Vector editing

Keyboard shortcuts

While the canvas has focus (and you are not typing text), single keys switch tools, as in Figma. The same keys work on Mac and on iPad with an external keyboard.

• View (Mac, View menu): zoom in ⌘=, zoom out ⌘-, actual size (100%) ⌘0, fit to window ⌘9, show grid ⌘'.
• Editing: duplicate ⌘D, group ⌘G (a single shape can be grouped too) / ungroup ⇧⌘G, delete Delete, arrow keys nudge (Shift for 10 pt).
• Order: bring to front ⌘⇧] / forward ⌘] / backward ⌘[ / send to back ⌘⇧[.
• Lock and hide: lock/unlock ⌘⇧L, hide/show ⌘⇧H (applies to the whole selection — if any layer is unlocked, all get locked; if all are locked, they unlock). On iPad these are in the action menu.
• Eyedropper: the I key or the eyedropper button next to Fill in the inspector. Picks a colour from anywhere on screen (other apps included) with a magnifying loupe and applies it as the fill colour of the selected shape or text. iOS uses the colour picker's built-in eyedropper.
• Hovering a tool button shows its name and shortcut in a tooltip; VoiceOver reads them too.

Drawing shapes

• Rectangle / Ellipse: pick the tool in the toolbar and drag on the canvas.
• Line: drag from the start point to the end point for a straight line (its direction is kept).
• Polygon: drag with the Polygon tool to fit a regular polygon (hexagon by default) into the area. The inspector's Polygon section changes the number of sides (3–24) and the corner radius at any time. Double-click a polygon to convert it to a path and edit its anchors and curve handles directly.
• Star: drag with the Star tool. The inspector's Star section sets the number of points, the inner radius (%) and the corner radius. Double-click converts it to a path as well.
• Text: click with the Text tool for text whose width grows with its content (Auto Width), or drag for text that wraps at that width and grows in height (Auto Height). Either way you land directly in edit mode with the placeholder text selected, so just type.
• Editing text in place: double-click a text layer, or select it and press ⏎ (Return), to edit right on the canvas. What you type uses the layer's font, size, colour, alignment, line height and tracking, and follows the canvas zoom and rotation. ⏎ inserts a line break; Esc, ⌘⏎ or a click elsewhere ends editing (the text is kept, one Undo step). Auto Width / Auto Height boxes grow while you type.
• Frame (Mac): drag with the Frame tool (F).
  • On empty canvas it creates a new artboard (Frame) at that position and size (the same kind of frame the Frame menu presets create).
  • Inside an existing frame it creates a nested frame: a fixed-size container with a white background that clips its children to its box. Drag other layers into it in the layer panel; unlike a group it does not shrink to its children. Its background and border are edited with Fill / Stroke in the inspector.
  • Shapes drawn over a nested frame (with their centre inside it) become children of that frame (shown under it in the layer panel). Shapes drawn outside go straight into the artboard as before. A frame drawn inside a nested frame nests one level deeper.

Lines are paths, so the Select tool can edit their anchors and curve handles (see "Editing path points" below). Polygons are parametric shapes whose side count is set in the inspector; double-click to convert to a freely editable path.

Selecting and moving

• Click an element with the Select tool to select it (selection box with handles).
• Drag a selected element to move it. Nothing moves until the pointer has travelled a few pixels, so clicking to select never nudges a shape. While moving, snap guides (pink lines) appear when it aligns with other elements or the artboard edges.
• Overlapping shapes: if the drag starts on an already selected shape, that shape moves — even if another shape overlaps it in front (so you can select a back shape in the layer panel and drag it). Starting outside the selection selects and moves the shape under the cursor. Shift-click still adds to or removes from the selection.
• Multiple selection: drag a marquee on empty canvas or Shift-click.
• The arrow keys move the selection by 1 pt, Shift + arrow by 10 pt. Layers inside groups and frames move the same way, and with the timeline on, a layer whose position is already animated records a keyframe at the current time.

Resizing and rotating

• A selection shows resize handles (squares) at its corners and sides. Drag them to resize (the opposite corner stays put).
• Hold Shift while dragging to keep the original proportions (handy for images). Corner handles scale uniformly around the opposite corner; side handles stretch the other axis proportionally.
• Hold Option (⌥) to resize symmetrically around the centre. Shift + Option keeps both proportions and centre. (The same applies to Frame (artboard) handles.)
• Drag the rotation handle (circle) above the box to rotate. Like the inspector's knob it is relative: only the amount you turn is added to or subtracted from the current value (clockwise +), so the value never jumps to 0–360°. Shift snaps to 15° steps.
• Rotating tilts the selection box and handles with the shape, and resizing still works correctly while rotated.

Drawing paths with the pen

• With the Pen tool, click to add a straight anchor and drag to add a curved (bézier) anchor.
• Click the first point again to close the path, or press Return / Enter to finish an open path.

Editing path points (Select tool)

Selecting a path shape shows its anchors.

• Moving anchors or resizing the path updates the selection box to the real path shape.
• On a rotated path, anchors and control handles follow the rotation exactly.

Moving around the canvas

• Hold Space and drag — the cursor becomes an open hand (a closed one while dragging) and the whole canvas follows. It works with any tool selected, and releasing Space mid-drag keeps the pan going until you let go of the mouse.
• Tap Space (without dragging) — plays or pauses the timeline, as in After Effects.
• Scroll (two fingers on a trackpad) pans; ⌘-scroll or pinch zooms.
• View menu: zoom in ⌘=, zoom out ⌘-, actual size ⌘0, fit to window ⌘9.
• On iPad, drag with two fingers to pan and pinch to zoom. With a hardware keyboard, Space + drag works the same way.

Grid and snapping

• View ▸ Show Grid (⌘') — shows a grid on every artboard.
• View ▸ Snap to Grid — shape creation, moves and resizes snap to the grid.
• With grid snapping off, moving snaps to other elements and artboard edges with alignment guides (pink lines).

Context menu (right-click)

Right-click a shape on the canvas to select it (an already selected shape keeps the selection) and open the menu. Right-clicking a row in the layer panel shows the same menu. Right-clicking empty canvas opens a menu with just Paste.

• Cut · Copy · Paste · Duplicate · Delete — the same commands as the Edit menu (⌘X / ⌘C / ⌘V / ⌘D). Layers inside groups and frames are copied too. Pasted layers land inside a single selected group or frame, otherwise right in front of the selection (same parent), or at the front of the artboard when nothing is selected, offset by 24 pt and with new ids. If the clipboard holds image or video files, or SVG, they are imported as new layers. Items in the layer panel's context menu are enabled only when they apply to that row (or the selection).
• Group · Ungroup
• Bring to Front / Bring Forward / Send Backward / Send to Back
• Outline Stroke (below)
• Lock/Unlock · Hide/Show

Outline Stroke (strokes to vectors) — ⇧⌘O

Converts what you see into editable vector paths (Arrange ▸ Outline Stroke, also in the context menu).

• A shape with a stroke: the stroke becomes a filled path with its exact width, caps and joins (dashes included). With a fill present the result is a group (fill shape + stroke outline path); a stroke-only layer is replaced in place by the path.
• Text: becomes a group with one vector path layer per glyph, exactly as rendered (font, tracking, alignment and line height applied; spaces skipped). It can no longer be edited as text, so duplicate first if needed.
• The results are ordinary paths with editable anchors and handles.

Duplicate and delete

• Duplicate: ⌘D (Edit ▸ Duplicate) — the copy lands inside the same group or frame, right in front of the original, offset by 24 pt, and becomes the selection. Several layers can be duplicated at once.
• Delete: the Delete key

With the timeline on, changing position, size, rotation or a path of a layer that already has keyframes records a keyframe at the current playhead automatically. See Animation.