Shape tools

Who can use this feature

Supported on any plan

Anyone with can edit access to a design file can use shape tools

Shapes make up the majority of your layers in any given design. Use the following shape tools as your building blocks:

• Rectangle
• Line
• Arrow
• Ellipse
• Polygon
• Star

You can access these tools from the Shape tools menu in the toolbar. Click the arrow next to the Rectangle to open the menu.

You can use the following shortcuts when working with shapes:

• Hold down Shift when dragging to create perfect squares, circles and polygons.
• Hold down Option / Alt to create and resize shapes from their center.
• Hold down Shift and Option / Alt at the same time to do both actions.

Rectangles

Use the Rectangle tool to create both rectangles and squares.

1. Select the Rectangle tool from the toolbar, or press R.
2. Click on a spot in the canvas and drag to create the rectangle. You’ll see the rectangle’s dimensions underneath the bottom edge.
3. There will be a handle in each corner of the shape, this allows you to resize the shape as you see fit.
   

   

Adjust corner radius

In addition to the regular handles, rectangles also have four circle handles on the inside of every corner. These handles allow you to adjust the corner to round the corners of the rectangle. Learn more → 

Lines

The Line tool allows you to create lines in any direction. Lines are an effective way of breaking up content within a design, or simulating CSS borders.

1. Select the Line tool from the shape tools or press L.
2. Click on a spot in the canvas and drag in any direction to create the line.
3. You can make any changes to its appearance in the Stroke section of the right sidebar. This includes the color, position, weight, style, and end point tips or caps. Learn more →
   

   

Create dashed lines

You can specify both the length of the dash and the gap between dashes.

1. Draw or select the line.
2. In the Stroke section of the right sidebar, select to open the Advanced stroke settings menu.
3. Enter the length you want in the Dash and the Gap fields.

Arrows

The Arrow tool allows you to draw one-sided and two-sided arrows. You can customize the tips or caps of the arrow’s end points.

1. Select the Arrow tool from the shape tools menu, or use the shortcut ⇧ Shift L.
2. Click on a spot in the canvas and drag in any direction to create the arrow.

Like the line tool, you can make adjustments to the Stroke properties. Learn more →

Ellipses and circles

Use the Ellipse tool to draw both ovals and circles. These can be used as they are, or manipulated to create custom shapes with curved lines.

1. Select the Ellipse tool from the shape tools menu, or press O.
2. Select a spot in the canvas and drag in any direction to create the ellipse. The shape's dimensions will be shown in blue underneath the layer.
3. There will be a blue bounding box around the ellipse, with a handle in each corner. This allows you to resize the shape.
   

   

Polygons

The Polygon tool allows you to draw an enclosed shape that is made up of any number of straight lines.

The default shape for the polygon tool is a triangle, but you can add extra points to the object to create your own custom polygons.

1. Select the Polygon tool from the shape menu.
2. Select a location in the canvas and drag to create the polygon. The shape's dimensions will be shown in blue underneath the object.
3. The blue bounding box around the shape has a handle in each corner. This allows you to resize the shape as you see fit.
4. Enter Edit object mode by double-clicking on the polygon layer. This allows you to add additional points to the polygon and manipulate each point individually:
   

   

5. You can round the corners of a polygon too. Hover over the handle in the corner until the radius is shown. Click and drag the handle towards the center of the object to round the corners.

Polygons and bounding boxes

You may have noticed that when we drew our polygon, in this case a triangle, the blue bounding box around the shape is below the bottom of the shape.

This allows the bounding box to remain a consistent shape or size, when additional points are added to the polygon. To snap the bounding box to the shape's true boundary, you can flatten the shape.

Right-click on the shape and choose Flatten, or use the keyboard shortcut:

• Mac: Command E
• Windows: Ctrl + E

Stars

The Star tool creates polygons that are arranged in a star shape. When you create a star layer, the default will be a five pointed star with ten sides.

1. Select the Star tool from the shape tools menu.
2. Select a position in the canvas and drag in any direction to create the star.
   

   

3. You’ll now have three handles you can use to manipulate the star:
   
   • Count: How many points there are to the star. The minimum is three and the maximum is 60.
   • Ratio: The distance of the inner points of the star from the center. This is represented as percentage of the star's diameter.
   • Radius: Allows you to round the points of the star.