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Add basic shapes

Learn how to add basic shapes, and Adobe Capture shapes from Creative Cloud Libraries, to your artwork in Fresco.

Draw or fill a circle, square, or polygon

Using drawing aids, trace basic shapes like circles, squares, and polygons, or fill them with paint:

  1. Tap and hold the Ruler icon at the bottom of the taskbar to open the Drawing Aids menu.

    Use drawing aids to trace and fill basic shapes
    Use drawing aids to trace and fill basic shapes

  2. From the menu, select the drawing aid you want to add to your design, and place it on the canvas.

  3. To resize a drawing aid, tap the nudge icon   below it.

  4. Trace an outline:

    Pick a brush and draw along the shape's edges to trace an outline. You can use all types of brushes to draw outlines.

    Trace an outline
    Trace an outline

    Fill paint:

    Select the Paint Bucket tool. Tap inside the shape to fill it; tap outside it to fill the canvas area outside. You can choose Vector or Pixel fills.

    Fill paint
    Fill paint

Note:

Take the in-app tour of drawing aids. From the Home screen, select Learn, and open the tutorial Introduction to Drawing aids.

Snap to shape

You can also draw, scale, rotate and refine any basic shape by holding your stylus or finger at the end of the stroke to create a perfectly symmetrical shape effortlessly.

To enable Snap to shape, Tap App Settings and select Input > Snap to shape.

Snap to shape
Snap to shape

Add shapes from Adobe Capture

New to Adobe Capture? 

Get Free App

You can use your mobile device to capture a shape using Adobe Capture. The captured shape is saved as an SVG file in Creative Cloud Libraries. Learn app basics

Your Adobe Capture shapes load automatically in the Shapes panel libraries. 

To add Adobe Capture shapes to your artwork: 

  1. Tap the Shapes icon  in the toolbar to open the Shapes panel. By default, the thumbnail area displays the last four shapes used by you.
  2. Tap Your Library to view the shapes from Capture and select the shape you want to add.  
  3. Tap the shape to place it on the canvas. Use Fill, Erase, Mask, or Select action to modify it.
features-shapes-capture
Shapes from Adobe Capture are synced and displayed in the Fresco Shapes Library.

Use actions to modify Capture shapes

You can use FillEraseMask, or Select actions to modify Capture shapes. Fill solid color, or make a selection and paint with a brush texture. These shapes can also be used to create masks over other fills and strokes. 

Watch the video to understand how to use fill and erase actions in Capture shapes.

Watch the video to understand how to use select action in Capture shapes.

Watch the video to understand how to use mask action in Capture shapes.

For more information on actions like Fill, Mask, Erase, and Select, see Getting started with the user interface.

Discover and use shapes from popular libraries

You can discover and follow popular libraries of comic, typographic, and floral shapes, and use them:

  1. Tap Shapes  in the toolbar to open the Shapes panel.
  2. Tap   at the bottom of the panel.
  3. Tap Discover new shapes
  4. Discover and follow libraries, and then tap Done. Find them in your list of libraries in the Shapes panel, and add them to your artwork.
Discover and use shapes from popular libraries
Discover and use shapes from popular libraries

related resources

Now that you know how to draw shapes in Adobe Fresco, take a step forward and learn how to work with layersbrushesmasks, and more.

Talk to us

If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, we would love to hear from you. Share your thoughts with the Adobe Fresco Community.

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