Lifting pen to start new line

[jsampson06]

If I draw a line with the pen tool,and then start to draw another line, a curved line appears joining the end of the first line and the beginning of the second line. How do I prevent this?

[Old Bruce]

Pressing the escape key may be what you want to do. The Pen tool doesn't 'draw' a line so much as it places anchor points for the curve/vector/line. The Pencil tool draws a line as I move it across the page.

[jsampson06]

Thanks for your very prompt reply, but pressing the escape key causes the first line to disappear.

The pencil tool gives a freehand line but I am trying to draw a straight level line. Having essential tremor I cannot do this freehand.

[v_kyr]

6 minutes ago, jsampson06 said:

but pressing the escape key causes the first line to disappear.

After applying the second anchor point/node of a line press ESC, not immediately after the first made anchor point/node. - With the Pen tool when holding down the Shift key it will make straight lines.

[Pšenda]

36 minutes ago, BofG said:

there is a button to make only straight lines

You mean Line Mode?

 

38 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

With the Pen tool when holding down the Shift key it will make straight lines

You mean Constrain curve direction?

 

There were a lot of these "straight lines" terms here, so that the OP would not be confused 🙂

[jsampson06]

Thanks - I seem to have got it to work, with line mode on pen tool, holding <shift> down to constrain the line

to be horizontal or 45-degree angles from this. I think choosing line mode is what I was not doing previously.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, jsampson06 said:

but pressing the escape key causes the first line to disappear.

Disappear from the screen or from the Layers panel? If it's still in Layers, perhaps you didn't give the line a stroke, so it's simply invisible on the screen when it's not selected.