The drawing tools
On this page
Every tool that draws is in the middle of the bottom bar. Pick one, or press its key, and drag on the canvas; the status line says what the tool does while it is picked.
Pick a tool
The tools sit in the middle of the bottom bar, and each one’s tooltip gives its key.
Open the full-size picture| Tool | Key | Draws |
|---|---|---|
| Frame | F | An artboard, which holds other layers |
| Rectangle | R | A rectangle |
| Ellipse | O | An ellipse |
| Polygon | none | A triangle at first; the Inspector sets the number of sides |
| Star | none | A five-pointed star; the Inspector sets the points |
| Line | L | A straight line |
| Pen | P | A path, point by point |
| Pencil | Shift+P | A freehand stroke |
| Text | T | A text layer |
Polygon and Star have no key: click them in the bottom bar. V goes back to Move.
Draw a shape
With a shape tool picked, drag on the canvas from one corner to the other. The status line at the bottom of the window says what the tool does, for example “Drag to draw · Shift for a square”.
Open the full-size picture- Hold Shift for a square, a circle, or a polygon or star as wide as it is high. A line snaps to every 45°.
- Click without dragging for a shape 100 × 100 (a line 100 long).
- Press Esc before you let go to drop the shape you are drawing. The tool stays picked.
When you let go, the new shape is selected and the tool goes back to Move, so you can move it straight away. Its properties are in the Inspector on the right.
New rectangles, ellipses, polygons and stars are light grey (D9D9D9), a line is a black stroke, and text is black. To change a colour, see Fills and gradients.
A shape drawn on a frame goes inside it: the Layers panel lists it under the frame, and the frame clips it.
Frames
A frame is the artboard the rest goes in. Press F and drag. A frame is white, and it clips what is inside it to its edges.
Click with the Frame tool instead of dragging for a frame 375 × 667, the size of a phone screen.
A frame drawn over another frame is not put inside it: it goes on the page, in front. To put one frame in another, drag its row onto the other frame’s row in the Layers panel (see The layer tree).
Pen and Pencil
The Pen draws a path point by point. Press P, click to add points, drag as you click to curve the line, and click the first point to close the shape. Enter or Esc finishes an open path. Edit points and curves covers the Pen, and changing a path afterwards.
The Pencil (Shift+P) draws a freehand stroke as you drag. With a pen tablet, how hard you press sets the stroke’s width. While the Pencil is picked, its settings lead the Inspector:
Open the full-size picture- Colour and Weight: the stroke’s colour and width.
- Smoothing: how far the curve may stray from your hand; 0% keeps every wobble.
- Pressure: whether a pen’s pressure sets the width.
- Width: the width along the stroke for a mouse, or a pen with pressure off: uniform, or tapered at one end or both.
These settings are yours, not the document’s: they stay the same from one project to the next. A stroke once drawn is edited in its own Stroke section, like any other.
The status line shows no hint while the Pencil is picked.
Text
Press T, click where the text goes, and type. Press Esc when you’re done. Edit text has more.
On a Mac, Shift+P is ⇧P; the other tool keys are the same letters.