Academy

Colors

Fill, Stroke, and Shadow

The topic of color is central in all projects concerning design and Illustration. We allow you to easily edit the color and style properties of your path, shape, or image in the Color Panel and Color Widget.

Note:

You can create and save multiple Color Palettes ic-palettes-tab icon in Linearity Curve (formerly Vectornator) on your Mac, and add or delete singular colors, including gradients from your Color Palette. Additionally, you can set a Primary Palette in the Color Picker menu.

In the Linearity Curve Mac software, you can change your color properties with the Color Widget Tool (1) and the Color Picker Tool ic-color-picker icon (2). The Color Widget Tool is located at the bottom of the Toolbar on the left side of the screen, whereas the Color Picker is accessible inside the Inspector on the right side of your Mac screen.

Fill and stroke activation

Any vector object in Linearity Curve has adjustable color properties. You can access and change these color properties by using the Color Panel inside the Inspector on the right side of your Mac screen. The Menu of the Color Picker Tool is divided into three sections, each controlling either the Fill ic-fill icon, the Stroke ic-stroke icon, or the Shadow ic-shadow icon color options of the selected shape separately.

The name of each section signifies the feature that its control options will alter.

  • The first section is labeled Fill Section (1) and controls the fill properties of your selected object.
  • The second section is labeled Stroke Section (2), and here you can control the Stroke Width and change between Regular Mode and Brush Mode.
  • The third section is labeled Shadow Section (3) and controls the shadow-casting properties of your selected object.

Each section displays different context-aware options depending on which object you've selected.

Fill, stroke and shadow sections

In Linearity Curve, you can find the basic elements of the Color Menu inside the Inspector, such as the Color Fill options, the Stroke options, the HEX code display, and the Eyedropper ic-eyedropper icon.

A – This section shows the selected element's current Color Fill or Stroke Color. By clicking it, you will open up the Color Picker. You can fill your shape with a gradient or a solid color.

B – This Tool is the Eyedropper. It allows you to sample any color on your canvas.

C – This section displays the HEX code for the selected color. Click it to open the Keypad, which allows you to change it. Right-click to copy or paste your Hex value.

D - In this field, you can enter a numeric value for the alpha channel.

E – This toggle will enable or disable the selected object's fill or stroke.

F – Click this chevron button to collapse or expand the Fill Section.

Fill options

The Fill Section

Inside the Fill section of the Inspector, you can access the Color Picker by clicking the Color Well (A) inside the first subsection. To change the color of your shape, you can either set the color value by using the Color Well (A) or the Eyedropper (B) on your Canvas or by changing the value in the HEX Code (C) field.

Changing the fill color

Setting the Opacity value

To change the opacity of your Fill, open the Appearance Section (1) and click and slide along the Opacity slider ic-opacity icon (A) or set the opacity percentage via numeric value.

Setting the opacity

Setting the Blur value

Curve implemented the option to blur shapes on your Mac. Select the shape and open the expandable menu Appearance (1) inside the Style Section. Go to the Blur Slideric-blur icon(A), and by clicking and holding the mouse button, you can drag the handle to the left or the right to control the intensity of the Blur Effect. Additionally, you can set the blur value numerically. The Blur effect will simultaneously affect the stroke outline and the fill content of your selected shape.

Setting the blur value

The Stroke Section

Inside the Stroke Section of the Inspector, you can change the color of your path, access the Color Picker, set the HEX color, control the Stroke Width of your path, the alpha value, switch between Regular Mode and Brush Mode, create a dashed path line, edit the end segments and intersections of your selected path.

The Stroke Section of Linearity Curve is located inside the Inspector Menu. Inside the Stroke Section, you can modify several parameters of your Stroke.

You can edit the Stroke Width, change the Color parameters via the Color Picker, swap your Brush modes, change the HEX Color and even create a dashed line along your path. Additionally, you can modify here the End Segments and Intersections of your path.

A - Here, you can change the color of your path, access the Color Picker, set the HEX Color, or use the Eyedropper and set the numeric alpha value percentage.

B – Here, you can set the Stroke Width of your selected path.

C – You can switch between Regular and Brush Mode in this menu.

D - Set the position of your stroke on the path

E – Change the Arrows of the end segments of your selected path.

F – Edit the Cap and Join intersections of your selected path or shape.

G – Create a Dashed Line along your selected path (you can specify the length of the dashes and the number of gaps between dashes)

The stroke sections

Path Arrows

In the Linearity Curve software for Mac, you have two separate dropdown menus (E) available to change either the Start Segment or the End Segment of your path. You have the option to choose two different End Segment Styles for one single path.

Note:

If you want to swap the style of the End Segments of your path, you can use the Reverse button in the Path Section to swap the End Segment styles.

Stroke and Fill memory

With the 4.10.5 update, Curve remembers your tools’ last stroke and fill status. That means you don’t have to manually reset the color properties whenever you change tools, which speeds up your workflow and helps keep designs consistent.

The Shadow Section

Inside the Shadow Section, you can find the following Shadow Controls:

Set the Shadow Color (1) using the Color Widget Tool, the numeric Hex Field, or the Color Picker Tool. Additionally, you can set the numeric alpha value.

You can control the Shadow Angle (2) by entering a numeric value into the Angle Field.

Define the Shadow Blur Intensity (3) by entering a numeric value into the Blur Field.

The Shadow Offset (4) can be set by entering a numeric value into the Offset Field.

The shadow section
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