Vector styles

Geometry shapes, paths, freehand shapes, and polylines share the same stroke and fill. This page describes those controls once, as they appear in the Attributes panel for any of the four.

Stroke

The line the shape is drawn with.

• Stroke style: the kind of line. The style decides which of the controls below appear.
  • No stroke: no line at all. Arrows don't offer it.
  • Solid stroke: a continuous line.
  • Dashed stroke: a line made of dashes.
• Stroke color: the color of the line.
• Stroke opacity: the transparency of the line alone.
• Stroke width: the thickness of the line.

Dashed strokes

• Stroke gap: the space between dashes.
• Stroke dash length: the length of each dash.

Freehand strokes

• Freehand stroke: a line that imitates a hand-drawn one. It adds:
  • Stroke thinning: how much the width varies along the line, from 0 to 1.

Rough strokes

• Stroke roughness: how far the line wanders from the exact shape, as if sketched. Two more options appear when it is greater than 0:
  • Multiple strokes: draws the line twice, as a sketch would.
  • Rough vertices: lets roughness move the corners too.

Closing a stroke

• Closed stroke: joins the last point of an open path back to the first.

Shown by paths, freehand shapes, and polylines, and by ellipses with a partial sweep, where it switches between an arc and a sector.

Smoothing the stroke

• Stroke curve smoothing: how much the shape's line is smoothed as it is drawn, whatever its stroke style.
  • The line is drawn through the shape's points. Smoothing pulls each point of the drawn line toward the one before it, by the amount you set.
  • At 0 the line goes through every point as recorded, small wobbles included.
  • Higher values remove the wobbles and give a calmer line. The trade is that sharp corners get rounded, since the line cuts across them.
  • It changes only how the line is drawn. The points of the shape stay where they are, so you can change it at any time, in either direction.

Shown by paths, freehand shapes, and polylines. It takes effect while the stroke style is freehand.

Fill

How the inside of the shape is painted.

• Fill style: the kind of fill. The style decides which of the controls below appear.
  • No fill: the inside stays empty.
  • Solid fill: one flat color.

Fill color

• Fill color: the color of the fill.

Fill opacity

• Fill opacity: the transparency of the fill alone.

Hatched fills

• Hachure fill: parallel hand-drawn strokes.
• Zigzag fill: one continuous zigzag stroke.
• Crosshatch fill: two sets of crossing strokes.
• For these three fills:
  • Fill background color: a flat color under the strokes.
  • Fill background opacity: the transparency of that background.
  • Fill roughness: how far the strokes wander from straight lines.
  • Infill thickness: the thickness of the strokes.
  • Infill gap: the space between strokes.
  • Infill angle: the direction of the strokes.

Gradient fills

• Linear gradient fill: colors blending along a line.
• Radial gradient fill: colors blending out from a center.
• For both gradients:
  • Gradient color: the color of the selected stop.
  • Gradient opacity: the transparency of the selected stop.
  • Gradient offset: where along the gradient the selected stop sits.
  • Spread: what fills the shape beyond the gradient's ends.
    • Extend: the first and last colors continue outward.
    • Reflect: the gradient runs back and forth, mirrored each time.
    • Repeat: the gradient starts over from the first color each time.
• For linear gradient fills only:
  • X1: the horizontal position of the start point.
  • Y1: the vertical position of the start point.
  • X2: the horizontal position of the end point.
  • Y2: the vertical position of the end point.
• For radial gradient fills only:
  • Cx: the horizontal position of the circle's center.
  • Cy: the vertical position of the circle's center.
  • W: the width of the circle.
  • H: the height of the circle.
  • After you double-click the gradient handle:
    • Fx: the horizontal position of the brightest point.
    • Fy: the vertical position of the brightest point.
• Focus fields: enter edit mode and double-click the gradient's center handle to show or hide Fx and Fy. They move the brightest point independently of the center.

Image fills

• Image fill: a picture painted inside the shape. Its controls:
  • Replace: chooses another image file.
  • W and H: the width and height of the image, in board units. A new image fill keeps the image's proportions and covers the shape. On images, they set the size of each tile.
  • Lock image proportions: keeps the image's proportions when changing the width or height, or when resizing the shape. With it off, the image stretches with the shape.
  • Image fill rotation: the angle of the image, from -360 to 360 degrees. Vectors only.
  • Tiles: repeats the image across the shape. Without it, the image is painted once and the rest of the shape stays empty.
  • Position: drag the handle at the center of the image to move it. Vectors only.