Workspace and Program Interface

The Tools Panel

Tools in the Tools panel are used to select, create and manipulate objects. Some tools have additional options that can be displayed in the Control panel.

To activate a tool, tap on its icon in the panel.

Several tools that relate to each other can be grouped together in the panel. A small triangle near the icon indicates that there are more tools available. For instance, tools that add different shapes share the same button. The button shows the icon of the last used tool. To use this tool again, just tap on the button. To activate a different tool from the set, long-press on the button until all of the tools in the set are displayed. Then tap on the tool you need. To display all of the tools in the set, you can also tap on the current tool two times.

Tools panel

Move tool icon - Move Tool: selects, moves and resizes objects

Selection tool icon - Selection Tool: selects and manipulates path elements

Pen tool icon - Pen Tool: creates paths with curves or straight lines

Draw tool icon - Draw Tool: draws freehand lines

Path width tool icon - Path Width Tool: creates strokes with variable widths

Gradient tool icon - Gradient Tool: adds and adjusts gradients

Set of tools to add text to a document.

Text tool icon - Text Tool: adds text boxes and activates the text editing mode

Text on Path tool icon - Text on Path Tool: places text along a path and activates the text editing mode

Text inside a shape tool icon - Text in Shape Tool: adds text inside a shape and activates the text editing mode

Set of tools that inclused the Eraser, Knife and Scissors

Eraser tool icon - Eraser Tool: erases portions of paths of objects

Knife tool icon - Knife Tool: cuts paths or objects

Scissors tool icon - Scissors Tool: cuts paths at selected anchor points

Fusion tool icon - Fusion Tool: removes segments and merges shapes

Eyedropper tool icon - Eyedropper Tool: copies appearance attributes from one object to another

Set of tools to transform objects.

Transform tool icon - Free Transform Tool: moves, rotates, scales or skews objects

Symmetrical Distort tool icon - Symmetrical Distort Tool: turns object's bounding box into trapezium

Free Distort tool icon - Free Distort Tool: moves corners of object's bounding box

Set of tools to draw basic shapes including rectangles, ovals, lines, arcs and sectors.

Rectangle tool icon - Rectangle Tool: creates rectangles

Rounded rectangle tool icon - Rounded Rectangle Tool: creates rectangles with rounded corners

Ellipse tool icon - Ellipse Tool: creates ellipses

Polygon tool icon - Polygon Tool: creates polygons with a customizable number of sides

Star tool icon - Star Tool: creates stars with a customizable number of points

Circular Sector tool icon - Circular Sector Tool: creates circular sectors and circular arcs

Elliptical Arc tool icon - Elliptical Arc Tool: creates elliptical arcs

Line tool icon - Line Tool: draws straight lines

Sheets tool icon - Sheets Tool: adds or deletes sheets and adjusts their size and position

The Tools panel can be displayed in the horizontal mode on iPhone and on iPad in the split mode. In this case, you may need to scroll the panel to reach all of the tools.