How do I use the pen tool for just one anchor point?

Question

It is quite hard to explain in words so I will show screenshots of what i would like.

This is a screenshot of what happens when I drag with the pen tool.

This is what I would like to happen.

Is there a shortcut to drag out only the first handle?

Answer 1

Sorry this is well past any usefulness to the original poster most likely. I realize this is a very old question. However, this may be helpful to others. This has been a solution in Illustrator since practically it's inception and still works today (CC2018 the most recent version as of this writing).

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Hold down the Option/Alt key with the Pen Tool active and click the anchor again, after dragging.

This will set one side of the anchor to a corner while leaving the curve on the other side.

This same method will also function in Photoshop with it's Pen Tool.

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Also note in either application, if you hold the Option/Alt and click-drag the open anchor, as opposed to merely clicking, you can create a non-symmetrical corner point.

Answer 2

You should use "conversion" trick of the pen tool -

When you make a point and leave the mouse - just click again on that point and it will be converted to what you want :

and after conversion -

Answer 3

It's very simple. The trick is start from the right point:

press down -> drag handle -> release mouse btn

and then just one click on the left point.

Here is what i get

Because when using drag to create a point, when this point is a joint, it will be a smooth point by default (2 side control handles). Only when it's a starting point, it will has only one handle.