Highlight an anchor point used as a key object
Keying an anchor point is a lesser known option for aligning and distributing.
Clicking an object in a selection to key it is a thing that can be learnt by a chance (that is how I learned it myself), but using the latest selected point as a key is not a behaviour that is easily noticed.
The change of the mode is marked only via the small icon in the corner of Align panel, and nothing else on the artboard tells about it — compare this to the fat edge a key object uses.
Can you try to make a key point somewhat more visible?
AdminEgor Chistyakov
(Admin, Adobe Illustrator)
shared this idea
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Jason Burnett commented
This is totally solved by a new Alignment Paradigm that decouples the destination from the source and allows for reference points relative to each for alignment.
Instead of Center align source element to destination element, you would have:
Align Source Element by Center to Destination Element by Center.Decoupling these things allows you to then solve this problem: select any point on the source element as the Al,ign By point and any point on the Destination Element as the Align To point and voila, you have perfect alignment every time.
This would easily include the existing alignment strategies, but would open up a world of much better alignment and accuracy.
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Bobby Henderson
commented
I'm bumping this idea due to a limitation in Adobe Illustrator with aligning anchor points. When using the direct selection tool to highlight anchor points on a path the options to align anchor points disappears in the align palette if all points on a path are selected. That can be a problem if I'm trying to align two points on a simple two point path. I either have to add additional points or manually align the path using smart guides. It would be really nice if one anchor point could have key object like behavior and stay locked in place. Certain rival vector graphics applications make it pretty easy to align anchor points in this kind of controlled manner.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Allow to use point-specific controls when all points of a path are selected: Convert to Smooth / Corner, Show / Hide Handles, Cut