Shape layers

Shapes are the badges, rules, buttons and color blocks a design needs: a discount roundel, a divider under a headline, a filled panel behind a price.

Adding a shape

1. Click the shape tool in the toolbar under the canvas.

2. Choose Line, Oval or Polygon.

3. Drag on the canvas to draw it.

Shape properties

Select a shape and the properties panel shows a Shape section.

Property	Applies to	What it does
Type	all	Switches between line, oval and polygon
Sides	polygon	Number of sides, 3 to 10. Three gives a triangle, eight an octagon; four gives a rectangle or a square, depending on the shape of the box you drew
Corner radius	polygon	Rounds the corners, in pixels
Fill	oval, polygon	Interior color. Choosing the transparent swatch leaves the shape unfilled
Fill opacity	oval, polygon	Opacity of the fill, 0 to 100 percent. Hidden when there is no fill
Stroke	all	Outline color
Thickness	all	Outline width in pixels. 0 removes the outline
Stroke position	oval, polygon	Whether the outline sits Inside, Middle or Outside the shape's edge

A shape with no fill and no stroke thickness renders as nothing - worth checking if a shape seems to vanish.

Text inside a shape

A shape can carry text set inside it, which is how you make a badge whose label travels with the badge.

There are two ways in:

• Double-click the shape on the canvas to type into it directly.

• Open the shape's menu in the Layers panel and choose Add variable to bind the inscribed text to a variable instead.

The inscribed text takes the full set of type controls - a Typography and a Paragraph section appear under the shape's own properties - but not its own position and size. It follows the shape, so moving or resizing the shape carries the text with it.

Lines have no interior, so they cannot hold text.

Where to go next

• Text layers for the type controls in detail.

• Variables to make a badge's label change per image.