Three other Bezier curves are provided:

  • Q: Quadratic Bezier
  • T: Shorthand for Quadratic Bezier
  • S: Shorthand for Cubic Bezier

The quadratic Bezier has a single control point:

Quadratic Bezier M20,300 Q220,100 420,300 Equivalent Cubic Bezier M20,300 C153.3,166.7 286.7 166.7 420,300

The Quadratic Bezier is a special case of a Cubic Bezier curve with the control points as shown above.

One way of ensuring two smooth adjoining quadratic Bezier curves is to make the tangent for both curves to be the same where they join and make the control points equi-distant from the point that ends the first curve and starts the second. The T command does that by not giving a control point, instead the orange control point is the mirror image of the control point for the previous command.

Quadratic Bezier Shorthand T M20,300 Q220,100 420,300 T820,300

The same smooth curve can be achieved by the S command which defines a cubic Bezier with just the second control point. The first in this case is the mirror image of the second control point of the previous cubic.

Both the T and S command require a previous Bezier command before they are used but an S command can follow an S command and a T command can follow a T command.

Cubic Bezier Shorthand S M0,300 C25,200 125,200 150,300 S275,400 300,300