How to make corners round in Illustrator?

Question

I have created this image, I couldn't manage to make the corners look rounded (see below)

How can I make the corners round in Illustrator?

Answer 1

I think you should redraw it, because it would take longer to fix than it would to redraw.

When you draw your line, don't worry about the curves, just make straight lines with normal corners and apply a thick black stroke.

Like this:

Now use the Selection Tool V to select the entire line.

Hold down CTRL and you will see the Live Corner circles appear.

Click and drag on these to round the corners

On the corners where you don't want rounding, click the Live Corner circle for that corner, then click and drag it out to make it a regular corner.

You can also use the same trick on the big black rectangle.

Answer 2

If your image was made with a pen tool, you sould be able to use the direct selection tool (shortcut A) and click on each anchor point and then click and drag the small circle that appears next to the corner.

another way would be using the strokes panel and adjusting your corner options.

Answer 3

As Vincent mentioned, Billy's answer is great, but only for the newer (CC) versions of Illustrator.

In the older versions (namely CS6) you can just go to Effect → Stylize → Round Corners

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You can also create the shape (as per billys suggestion) and then apply a thick stroke, then set the stroke to round the corners.

1. Open the strokes panel (Window → Stroke or Ctrl+F10)
2. Set the corners to Round Join

You can now go to Object → Expand to turn the stroke into a regular path

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If you do have some corners that you do not want rounded:

Before you round the shapes, using the Direct Selection Tool A select the exact anchor point(s) from the corner(s) that you don't want rounded and copy them (Ctrl + C)

Now make the corners rounded, and paste in place (Ctrl + F)

(Once you do Expand you can use the shapebuilder or pathfinder tools to merge them together)