control point

The points that define a path. Line segments and gaps have two control points, at the start and end, cubic Bézier segments have four control points: one at the start of the segment, one at the end of the segment, and two others that define the curvature of the segment. Adjacent segments share a common control point. When a path is under construction, or is being edited, the control points are shown as orange or red squares. Composite paths also have control points that govern how the full path is created from the underlying shape. The composite control points are coloured differently to the standard path controls.