Freehand paths, curves, and editable shapes

Refine a silhouette before painting details

Draw lines, curves and shapes on a Paths layer so you can reshape them later. For example, bend a stem with Edit points before adding leaf shapes. Linked fills follow their editable boundaries; raster details on separate Pixels layers do not follow path edits.

Choose a drawing tool

The left rail has one Path tool for Line and Bézier. Its context bar shows both mode icons before the shared stroke settings. Click an icon to switch modes, or use the shortcuts directly; clicking the rail tool keeps the last mode.

 Line and  Bézier share the Path tool. Shapes offers  Rectangle,  Ellipse and  Isometric diamond.

Tool	Shortcut	Gesture
Vector Pencil	Unassigned; configurable in Preferences	Drag a freehand contour, then edit its points with A
Path: Line	L	Drag a straight segment
Path: Bézier	P	Click to add straight segments, or drag to add a point with curve handles
Shapes	U	Choose the Rectangle, Ellipse or 2:1 Isometric diamond icon at the start of the context bar, then drag the bounds

Choose stroke width, tip, color and opacity in the context bar. Drawing stays editable on a Paths layer after you release the mouse. When the target layer is incompatible, committing a drawing creates a compatible layer; selecting a tool alone does not change the stack. Hidden or locked targets reject drawing.

For a new line, Shift constrains the angle to horizontal, vertical, 1:1, 2:1 or 1:2 pixel slopes; Alt draws from its center. O selects Ellipse directly. Escape cancels a preview. Finished gestures use the same undo/redo history as other edits.

Draw an editable freehand contour

Choose Vector Pencil, the scribble icon below Pencil. Drag with the left button for the foreground color or the right button for the background color. Each gesture creates a separate open path, even when you draw over another path. A click creates an editable dot. Use A to move its points or bend a segment. The cursor outline shows the selected stroke width and round or square tip. Points and handles appear only with Edit points, keeping the artwork clear while you draw. The context bar shows foreground and background colors, as with Pencil.

Choose Precision for new strokes: Exact preserves the rendered pixels, Simplified allows up to 0.5 px of geometric deviation and Loose allows up to 1 px to retain fewer points. Changing this setting leaves existing paths unchanged. Simple contours may already need very few points in any mode.

Set width, round or square tip and opacity in the context bar. Pixel-Perfect starts enabled at 1 px and is saved with the path. Increasing width turns it off; returning to 1 px leaves it off until you enable it again. You can change it on a selected path with Edit points.

Turn on Auto-fill to fill an area when a stroke closes it on the active layer. You can draw the outline in several strokes. The fill follows the editable outline and uses the last stroke’s color and opacity. If the outline has a gap, the gap stays open. Undo removes the last stroke and its fill together. If the fill area exceeds the processing limit, Pixelithra keeps the stroke and reports the limit.

This tool uses uniform strokes. Pressure, custom brush tips, spacing, symmetry and repeat painting belong to the raster Pencil workflow. Close or join the path afterwards with Line or Bézier; paths must also share their freehand rendering style to join. In Free Canvas, press Tab to return to the context settings, then Tab again to resume the floating layout.

Projects containing Vector Pencil paths use native format v8 and require an application version that supports it. Older projects remain readable. Export a flat image when you need to share the result without editable points.

Transform shapes without losing their geometry

New rectangles, ellipses and isometric diamonds retain their shape type on Paths layers. Select a shape with Move and drag it, or use the corner handles to resize it. The round handle above the top edge rotates it; hold Shift to snap rotation to 15° steps. Isometric diamonds keep their 2:1 proportions while resizing. These edits affect the selected frame and are undoable. With Edit points, the same whole-shape handles keep the shape constrained. Choose Convert to path in the context bar when you need to edit individual points freely. Existing unconstrained paths stay ordinary paths.

Continue, join, and close paths

With Bézier (P), click to place the first point, then click each corner to draw a chain of straight segments. Click and drag at a point to give it curve handles. With Line (L), drag to draw the first segment, then click an endpoint and keep clicking to add straight segments.

Either tool can resume a path when you click an open endpoint. Switch between them to mix straight and curved segments. Press Enter to finish an open path, click its first point to close it, or click another open path’s endpoint to join them. Joined paths must belong to the same Paths layer and have matching stroke color, width, tip and opacity. Incompatible styles are reported.

Use Ctrl-drag to begin a separate overlapping primitive.

Edit points

Press A or select Edit points. Select and drag nodes or curve handles. Shift-click toggles nodes in the selection; a marquee selects multiple nodes. Move selected nodes together, nudge by 1 px with arrow keys or 10 px with Shift+arrow, or delete selected nodes. Arrows leave artwork unchanged while a text or numeric field has focus. Node moves align to document pixels. Escape cancels an in-progress preview.

Double-click a segment to insert a point for a local adjustment. The new point snaps to the pixel grid, which can change the rendered outline. Zoom in if an existing node or handle covers the spot. Double-click an existing node to switch between a corner and curve handles.

To bend a straight line or reshape a curve, drag the segment itself with Line, Bezier or Edit points. Its endpoints stay fixed; the two curve handles adjust without adding nodes. Nodes and visible handles take priority when you drag near them. With Edit points, Shift-drag selects points instead of bending the segment. Release commits one undoable edit; Escape cancels. Neighboring segments retain their shape, and linked fills follow the reshaped boundary.

The context bar edits the selected stroke. Node guides and handles are editing aids: they are absent from Preview and exports. Use the drawing tools again to create or continue paths; the point tool edits existing geometry.

Keep paths editable

Save a native project to keep trying different shapes. Rasterize when you need to paint directly on their pixels.

Save as .pxlithra to preserve nodes, shape parameters, handles and live fills. Use Layer > Rasterize paths and dependent fills only when you want pixels; undo restores the editable source.

PNG/JPEG combine the rendered artwork. PSD/PSB and Aseprite exports rasterize editable paths in their exported layers, leaving the native source unchanged.