2D Canvas Editor: Layers, Drawing & Vector Tools

The 2D editor gives you a Photoshop-style layer stack, raster painting, and a full vector pen/shape toolkit. Tools live in the floating round toolbar at the bottom; the Layers panel is on the right.

It opens from the node toolbar: hover or select an image node on the infinite canvas and click Edit (the pencil icon). Double-clicking a node zooms into node focus, which is a reading view, not the editor.

Opening & saving

To edit an image: hover its node on the canvas and click Edit in the node toolbar. Your changes save automatically as you work, and Ctrl/Cmd+S saves in place — the same save the autosave runs, on the image you are already editing. To export a flat copy as a new node, open the ⋮ menu at the end of the toolbar and choose Save as new image; nothing on the keyboard does that.

Press F to frame what you are working on: the selected layers, or the whole image when nothing is selected. Right-click the canvas and choose Reset View to re-fit the whole image whatever is selected.

Layers panel

The Layers panel (right side) lists every layer top-to-bottom. The header has three buttons: New group (folder+), Duplicate layer (copy), and Add layer (+). Click a row to make it the active layer.

Per row you get:

• Visibility — click the eye icon (left of each row) to show/hide.
• Lock — click the lock icon to freeze a layer (locked layers can't be edited, moved, or dragged). Locking a folder locks its whole subtree; children show an inherited lock you can only release at the folder.
• Delete — click the trash icon, or press Delete/Backspace with the layer active.
• Rename — double-click the layer name.
• Reorder — drag rows to restack. Drag a layer onto a folder row to drop it inside.

Select the active layer below in the panel and use Opacity and Blend Mode (Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay) controls at the bottom. Groups expose Group Opacity and a blend mode of Pass Through / Multiply / Screen / Overlay.

Multi-select layers with Ctrl/Cmd+click (toggle) or Shift+click (range). Ctrl/Cmd+click a layer thumbnail loads a pixel selection from that layer's non-transparent content.

Layer right-click menu

Right-click a layer for: Duplicate Layer, Save as PNG, Remove Background (image layers), Group Layers (when 2+ selected), Ungroup / Select Children (on groups), Merge Down (Ctrl+E), Merge Layers (Ctrl+E, when 2+ selected), and Delete Layer / Delete Group & Contents.

Remove Background runs the AI cut-out on that layer alone and adds the result as a new layer, leaving the original in place. It appears only on an image layer you can currently see and edit — a path layer, a group, a hidden layer or a locked one does not offer it. See Image AI Tools for the model and cost.

Raster vs vector layers

Two layer kinds coexist in the same stack:

• Raster layers hold pixels — painted with Brush/Eraser/Bucket, or generated images.
• Vector (path) layers hold editable Bézier paths — created by the Pen, Pencil and Shape tools, and re-editable any time with the pen sub-tools.

Merging keeps vectors editable when it can: path+path combines into one editable path layer. Every other pair rasterizes — raster+raster, and a mixed path+raster merge, bake into pixels on the raster layer below. Groups don't merge.

Brush & Eraser (B / E)

To paint: select Brush (B) and drag on a raster layer. Eraser (E) removes pixels the same way. Set the paint color with the color swatch in the toolbar.

Brush settings: right-click the Brush or Eraser toolbar button. The popover has:

• Size, Opacity, Flow, Hardness
• Tip Shape — Roundness, Angle, Grain
• Dynamics — Spacing, Scatter, Size Jitter, Rot. Jitter
• Pressure affects (pen tablets): Size, Opacity, Both, or Off

Brush presets: open the brush settings popover to pick a preset, and to save the current brush as a custom one.

While painting, press [ / ] to shrink/grow brush size, or drag with Ctrl+Alt held (horizontal = size, vertical = hardness). On a Mac the same drag is Alt + right mouse button — Cmd+Alt is not the chord, and holding Cmd cancels it.

Bucket Fill (G)

To flood-fill: select Paint Bucket (G) and click. It fills with the current brush color.

Pen & Pencil (P)

Pen (P) and Pencil (N) are separate buttons in the toolbar.

• Pen (P) — click to place anchor points; drag to pull Bézier handles. Each path becomes its own vector layer.
• Pencil (N) — drag a freehand line; on release it's fitted to a clean editable path. Its options panel (left rail) has Stabilize (live input smoothing) and Smooth (finished-line fit).

When a vector tool is active, a second sub-bar appears with the pen sub-tools and the Shape/Corner tools.

Pen sub-tools (vector sub-bar)

• Move / Direct Select (V) — select and move anchors and handles. This is the base edit mode; clicking an active sub-tool returns here.
• Add Anchor (+) — add an anchor point to a path.
• Delete Anchor (−) — remove an anchor point.
• Scissors (C) — cut a path into separate sub-paths.
• Bend — bow a straight segment into a curve.

Shape tool (U)

To draw a primitive: open the Shapes split button in the toolbar (U), pick Rectangle, Line, Ellipse, or Polygon from its chevron menu, then drag on the canvas. For Polygon, set the side count with the −/+ stepper in the dropdown. Shapes are vector paths.

Corner tool (fillet radius)

To round corners: pick the Corner tool in the vector sub-bar. Its top-left panel has two modes:

• All — the Radius slider live-rounds every corner on the selected path layer(s). Select more layers to round them together.
• Individual — drag each corner's widget on the canvas.

Vector path styling

With a path layer selected (Pen, Shape, or Direct Select V), the left rail's options panel exposes styling. Writes apply live to the path:

• Stroke — toggle + color + Width.
• Fill — toggle + color.
• Taper — thin the stroke toward the ends, with an Amount slider.
• Parallel — fan offset copies of the stroke: Distance, Count (interpolated lines), and Offset X/Y.
• Sketch — a hand-drawn look: a Style dropdown (Sketchy / Pencil / Rough) over Roughness, Wobble, Passes and Grain, all shown at once.
• Texture — procedural stroke grain: Pencil / Charcoal / Chalk, with Scale and Strength. It is part of Sketch, sitting under it, and turns off with it.

Flatten (Pen panel) bakes parallel copies and rounded corners into plain editable paths.

Selection tool & marquee

• Select (V) — the default arrow: click layers, move and free-transform their content.
• Lasso (L) — a split button; the chevron picks Polygonal Lasso, Freehand Lasso, Rectangular Marquee, or Elliptical Marquee to make a pixel selection.

Selection shortcuts: Ctrl/Cmd+A select all, Ctrl/Cmd+D deselect, Ctrl/Cmd+I invert. With a selection active, Ctrl/Cmd+J = layer via copy, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+J = layer via cut (without a selection, Ctrl/Cmd+J duplicates the layer).

Segment tool (S) — AI object selection

To select an object by clicking it: pick Segment (S) and click on the subject; the AI returns a mask you can turn into a new content layer or a mask layer. Useful for isolating a subject before further editing.

Path Warp (W) — puppet warp

To bend an image along a path: pick Path Warp (W). In the top-left panel, Pick one or more paths and one target Layer (click on the canvas or in the Layers panel), then Morph. While warping, drag the path's anchors and handles to deform the image; the Influence slider sizes the warp's reach. Apply (Enter) bakes it into the layer; Esc steps back. Undo (Ctrl+Z) reverts one morph step within the live session.

Tip: draw a guide path with the Pen (P) first, then warp the image along it.

Merge, group & transform

• Merge Down — Ctrl/Cmd+E (active layer onto the one below), or the right-click menu.
• Merge Layers — select 2+ same-kind layers, then Ctrl/Cmd+E or the right-click menu.
• Group — Ctrl/Cmd+G (selected layers into a folder). Ungroup — Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G.
• Free Transform — press T to scale/rotate/move the active layer's content.

History

Undo — Ctrl/Cmd+Z. Redo — Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z. Drags, slider sweeps, and arrow-key nudges each collapse into a single undo step.

Keyboard shortcuts