re-flows through its neighbours to close the gap. Use it to kill a stray point that Freehand left behind, or to open up a run that is too tightly packed. It is precise where Simplify is automatic, so keep both in your kit.
9Translate Points: move the selection
Shaping is not only about roundness, it is about position too. Translate Points drags your selected points to a new spot, carrying their curves along, so you can slide a mouth corner outward or lift a whole eyebrow. It is the workhorse for correcting proportion after the curves already look right. Move a little, look, move a little more, until the outline sits exactly where the reference says it should.
10Scale Points: resize a whole selection
The transform tools reshape a group of points together, and the first is Scale Points. Select a cluster and drag to grow or shrink the whole selection around its centre, keeping every proportion intact. Use it to make an eye bigger, to shrink a hand that came out too large, or to size one shape to match another. Because it moves many points at once by the same ratio, the curves keep their character while the whole thing resizes.
11Rotate Points: spin a selection
Rotate Points turns your selected points around their centre. Grab a cluster and drag to spin it, which is how you tilt an ear, angle a hat, or cock an eyebrow without redrawing it. Because it rotates every selected point together, the internal shape stays exactly the same while its orientation changes. It pairs beautifully with Scale Points when you need a feature both resized and re-angled.
12Shear Points: lean a selection
Shear Points slants your selection, pushing the top one way and the bottom the other so an upright shape leans. It is the tool for adding a sense of motion or attitude: an italic tilt to lettering, a windblown lean to hair, a body that leans into a run. Select the points, drag to skew, and the shape keeps its size while gaining a diagonal push. A little shear reads as energy.
13Perspective Points: fake some depth
Perspective Points squeezes one side of your selection smaller than the other, so a flat shape appears to recede into the distance. It is how you make a sign angle away from the viewer, a floor tile lie down in space, or a box read as three-dimensional. Select the points, drag a corner, and the far edge tapers while the near edge stays full. It is a quick way to add depth to what is really a flat drawing.
14A tidy editing pass, start to finish
This is the whole rhythm in order. Rough in your outline, then run Simplify to thin the clutter. Walk the points with Curvature, dragging up on the soft spots and down on the corners, or batch it with Smooth and Peak. Fix any stray anchors with Delete Point and Translate Points. Finally, resize or angle whole features with Scale, Rotate, Shear, and Perspective Points. That sequence turns any rough into a clean, confident line.
Editing questions
You almost certainly have too many points. Every point is a place the curve must pass through, so extra ones create little wobbles. Select the crowded stretch and run Simplify, then shape the handful that remain with Curvature. Fewer points is the whole secret to a smooth line.
Curvature is a fine dial you drag on one point, up to round and down to sharpen, giving you exact control over how round that point sits. Smooth is a one-click preset that rounds every selected point fully. Use Curvature for feel and Smooth for speed across a whole selection.
Use Peak on points that should be hard corners: a jaw, a knuckle, the tip of a nose, the corner of an object. Select those points and click Peak to snap them crisp. A shape usually needs a few Peak points to give the smooth parts something to contrast against.
Undo, then be more selective. Simplify drops points it judges redundant, so if it removed one that mattered, select a smaller stretch before running it, or use Delete Point to remove only the specific anchors you choose. You can also add the point back with Add Point.
Select all its points and use Scale Points, then drag to grow or shrink the whole selection around its centre. The curves keep their character while the feature resizes. Pair it with Rotate Points if the feature also needs re-angling.
Shear slants a selection, pushing top and bottom in opposite directions so an upright shape leans. It adds motion and attitude: an italic tilt, windblown hair, a body leaning into a run. Keep it gentle, since a heavy shear reads as falling over rather than leaning.
No. Perspective Points reshapes the selected drawn points so one edge tapers smaller, faking depth on a single flat shape like a sign or a box. Real scene depth across layers comes from parallax and the camera, but for one object leaning back in space, this tool is exactly right.
Simplify to thin, then shape with Curvature, Smooth, and Peak, then fix strays with Delete Point and Translate Points, and finally place whole features with Scale, Rotate, Shear, and Perspective Points. Shaping before transforming keeps the process calm and predictable.
Your lines have backbone now
You can round, sharpen, thin, and transform any outline until it reads exactly the way you pictured it. That is the craft that separates a rough from a real drawing. Next, turn those clean outlines into solid, coloured shapes and give them a proper style.