Document panel

The Document panel is the main content area where the artwork is displayed and edited using tools within the viewport. It's also where the node graph can be overlaid by pressing CtrlSpace.

The viewport is for interactive, visual editing of the canvas. The node graph is where you can inspect the underlying structure of the document and edit it in a more technical manner when the need arises.

There is one instance of the Document panel per open document file. Each has its own tab labeled with its file name. When a document has unsaved changes, an * is included at the end of the name.

The Document panel is composed of three main areas:

The control bar runs across the top of the panel and shows tool and viewport controls.
The tool shelf is the vertical bar that runs down the left of the panel showing the editing tools and working colors.
The viewport fills most of the panel and contains a view of the canvas which can be interactively edited using the tools.

Control bar

Here is where you control your interaction with the document via active tool and view options.

Tool controls

The left side of the control bar has controls pertaining to the active tool. It's empty for some tools.

Example of the tool controls for the Select tool

The example above shows the Select tool controls. Because the Select tool deals with selecting and transforming layers, its controls include:

The selection mode to determine if the deepest or shallowest layer in a nested hierarchy is selected when clicked.
The point about which the transform cage is centered.
Actions to align and distribute the selected layers amongst themselves.
Actions to flip the selected layers horizontally or vertically.
Actions to cut or combine selected layers with themselves using boolean operations.

Depending on which tool is active, these will change to reflect the pertinent options.

Viewport controls

The right side of the control bar has controls related to the active document and viewport.

The viewport controls


Overlays	When checked (default), overlays are shown. When unchecked, they are hidden. Overlays are the temporary contextual visualizations (like bounding boxes and vector manipulators) that are usually blue and appear atop the viewport when using tools.
Snapping	When checked (default), drawing and dragging shapes and vector points means they will snap to other areas of geometric interest like corners or anchor points. When unchecked, the selection moves freely. Fine-grained options are available by clicking the overflow button to access its options popover menu: Snapping options relating to Bounding Boxes: Box Center enables snapping to the center point of any layer's bounding box. Box Corner enables snapping to the four corners of any layer's bounding box. Along Edge enables snapping anywhere along the four edges of any layer's bounding box. Midpoint of Edge enables snapping to any of the four points at the middle of the edges of any layer's bounding box. Align to Box enables snapping to anywhere outside any layer's bounding box along the four lines extending outward from its edges. Evenly Distribute Boxes enables snapping to a consistent distance offset established by the bounding boxes of nearby layers (due to a bug, Box Center and Box Corner must be enabled). Snapping options relating to Geometry: Anchor enables snapping to the anchor point of any vector path. Line Midpoint enables snapping to the point at the middle of any straight line segment of a vector path. Path enables snapping along the length of any vector path. Normal to Path enables snapping a line to a point perpendicular to a vector path (due to a bug, Intersection must be enabled). Tangent to Path enables snapping a line to a point tangent to a vector path (due to a bug, Intersection must be enabled). Intersection enables snapping to any points where vector paths intersect. Align to Selected Path enables snapping to the handle control points of a selected vector layer.
Grid	When checked (off by default), grid lines are shown and snapping to them becomes active. The initial grid scale is 1 document unit, helping you draw pixel-perfect artwork. Type sets whether the grid pattern is made of squares or triangles. Rectangular is a pattern of horizontal and vertical lines: It has one option unique to this mode: Spacing is the width and height of the rectangle grid cells. Isometric is a pattern of triangles: It has two options unique to this mode: Y Spacing is the height between vertical repetitions of the grid. Angles is the slant of the upward and downward sloped grid lines. Display gives control over the appearance of the grid. The Display as dotted grid checkbox (off by default) replaces the solid lines with dots at their intersection points. Origin is the position in the canvas where the repeating grid pattern begins from. If you need an offset for the grid where an intersection occurs at a specific location, set those coordinates.
View Mode	Normal (default): The artwork is rendered normally. Outline: The artwork is rendered as a wireframe. Pixels: Not implemented yet. The artwork is rendered as it would appear when exported as a bitmap image at 100% scale regardless of the viewport zoom level.
Zoom In	Zooms the viewport in to the next whole increment.
Zoom Out	Zooms the viewport out to the next whole increment.
Reset Tilt and Zoom to 100%	Resets the viewport tilt to 0°. Resets the viewport zoom to 100% which matches the canvas and viewport pixel scale 1:1.
Viewport Zoom	Indicates the current zoom level of the viewport and allows precise values to be chosen.
Viewport Tilt	Hidden except when the viewport is tilted (use the View > Tilt menu action). Indicates the current tilt angle of the viewport and allows precise values to be chosen.
Node Graph	Toggles the visibility of the overlaid node graph.

Tool shelf

This narrow bar runs vertically down the left side of the Document panel beside the viewport.

Tools

Located at the top of the tool shelf area, the tool shelf provides a selection of tools for interactively editing the artwork.


	The tool shelf is split into three sections: the general tools (gray icons), vector tools (blue icons), and raster tools (orange icons). General tools are used for assorted editing tasks within the viewport. Vector tools are used for drawing and editing vector shapes, paths, and text. Raster tools are used for drawing and editing raster image content. The grayed out icons are placeholders for upcoming tools.

The tool shelf is split into three sections: the general tools (gray icons), vector tools (blue icons), and raster tools (orange icons).

General tools are used for assorted editing tasks within the viewport.
Vector tools are used for drawing and editing vector shapes, paths, and text.
Raster tools are used for drawing and editing raster image content. The grayed out icons are placeholders for upcoming tools.

Working colors

The working colors are the two colors used by the active tool.


	The upper circle is the primary color. The lower circle is the secondary color. There are two buttons located underneath: Swap which reverses the current color choices, and Reset which restores the primary color to black and the secondary color to white.

The upper circle is the primary color. The lower circle is the secondary color.

There are two buttons located underneath: Swap which reverses the current color choices, and Reset which restores the primary color to black and the secondary color to white.

The tool controls (above the viewport) for some of the tools offer choices for using the primary and secondary colors. For example, the vector drawing tools have Fill and Stroke options that use the current secondary and primary colors, respectively, as defaults:

The Fill and Stroke controls for a vector tool's controls

These options each allow choices of being driven by the primary working color, secondary working color, or a custom color set just for that tool.

Viewport

The viewport is the view into the canvas. It lets you interact visually with the artwork content. It also displays temporary contextual overlays atop the content to assist with your editing.

The viewport is also surrounded by scrollbars and rulers around its edges. Scrollbars, located along the bottom/right edges, allow scrolling the artwork to show different parts in the viewport. Rulers, located along the top/left edges, offer dimensional information for the area of the canvas that's within view. They can be hidden with the View > Rulers toggleable menu option.