Adobe Illustrator: Round corners - how it works

While you can draw a rectangle with rounded corners in Adobe Illustrator, you need to round the corners of other shapes yourself. In this practical tip, we will show you how to create shapes with rounded corners or round off the corners of existing shapes.

Round corners in Adobe Illustrator

First open an existing drawing or create a new file. Then follow these steps to round the corners of a shape:

1. Draw a shape, such as a hexagon, or select an existing shape.
2. Click on "Effect" -> "Stylization Filter" -> "Round Corners" in the upper menu band.
3. In the next window, select how much Illustrator should round the corners of your shape.

Round corners in Illustrator CC

In the latest version of Adobe Illustrator, there is another way to round the corners of each shape:

1. Also create a new shape or select an existing one.
2. Hold down the [CMD] key on Mac and click on one of the points within the shape with the mouse. In Windows, you can see the points in the selection without pressing another key.
3. Now use the left mouse button to drag inwards to round the corners or outwards to sharpen the corners.