How to Round Only the Top Two Corners in Illustrator

Each time you use Adobe Illustrator's Rounded Rectangle tool, it produces a square or rectangular vector graphic object with four equally rounded corners. You can specify the object's dimensions and the amount of rounding or draw a box of any size with the default corner radius specified in your Adobe Illustrator preferences. To create an object with a mixture of square and rounded corners, however, you must create a rounded rectangle and edit its shape.

Instructions

1. Choose the Rounded Rectangle tool in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Click once on your document's artboard to enter a width, height and corner radius for your vector object. Click and drag instead to draw your object by eye.

2. Select the Scissors tool, grouped with the Eraser and Knife tools in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Locate the anchor point on the lower left side of your rounded rectangle at which the object's shape changes from straight to curved. Click on the anchor point to cut your shape at that point.

3. Locate the anchor point on the lower right side of your rounded rectangle at which the shape begins to curve. Click on the anchor point to cut your shape again.

4. Choose the Selection tool in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Click on the bottom portion of your rounded rectangle to select the segment you detached using the Scissors tool. Press the "Delete" key to clear the selected object.

5. Select the Direct Selection tool in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Click and drag around the open ends of your rounded rectangle to select the anchor points at which you cut away its bottom side.

6. Choose "Join" from the Path submenu of the Object menu to create a new line segment that closes your rounded rectangle. The new corner joins use square anchor points.

7. Select the Selection tool in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Choose "Transform" from the Window menu to open the Transform panel if it's not already visible on your screen. Check the height of your edited object, which measures slightly shorter now that you've removed its lower curves.

Tips & Warnings

• To make your edited object taller without distorting the radius of its remaining rounded corners, drag the side with two square corners until you reach the desired height. Alternatively, before you close the open shape you've just edited, click on one of the open anchor points with the Direct Selection tool and use the Transform panel move it until that side of the shape is the desired height, then repeat the process with the other open end.

• If you're experienced at using the Direct Selection tool, you can marquee around the bottom of the rounded rectangle and press the "Delete" key to remove the rounded end.

• Be careful when you use the Scissors tool. If you accidentally click above or below an anchor point at which you're trying to split a path, you will split it at a new anchor point added by the Scissors tool.

References

• Adobe Systems: Using Adobe Illustrator CS5
• "The Adobe Illustrator CS5 Wow! Book"; Sharon Steuer; 2010
• "Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One for Dummies"; Jennifer Smith, et al.; 2010
• "Illustrator CS5 for Windows and Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide"; Elaine Weinmann, et al.; 2011