Academy

Workspace

Linearity Curve interface on Mac has a minimalist aesthetic but keeps a full-immersive desktop experience.

The Document Interface is divided into four main parts:

  1. The Top Toolbar is a customizable bar with the tools you use the most.
  2. The Style Inspector is where you can find all the content-aware options for the features you're working on, including shear transformation.
  3. The Layers and Artboards panel, where you can organize your objects, is located on the left side of your screen.
  4. The Toolbar to access all the main Curve editing tools.

Among these you can also find:

  1. The Library popover, where you can open the Library to import icons, images, symbols, and more.
  2. The Export popover to quick export your projects.

All the Linearity Curve interface controls use native macOS components, including the Toolbar, the Top Toolbar, the Inspector, and much more. You’ll notice that the navigation bars in the Inspector provide a very native Apple look and feel as a result.

Inspector

In the Style Inspector, you’ll find the controls for the tool you’re currently working with. You can also view and edit the properties of selected objects, manage import options, and more. It is divided into collapsible menus, decluttering your workspace and making it easier to focus on your current work.

You can always hide/show the Inspector by pressing the

⌥⌘2
key.

The Inspector is also context-aware, which means it automatically displays some extra sections according to the content selected. These sections will appear below the Location section.

inspector Linearity

In input boxes at the top of the Inspector allow you to control the position, rotation, angle, and size of the selected object(s). The flipping buttons ic-flip-horizontally icon ic-flip-vertically icon at the bottom right of the Location Menu will mirror the selected object horizontally or vertically. Just click the buttons to perform these actions.

Shear transformation

As well as having the ability to adjust an object's position and size, you can also adjust it's angle to create a parallelogram. This is called "shear." Here’s how to do it:

  1. Select the image or shape you want to shear.
  2. In the Style Inspector, you’ll find the controls for position, rotation, and size of the selected object(s) always locked at the top, as well as the Shear Transformation option.
  3. Enter the angle you want in the shearing option of the Inspector. This controls the horizontal shearing of your image. For vertical shearing, shear and rotate with the same amounts.

With shear transformation, you can add a new dimension to your designs, making them more dynamic and visually appealing.

The collapsible menus in the Inspector are divided as follows:

  • The Shape ic-shape icon section. It appears when at least one vector shape is selected.
  • ‍The Arrange ic-arrange-tab icon options, such as Order, Align, Distribute, Mask, Repeat Action and Group.
  • ‍The Appearance ic-appearance icon options, such as Blend Mode, Opacity, and Blur.
  • Fill ic-fill icon
  • Stroke ic-stroke icon
  • Shadow ic-shadow icon
  • Path ic-path-tab icon

The Fill, Stroke, and Shadow Sections can be toggled on and off to activate or deactivate the corresponding features of each section.

inspector 2

Note:

If you're familiar with Curve on iPad you can recognize a similar structure but divided into multiple tabs.

The Shape section

This section is context-sensitive and displays the Smoothing controls and/ or the Corner Radius ic-corner-radius icon controls depending on the currently activated tool.

The Arrange options

Below the Shape section, can find the Arrange options which allow you to:

AOrder ic-stack-order icon – Change the Stack Order of your elements

BAlign ic-align-top icon – Align your objects using the six alignment buttons in the top row

CDistribute ic-distribute-horizontally icon – Adjust even spacing between multiple objects, by distributing them horizontally or vertically

DMask ic-mask icon – Mask and/or Unmask with a single click of your mouse

ERepeat Action ic-repeat-action icon – Repeat the last action with one click

FGroup ic-group icon –Group and/or Ungroup your objects

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Appearance section

Right below the Arrange options, you can find the main appearance controllers that will be activated as soon as you select at least one element of your document:

ABlend Modes are accessible via pull-down menu.

B – The Opacity ic-opacity icon slider controls the opacity value of your selected shape(s).

C – The Blur ic-blur icon slider controls the blur amount of your selected shape or path.

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Path section

The Path section ic-path-tab icon is the go-to section for editing and modifying paths. It contains the following options:

A – Boolean Operations,

B – Join, Combine, and Separate Paths.

C – Edit and Finish paths

D – Add or Remove Bézier Nodes

E – Text on Path, Reverse, Outline, and Offset Path.

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Context-aware options

The Inspector, as on iPad, is context-aware. This means that it adapts according to the currently selected object or tool. For example, when drawing with the Pen Tool, the Inspector displays the different Node Types (A), Open ic-open-path icon /Close ic-close-path icon (B), and Finish ic-check icon (C) paths.

The context-aware options always appear below the Location menu.

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When you select a text box, the Inspector will display the Text options ic-textbox icon below the Location menu, where you can access to all text editing options as: select the Font Type (A), Text Alignment (B), change the Kerning, Tracking, and Line Height (C), set the Textbox Resizing (D) behavior or Create Outlines from Text (E).

text options

Toolbars

The Toolbar is where you’ll find quick shortcuts to essential tools and actions in the Linearity Curve Mac. Our Mac interface contains two separate toolbars:

  1. The left Toolbar contains the main tools to draw, edit and arrange elements to the canvas.
  2. The top (Editor) Toolbar gives you access to your favorite editing tools.
Tool bars interface

Left Toolbar

The Toolbar on the left side of the interface of Linearity Curve gives you access to several tools for selecting, editing, drawing, erasing shapes, and adding text.

The toolbar Mac

Customize the Toolbars

You can customize the toolbars with different buttons to suit your needs.

You can customize the tools to include in the left Toolbar by going to the menu bar > Curve > Settings > Canvas tab > Customize Tools.

You can right-click on the Top Toolbar, select Customize Toolbar or go to View > Customize Toolbar.

Customize tool bar

If you want to hide the Top Toolbar, you can do it from the Menu Bar, by going to View > Show/Hide Toolbar.

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