Shapes and vectors

Shapes

Rectangle R, Ellipse O, Line L, Arrow Shift+L, plus Polygon and Star behind the chevron. Each keeps its parameters — corner radius, point count, star inset — until you turn it into a path.

There is also a decorations library of ready-made ornaments, grouped as Wedding, Botanical, Bursts, Comic, Frames and Marks: dividers, curls, corner flourishes, wreaths, bursts.

Drawing paths

Pen P places points; click for a corner, drag for a curve. Pencil Shift+P draws freehand and fits a path to it.

1. 1.Press P, then click to place points0:00
2. 2.Drag to pull out a curve0:01
3. 3.Click the first point to close it0:03

Description

An empty canvas. P picks the pen; clicks place corner points and a click-and-drag pulls out a curve. Clicking the first point closes the shape, which becomes a vector layer with a fill.

1. Press P.
2. Click to place corner points; click and drag to pull out a curve.
3. Click the first point to close the shape (or press Esc to leave it open).

Enter on a selected vector opens point editing: move points, drag handles, change a point between corner and smooth, add and remove points, and open or close the path.

Booleans

Select two or more shapes:

The result stays live — the original shapes are still in there, still editable, until you Flatten (Alt+Shift+F, or Mod+E) to commit it to a single path.

Shape builder

Alt+Shift+B with two or more shapes selected. Instead of choosing an operation up front, you click and drag across the regions their overlaps create: click a region to keep it, Alt-click to remove it. It's the faster way to cut an icon out of a few circles.

Trim paths

A trim draws only part of a stroke. Select a vector, rectangle, ellipse, polygon or star that has a stroke, and the Trim row appears under its strokes in the Design panel:

• Start and End are how far along the outline the drawn part begins and stops, from 0% to 100%.
• Offset turns the drawn part along the outline, in degrees: 360° is one lap.
• For a vector with several paths, choose Each path to trim every path on its own, or One after another to trim them as one line, in order.

The fill is never trimmed. Trim start, Trim end and Trim offset can be keyframed, so a line can draw itself on, wipe away or chase round a ring, and they export to Lottie as Lottie's own trim paths. The Line draw and Trim spinner Lottie templates show both.

Arrows and connectors

An Arrow can route as a straight line, an elbow or a curve, and pick its endpoints from a set of arrowheads, circles and bars. On a board, attach one to two objects and it stays attached as they move.

Converting

Flatten also turns text and shapes into editable outlines, which is how you get to distort a letterform. It's one-way for the text — flatten a copy if you might want the words back.