Vector editing is Graphite’s primary strength at this stage in its development. The editor lets you build detailed illustrations using shapes, paths, fills, strokes, and boolean operations — all in a fully nondestructive workflow. Every choice you make is encoded as nodes in the underlying graph, meaning you can revisit and change any parameter at any time without destructive consequences.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/GraphiteEditor/Graphite/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Drawing Primitive Shapes
The Shape tool provides the fastest way to place geometric forms on the canvas. Select it from the toolbar, then click and drag to draw a rectangle or ellipse. Hold Shift while dragging to constrain proportions to a perfect square or circle. After placing a shape, use the control bar at the top of the viewport to adjust corner rounding for rectangles — drag the radius slider or type an exact value. You can return to a shape at any time with the Select tool and adjust these values without losing the original geometry.Drawing Organic Paths
For freeform shapes, the Pen tool lets you place anchor points one at a time to build a vector path:Activate the Pen tool
Press P or click the Pen tool in the toolbar. Your cursor will show a pen icon when hovering over the canvas.
Place your first anchor point
Click on the canvas to create a sharp corner anchor point. The point appears and Graphite waits for your next click.
Add more points
Click again to place another sharp-corner point connected by a straight segment. To create a smooth Bézier curve instead, click and drag — drag direction and distance control the curvature of the incoming and outgoing curve handles.
Continue building the path
Alternate between clicking (sharp corners) and click-dragging (smooth curves) to define your shape. Each new point is automatically connected to the previous one.
Close the path
To create a closed, fillable shape, click on the very first anchor point you placed. The path closes and the fill (if any) is rendered inside.
Editing Paths
Once a path exists, the Path tool (A) gives you fine-grained control over its geometry:- Move anchor points — Click any anchor to select it, then drag it to a new position.
- Adjust Bézier handles — Drag a handle endpoint to change the curvature of the adjacent segments. Hold Alt while dragging a handle to break the symmetry between the two sides of a smooth anchor.
- Insert new points — Hover over a segment until a
+appears, then click to insert an anchor at that position. - Delete points — Select an anchor and press Delete or Backspace. The adjacent segments are reconnected or removed depending on context.
- Convert sharp ↔ smooth — Double-click an anchor point to toggle it between a sharp corner (no handles) and a smooth curve (colinear handles).
Applying Color
Color is applied through the Fill and Stroke properties found in the tool control bar when a vector tool or the Select tool is active.- Solid fill — Click the fill color swatch in the control bar to open the color picker and choose a solid color for the shape’s interior.
- Stroke — Click the stroke color swatch to set the outline color. Adjust stroke width, cap style, and join style from the same control bar area.
- Fill tool — Select the Fill tool (F) and click inside any closed shape to flood-fill it with the currently selected color. This modifies the Fill node’s color parameter in the graph.
- Gradient tool — Select the Gradient tool (G) and drag across a shape to apply a linear gradient. Hold Alt while dragging for a radial gradient. Drag the gradient handles in the viewport to adjust the direction and extent after placing it.
Boolean Operations
Boolean operations combine two or more vector shapes into a new compound shape. All boolean operations in Graphite are nondestructive — they create a Boolean Operation node in the graph that preserves the original input geometries. To perform a boolean operation:- Select two or more vector layers in the Layers panel. The order matters: the topmost selected layer is typically treated as the “front” shape.
- Go to Layer > Boolean and choose one of:
- Union — Merges all selected shapes into one, removing overlapping areas.
- Subtract Front — Cuts the front shape out of the back shape.
- Subtract Back — Cuts the back shape out of the front shape.
- Intersect — Keeps only the area where the shapes overlap.
- Difference — Keeps only the non-overlapping regions (XOR).
Text
The Text tool (T) lets you place typographic content on the canvas. Click anywhere to start a text frame, then type. Basic formatting controls — font family, size, color — are available in the Properties panel while the text layer is selected. Text layers remain editable: switch back to the Text tool and click a text layer to resume editing.Full per-glyph style controls and text-on-path support are on the roadmap for Beta 1.
Organizing with Layers
The Layers panel is the primary way to manage the stacking order and visibility of your artwork:- Stacking order — Layers drawn later in the list appear on top. Drag layers up or down to reorder them.
- Groups — Select multiple layers and press CtrlG (⌘G on macOS) to group them into a folder. Groups can be expanded or collapsed.
- Hide / Show — Click the eye icon beside a layer to toggle its visibility. Hidden layers are bypassed in the data flow.
- Lock — Click the lock icon to prevent accidental edits to a layer.
- Blend modes and opacity — With a layer selected, the control bar at the top of the Layers panel exposes the blend mode dropdown and opacity slider for that layer.
- Clipping masks — Drag a layer directly above another and enable clipping to mask the upper layer’s content to the shape of the one below.
Node Graph Overview
Learn how the node graph relates to your layers and shapes
Vector Drawing Tools
Full reference for the Pen, Path, and Shape tools