vectrifySTUDIO
Opening drawing…
ARTBOARD
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Restore saved project

Browser recovery copies include the drawing, reference image and selection. Choose a copy to open it in this tab.

Snap edges

Automatically match touching edges of the selected paths, pair by pair. Of each touching pair the front contour stays in place; the one behind snaps to it. Regions keep their own colors.

Edges are split where needed, then the rear path's points and handles move onto the front path's. The paths stay independent afterwards. Pins and locks still apply.

Tidy

Clean up paths against the reference. Preview the result before applying.

Follow nearby edges and fit points and curves to match.

Add points where needed to follow the reference while fitting paths.

Optionally remove points the outline does not need.

Advanced settings

Switching this off restores the recommended movement, tolerances and run settings.

Fit path
Simplify
Run

Runs up to four rounds, stopping when no step helps or the time limit is reached. Each round tries the enabled steps and keeps the best result. Path fits use up to 60 internal steps.

Pinned points stay fixed. Colour is left to Fit colours.

Generate from reference

Traces the reference into new shapes, added as one group at the front.

Settings

Existing objects are not changed. Text in the reference is traced as shapes.

Fit colours

Solves the fill of each selected object that best matches the reference, including opacity, clipping and objects in front: a flat colour, or a linear gradient where the reference shades across the shape. Geometry stays fixed.

Settings

Several passes help when fitted objects overlap each other.

Clean up

Removes duplicate and collinear vertices, empty and duplicate paths, and merges compatible neighbouring paths into compound paths. Coordinates are never rounded.

What changes

Only selected objects change. Paths referenced by instances or clips are kept as they are.

Merge shapes

Colors

Choose the fill and stroke colors for the merged shape. Width and overall opacity remain area-weighted.

The result uses the frontmost selected position. You can undo the entire merge.

Set clip

A clip hides what lies outside a closed path, the boundary. The boundary path itself stays in the drawing, unchanged.

Roles

Choose which selected objects are clipped and which closed paths are the boundary. Several boundaries clip to their combined area; holes in a boundary stay hidden.

Boundary geometry

New drawing

Start an empty drawing with an artboard of this size, in document units (SVG pixels). It replaces the drawing in this tab, without a reference image; save first to keep your edits.

Artboard

The artboard is the drawing's page: what the canvas frames and SVG export shows. Changing it keeps the artwork where it is: nothing moves, scales or is cropped, and what falls outside stays in the drawing, off the page. The reference image stays under the artwork too.

Width and height grow or shrink the page from its top-left corner, X and Y. Fit to artwork makes the page the painted bounds of everything drawn. Either is one undoable edit.

Keyboard shortcuts

Every edit is one undoable step. Automated tools show a preview first; nothing changes until you press Apply. Ctrl/⌘ K finds any command by name.

A / V / C / X / G
Object tools: Select (pick and box select) / Move (pick, move, resize and rotate) / Knife / Region / Gradient
S / R
Point tools: Nodes / Redraw outline. They show the points of every selected path, and of every path inside a selected group
D / M / E / L / P
Draw types: Path / Rectangle / Ellipse (Shift for a circle) / Line / Pencil. Choose a type under the single Draw tool, or use its shortcut. Tool shortcuts switch at once, even while an edit runs, cancelling a drag under way
I
Eyedropper: click to sample the colour under the pointer and make it the fill or the stroke of the selected objects, as one undoable paint edit; with nothing selected, the drawing paint new shapes and paths take. The tool strip chooses Artwork or Reference to sample and Fill or Stroke to set, and the mark at the pointer shows both before you click. A sample is the average colour as seen, opaque, over a disc about 4 screen pixels across (at least one document unit): translucent paint gives its blend with what lies under it, and empty paper reads as white. Escape while pressing cancels; the Sample fill colour and Sample stroke colour buttons beside the inspector's colours pick up the tool too
Selecting
A click picks the deepest shape under the pointer, including inside nested groups. Clicking a selected shape deselects it. Double-click a path to edit its points (a rectangle, circle, ellipse or line first needs Convert to path, under Path); select groups in the object tree or press Escape to step up to them. Drag on the canvas to box select what lies wholly inside: objects, or points in a point tool. Shift adds or removes.
Ctrl / ⌘ A
Select all: every object at the editing level, inside the entered group if any, leaving out definitions, gradients, clipping boundaries and hidden objects; in a point tool, every point of the selected paths. Text fields keep their own
Arrow keys
Nudge the selection 1 document unit, whatever the zoom; Shift: 10. Selected points when present, otherwise the selected objects, through their groups' transforms. Holding a key adds the repeats up rather than queueing them, and nudges of one selection less than a second apart are one undoable step. A locked position or geometry or a pinned point refuses. In the object tree, menus, dialogs and fields the arrows keep their meaning
Escape
Cancel the current drag, path or hole inspection; otherwise step up one level: points, then their path, its group, nothing
While an edit runs
Keys, clicks and drags wait for it and then apply in order
Switching tools
Keeps the objects selected. Points hide in object tools and come back in a point tool while the same objects are selected
Commands
The right panel has Object, Points and Actions tabs. Object holds paint, transform and locks; Points holds coordinates, handles and point operations; Actions groups arrange, path, clipping and repair commands. Sections keep their open state when the selection changes. The Reference panel at the top left holds Generate, Tidy and Fit colours; More matching options holds Fit gradient. General drawing tools are under More tools. A command that cannot run now stays in place, dimmed, and says why when hovered or pressed: in the panel, the tool strip, the right-click menu and the palette alike
Right-click
The same commands for the selection, on the canvas or in the object tree; with selected points, the Nodes commands; otherwise the object commands
Drawing a path
Click for corners; drag for curved handles. Click the first point to close, or Enter to finish open. Backspace removes a point; Escape cancels.
Drawing shapes
Drag to draw a rectangle, ellipse or line, shown as it will be painted. Shift makes a square, a circle or a line at 45° steps; Alt (Option) draws from the centre. A click places one at the size in the tool strip (W and H, or Length and Angle), which shows the last size drawn; Corners rounds rectangles. Each shape is one undoable edit and is selected, into the entered group if any. It stays a rectangle, circle, ellipse or line until Convert to path. Escape cancels a drag
Pencil
Drag to draw a freehand path. As you draw, the stroke is fitted to a few smooth curves, shown painted as they will be with their points; the path added is the one shown. Smoothing is how far, in screen pixels, the curves may stray from the stroke: more gives smoother curves and fewer points, alike at any zoom. Close shape (1) closes each stroke back to its start as a shape that takes the fill. Each stroke is one undoable edit and is selected, into the entered group if any; the tool stays on for the next. Escape cancels a stroke; a click draws nothing
Drawing paint
Shapes and paths take the Fill, Stroke and Width in the Draw tool strip, which are remembered: closed shapes the fill and stroke, lines and open paths the stroke, or the fill colour without one
Knife
Drag a straight line across filled shapes, from outside to outside, to cut them in two along the line: with a selection only the selected paths, else every unlocked path it crosses. The pieces meet exactly and Merge shapes merges them again. Across a stroked line it cuts the line where it crosses, and Join line ends joins it again: cut across a loop to take it off as its own path. It cuts only along straight lines; Shift snaps the line to 15° steps.
Region
Drag a rectangle, or in Polygon click corners and click the first again (or press Enter), over the part of the drawing to Extract into paths of its own or to Delete. The panel chooses the selected objects or every unlocked path or shape there, and whether objects crossing the edge are cut; the canvas and the panel show what each object loses before anything changes. Enter or the panel's button applies it as one undoable edit; Escape cancels. A click in Rectangle still selects
Fixing traced lines
In Nodes: Break cuts a line at the selected points, or with the two points at a segment's ends removes that segment, and Join points joins two selected points however far apart. Under Path: Join line ends joins the selected lines' ends that continue each other within 12 screen pixels (zoom out to reach further); Merge shapes merges filled paths by area, or one filled path's overlapping contours; Fill to centerline turns a thin filled shape into a stroke down its middle, and Stroke to path turns a stroke into the filled shape it paints. Cut out as hole cuts the inner (or front) of two paths out of the other.
Union, Subtract, Intersect, Exclude
Under Path: combine the filled areas of two or more selected paths. The backmost is the target: it keeps its paint and place and takes the result, and the paths in front are deleted, so Subtract takes the front paths out of the back one. Hovering a command outlines the target solid and the cutters dashed, and its tooltip names them. Rectangles, circles, ellipses and lines need Convert to path first; an empty result is refused
Clipping
Select the objects to clip and the closed path to clip them to, then Set clip… (Clipping). Its dialog shows each selected object as Clipped or Boundary, starting with the frontmost closed path as the boundary; change any before applying. Linked clips follow later point edits to the boundary; Copied ones keep its outline as it is now. Moving the boundary later does not move the clip. Rectangles, circles, ellipses and lines need Convert to path first. Remove clip unclips the selection and keeps the boundary paths
Redraw outline
Start on a path's outline (or on one of its points; with a selection, a selected path's), draw roughly along the reference's edge and end on the same outline. The stretch between the two ends, the shorter way round and shown dashed, is replaced by curves fitted to the edge near the stroke; without a reference, to the stroke itself. Hold Shift to replace the longer way round instead.
1 – 9
Press the tool strip's numbered controls. In Nodes: 1 / 2 / 3 give the selected points no handle, one handle or both (2 again switches sides), 4 Break, 5 Join points, 6 Add node, 7 Straighten handles. Click a handle to select it; Delete removes only that handle. Straighten toggles alignment: when on, dragging a handle rotates its opposite to keep them in line; when off, they move independently. In Select or Move: 1 – 4 send to back, backward, forward, to front (also under Actions → Arrange). In Draw path: 1 Finish, 2 Close shape, 3 Cancel. In Pencil: 1 Close shape. In Eyedropper: 1 / 2 sample the artwork or the reference, 3 / 4 set the fill or the stroke
Dragging points
The selected points move together, with their handles. Hold Shift to constrain movement horizontally or vertically. They snap to other points and to the artboard's edges and corners; hold Alt or Ctrl / ⌘ to drag without snapping.
Moving objects
Press V for Move, click to select, then drag the selection or inside its frame; a line’s whole frame moves it. Shift-click adds or removes objects. While dragging, the frame’s edges and centre snap to other objects and the artboard, with guides; hold Shift to move only horizontally or vertically, and Alt or Ctrl / ⌘ to move without snapping.
Resizing
In Move, drag an edge of the selection's frame to resize along that axis, or a corner for both; the cursor shows which. Shift keeps the aspect ratio, Alt resizes from the centre, and edges snap to other objects and the artboard (Ctrl / ⌘ drags freely). Strokes keep their width
Position and size
Under Transform, X and Y are the selection frame's top-left corner and W and H its size, in document units, as the frame shows them: outlines without stroke width, objects in transformed groups included. Enter applies a field as one undoable move or resize; Escape puts it back. W and H resize from the top-left corner, keeping strokes as wide; the link button keeps their proportions. A line's missing width or height stays 0
Rotate and flip
In Move, drag the round handle above the frame to turn the selection about the pivot, the ringed cross at its centre; Shift turns in 15° steps and Escape cancels. Drag the pivot to turn about another point; it snaps to the frame's corners, edges and centre (Alt places it freely). Rotation under Transform types the angle, clockwise. Shift H / Shift V flip horizontally / vertically about the frame's centre. Each is one undoable edit; strokes keep their width, and clips and arrowheads turn with their objects
Gradient
Press G, or Edit on canvas under the fill's gradient, to show the selected shape's linear gradient: a square start handle and a round end handle. Drag either to move that end; it snaps to the shape's corners, edge middles and centre (Alt drags freely), and Shift turns it about the other end in 15° steps. The Endpoints fields follow the drag and the handles follow the fields. A dashed line marks a shared gradient: moving it changes every shape using it, and a paint lock on any of them refuses. Each drag is one undoable edit; Escape cancels it. Elsewhere a click or drag selects, as in Select
Align and distribute
Under Arrange, Align lines the selected objects' edges or centres up to To: the selection frame, the artboard, or the key object, which stays put and has an amber frame. The key is the object you added to the selection last; Key picks another. Distribute spaces three or more objects with equal gaps or equal centres, keeping the outer two in place. Both measure the frame's geometric bounds, never resize, and are one undoable edit each; a locked position that would move refuses and says which object
Middle mouse drag
Pan with any tool
Space + drag
Pan the canvas
Scroll
Zoom around the pointer
Repeat a canvas click
Cycle overlapping shapes, front to back
Ctrl / ⌘ + click
Add or remove an object in the object tree
Eye in the object tree
Hide or show the object or group, as one undoable edit; Hide objects, Show objects and Show all hidden objects (Object) do it for the selection or everything. Hidden objects stay hidden in the saved and exported SVG (display="none"); nothing about their paint or opacity changes. A hidden group hides all it holds. Clicks, box select, Select all and snapping pass over hidden objects; the tree still selects them, dimmed, for paint, name, locks and stacking, but moving, resizing, turning, aligning and point editing wait until they are shown. A paint lock keeps an object hidden or shown
Drag in the object tree
Restack the object, or the selection it belongs to; drop onto a group to move into it. Escape cancels.
Ctrl / ⌘ [ / ]
Move the selected object backward / forward one step · add Shift for the back / front
Ctrl / ⌘ C / V
Copy selected objects / paste independent copies at the same position. The object clipboard stays in this editor session; text fields keep normal copy and paste
Ctrl / ⌘ Z
Undo · add Shift to redo
Ctrl / ⌘ Alt N
New drawing: an empty one of the width and height you choose. It replaces this drawing as opening a file does, asking first if there are unsaved edits
Artboard
Click the size at the bottom left of the canvas to set the artboard's position and size, or fit it to the artwork. The artwork and the reference stay where they are; nothing is moved, scaled or cropped
Ctrl / ⌘ S
Save the current file
Ctrl / ⌘ Shift S
Save As: choose a destination and file format
Ctrl / ⌘ K
Command palette
Ctrl / ⌘ G / J
Group (add Shift to ungroup) / join: selected points in Nodes, otherwise Merge shapes, or Join line ends when only lines are selected
F / Z
Fit the drawing / zoom to the selection
Reference
The panel above the objects loads the reference image, picks the view and the overlay's opacity, and holds Generate, Tidy, Fit colours and Fit gradient
W
Cycle the view: drawing, reference overlay, reference only, reference error
Shift + W
Cycle the view backward
F2
Rename the selected object
Delete
Delete the selected handle or points when present; otherwise delete the selected objects in any tool. Shift + Delete deletes the selected points’ contours
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Open SVGs or Vectrify projects. Project files preserve IDs, pins, locks and the reference image. SVG export preserves the drawing.