Handle
The control elements of graphical user interfaces that are used to manipulate vector graphics elements on the screen are called handles . Inserted raster graphics are also treated like vector objects by vector graphics programs.
When you click on an object, four small squares appear at its corners or a further small square in the middle between two corner points.
The squares initially mean that the object is selected. It can therefore be copied, duplicated, cut or deleted using menu commands.
The object can also be scaled with the help of these squares. If the Shift key is pressed while clicking on the handle and held while scaling, the object is automatically scaled proportionally.
The mounting program PageMaker contains a special function ( magic stretch ) when scaling raster graphics . If the control key ( Microsoft Windows ) or the command key ( Apple Macintosh ) is pressed and held while scaling using the handles , the raster graphic is scaled depending on the selected printer so that rasterization problems due to moiré effects are avoided.
In FreeHand or Adobe Illustrator and other vector graphics programs, further modifications can be carried out using the handles on application-internal objects. The handles there also act as limiting points for lines, so that simple shapes (rectangles or polygons) can be changed in their shape.
It is possible to pull out further handles from these handles, which realize the hard change of the line alignment per handle using Bézier curves .