Line tool

Draw clean ink lines: straight segments you can bend into curves and chain into one connected, editable path.

The Line tool (L) is built for clean-up inking. You draw a straight segment, bend it into the curve you need, and carry on from its end, so a whole line of ink comes out as one connected path that stays editable. It used to be one of the shape variants; it is now a tool of its own.

Drawing a line#

Press on the canvas and drag to the other end, then let go. The line is an open path with a stroke and no fill, on a new Shape layer. Hold Shift while dragging to lock the angle to steps of 45 degrees. With a Vector Cells layer or one of its drawings selected, the line goes into the cel on screen instead, and the layer stays selected after each line, so a colour picked next is for the next line. The line just drawn can still be bent and carried on.

Bending#

Grab a segment anywhere along its middle and drag to bend it into a curve. The grab works anywhere across the visible width of the ink, not only on its exact centre line, so a thick stroke is as easy to catch as a thin one. A plain click that never moves bends nothing.

Carrying on#

Start the next drag close to where the last segment ended, within about 18 pixels on screen, and the new segment continues the same line instead of starting a separate one. Keep going and a whole contour builds up as one path, with every segment still bendable.

The two ends of the line can be moved without leaving the tool. Grab the dot on an end precisely and drag it; the move snaps like any other point. A press close to an end but not right on its dot continues the line instead, so the tight zone moves the point and the looser one around it chains.

On paint layers#

With a Raster Cells or Pixel layer selected, the Line tool works the same way, and the line stays bendable and chainable while you work on it. When you move on to something else, it is painted into that layer. The layer stays selected throughout, and the in-progress line never appears as a layer of its own in the Layers panel or the Timeline.

Anti-alias decides how that painted line lands: on for a soft edge, off for hard pixel edges, whether or not Pixel Mode is on for the document.

Options#

The bar carries the fill and stroke swatches, the stroke Width, Keep Selected and Anti-alias, the same controls the shape tools have, without a shape picker. Stroke Position is not offered, because a line is an open path.