Rectangle
Last updated on
Aug 23, 2022
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Learn how to create shapes using Shape tool and how to edit shapes using Combine shapes panel in Illustrator on the iPad.
You can create various primitive shapes using Shape tools and build complex shapes using the Combine shapes panel in Illustrator on the iPad.
Create basic shapes
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Tap Rectangle tool in the toolbar. Drag on the canvas to draw a rectangle. |
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Circle |
Double-tap or long press the Shape tool group and then tap the Circle tool. Drag on the canvas to draw an ellipse. |
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Triangle |
Double-tap or long press the Rectangle tool and then tap the Triangle tool. Drag on the canvas to draw a live triangle. To create a polygon, drag to change the number of sides using on-canvas controls. |
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Star |
Double-tap or long press the Rectangle tool and then tap the Star tool. Drag on the canvas to draw a star object. |
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Line |
Double-tap or long press the Rectangle tool and then tap the Line tool. Drag on the canvas to draw a line. |
You can also use the primary touch shortcut or use Smart Guides to create a perfect circle from the Ellipse tool, a square from Rectangle tool, and an equilateral triangle from the Triangle tool.
Edit shapes
When you select a rectangle or a triangle (polygon), a corner point is displayed on the selected shape. You can drag this corner point to create smooth and curved corners for the selected shape.
To edit the shape, select the shape with Direct Selection tool and then edit the paths.
Combine shapes
With the Combine Shapes panel, you can easily create complex shapes by merging and overlapping regions of paths. It works on simple and compound paths.
Illustrator intuitively highlights edges and regions of the selected art, which can be merged to form new shapes. An edge is the section of a path that does not intersect any other path of the selected objects. A region is a closed area bounded by edges.
To open the Combine shapes panel, tap 
in the taskbar and choose one of the following options:
- Shape Builder to intuitively produce shape combinations from overlapping paths by using natural gestures like scribble and drag to delete and merge.
See also: Build new shapes with Shaper and Shape Builder tools in Illustrator on the desktop.
- Combine shape options to combine paths. You can change from one option to the other without affecting the paths involved. To convert the results to native paths, tap the Convert to path option.
- Combine all: Tap to combine two or more shapes to form a single shape.
- Minus front: Tap to remove the overlapped region of the front shape from the shape below.
- Intersect: Tap to retain only the intersected part of the two or more overlapped shapes.
- Exclude overlap: Tap to exclude the intersected region of two overlapped shapes and retain the other regions.
- Divide all: Divide the shapes that you combined into individual shapes.
- Convert to path: Convert the shape into a path object for further editing.
- Divide All to split portions of overlapping paths into different independent paths. Unlike Combine shapes options, this option does not generate live results.
If you want to modify similar curves or lines of complex shapes without having to edit each anchor point one at a time, use the Shape aware transform tool.
With the Shape transform tool , you can analyze and modify the geometric structure of complex shapes without manually adjusting each path and anchor point.
Transform shapes using Shape transform tool
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Select the object using the Selection tool .
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Tap the Direct selection tool to enable the Shape aware transform tool.
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Select the Shape aware transform tool to view the geometric construct of the object.
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Press and hold the center of the touch shortcut icon and tap the path to select or deselect a path.
What's next
See the following articles:
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