Add and edit shapes – Pixelmator Pro User Guide

The Shape tool in Pixelmator Pro offers a collection of custom vector shapes — rectangles, speech bubbles, arrows, and other graphics. Some of these shapes also have smart controls that you can use to quickly customize the shape; those shapes are called Smart Shapes.

You can also customize the Tools sidebar to add some of the commonly used shapes rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star, or line as separate tools. Commonly used shapes like the rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star, or line can be used as separate tools and quickly added to the canvas from the Tools sidebar, Pixelmator Pro toolbar, or the menu at the top of the screen.

Smart Shapes have green handles that let you quickly customize the appearance of the shape, for example, by adjusting the corner radius of a rounded rectangle, the number of points in a star, or the shape of an arrowhead. To customize a Smart Shape, simply drag one of its green handles.

Once you add a shape to the canvas, the options for its customization will appear in the Tool Options pane. Here, you can change the shape size, and color, add shadows or strokes.

Note: After making Smart Shapes editable, they become no longer customizable and lose their special controls, such as the corner radius for Rounded Rectangle, etc.

Pixelmator Pro User Guide. Quick Links What’s new? Pixelmator Pro basics. Create, open, and save images. Working with layers. Pixelmator Pro keyboard shortcuts. Table of Contents. Add and edit shapes The Shape tool in Pixelmator Pro offers a collection of custom vector shapes — rectangles, speech bubbles, arrows, and other graphics.

Insert a shape. Select the Shape tool by doing one of the following: In the Tools sidebar, select the Shape tool. Press U on your keyboard selects the last used shape.

Select a shape from the list of shapes at the top of the Tool Options pane. Click or drag on the canvas to add the selected shape. The more you drag, the bigger the shape will be drawn. To insert a commonly used shape: Select the shape in the Tools sidebar.

If you can’t see the shape, you can customize the customize the Tools sidebar to add it. There are several other ways you can edit shapes in Pixelmator Pro: Use Arrange tool to move, resize, flip, or rotate the shape. Use the Transform tool to freely transform the shape, stretch, skew, or change its perspective.

Make the shape editable and adjust individual anchor points of the shape. Previous About shapes and vector graphics. Next Arrange and combine shapes.

Convert vector path with stroke to new shape – Pixelmator Community – Show or hide the shape outline:

Pixelmator Pro keyboard shortcuts. Table of Contents. Add and edit shapes The Shape tool in Pixelmator Pro offers a collection of custom vector shapes — rectangles, speech bubbles, arrows, and other graphics.

Insert a shape. Select the Shape tool by doing one of the following: In the Tools sidebar, select the Shape tool. Press U on your keyboard selects the last used shape. Select a shape from the list of shapes at the top of the Tool Options pane. Click or drag on the canvas to add the selected shape. The more you drag, the bigger the shape will be drawn. To insert a commonly used shape: Select the shape in the Tools sidebar. If you can’t see the shape, you can customize the customize the Tools sidebar to add it.

There are several other ways you can edit shapes in Pixelmator Pro: Use Arrange tool to move, resize, flip, or rotate the shape. Use the Transform tool to freely transform the shape, stretch, skew, or change its perspective. Make the shape editable and adjust individual anchor points of the shape. Previous About shapes and vector graphics. Note: By default, shape layers have blue thumbnails, while thumbnails of the shape components are gray. For example, if you add two shapes, the upper shape can be subtracted from the one below, but not vice versa.

Then, if you add another shape and, say, exclude it from the two lower shapes in the group, the two lower shapes are combined first, then, the upper shape is excluded from the result of the two shapes below. When you unite several shapes, multiple shape layers are united into a single shape with multiple components. A united shape looks the same, but can be easily moved as one and each individual component can be adjusted to unite, subtract, intersect, or exclude from the overall shape.

When you subtract one shape from another, any areas the selected shape overlaps are removed from the shape or shapes below the subtracted shape is also not visible at all. For example, if you add a rectangle shape and an ellipse above it, an elliptical area will be removed from the rectangle shape. Note : When subtracting a shape, all the shape components below it are combined first, then the selected shape is subtracted from the result.

When you intersect one shape with another, only overlapping areas are left and any others are removed. For example, if you have two overlapping ellipse shapes next to each other, only the overlapping areas in the middle will remain after intersecting the shapes.

Note : When intersecting shapes, all the shape components below the selected or uppermost shape are combined first, then the selected shape is subtracted from the result. When you exclude one shape from another, any overlapping areas are removed and all others remain.

For example, if you have two overlapping ellipse shapes next to each other, the overlapping areas in the middle will be removed after excluding the shapes.

Note : When excluding shapes, all the shape components below the selected or uppermost shape are combined first, then overlapping areas are excluded from the result. Click the disclosure triangle next to the shape in the Layers sidebar.

You can then click to select each component, move it, or adjust how it is combined with the components below. To distinguish the different shape components easier you can also choose to display their outlines.