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Quickstart: transforming#

On this page

Move, scale, turn, mirror, bend and combine what you drew: the Transform menu in one sitting. Each change is one undo step, so Ctrl + Z takes any of them back whole. Transform, Rotate, Mirror, Mesh Warp, Liquify and Wipe Stacks has the full detail of each.

1. Select something#

  1. S - the Select tool. Click a stroke, or drag a box round several.
  2. Shift-click adds a stroke to the selection or takes it out; Ctrl + A selects everything on the page.

2. Move it#

  1. Drag the selection. Hold Shift while dragging to pin the movement to one axis.
  2. Enter opens Move to type an exact distance, in any unit, with a live preview; the Move button applies it.

3. Scale it#

  1. Ctrl + T, the Transform button beside Mirror in the toolbar, or Transform > Transform Box puts the Transform box round the selection; the button stays pressed while the box is up.
  2. Drag a corner to scale both ways, or a side to scale one. Hold Shift to keep the shape, Alt to scale from the centre.
  3. Ctrl + T again, or Escape, puts the box away.

4. Turn it#

  1. Ctrl + R opens Rotate.
  2. Type an angle and press Enter; the panel stays up for the next turn.
  3. Or drag on the canvas while the panel is open to turn the selection by hand. Escape closes the panel.

5. Mirror it#

  1. O opens Mirror.
  2. Pick Horizontal, Vertical or both, and tick Create Copy to leave the original where it is.
  3. Press Mirror, or Enter.

6. Bend it#

  1. Pick Mesh Warp from below the tools in the side rail, and click the art to put a mesh of pins on it.
  2. Drag a pin to bend the art round the others.
  3. Enter keeps the bend as one undo step; Escape throws it away.
  4. Or Shift + R - Liquify - and pick Warp, Twirl, Pucker or Bloat from its panel. Drag over the marks, or hold still on them, to bend what is under the brush; [ and ], or an Alt-drag, size it. One drag is one undo step, and Escape before letting go puts it back.

7. Join, close and split strokes#

  1. Select two strokes and press Ctrl + J to Join them end to end into one stroke, on the first stroke's layer.
  2. Close Shape in the toolbar joins a selected stroke's two ends: Sharp with a straight line, Smooth with a curve that carries the drawn directions through the seam.
  3. J - Split, the other way: click a path to cut it there. A closed path opens at the first click, and a second divides it.

8. Combine shapes#

  1. Select two or more overlapping shapes.
  2. Transform > Wipe Stacks - or right-click the canvas - and pick a row: Wipe In unites them, Wipe Out takes the top from below or below from the top, Mid Wipe keeps their overlap, Outer Wipes keeps all but it, and Clean Wipe cuts every piece apart.
  3. A napkin wipes over the result for a quarter of a second; Ctrl + Z takes the whole wipe back.

Where next#