Strokes are drawn along the edges.
Strokes draw the outline of an object and the line of a path. Set the color and width in a Strokes row in the right panel. Set the alignment, caps, dashes, line heads, and trim in the Stroke window, which opens from the row’s sliders button.
Strokes in the right panel
Stroke rows
When you select an object, Strokes is in a section of the right panel such as Rect Style. New rectangles and ellipses have no stroke, so “No strokes” shows. Choose Color from the + button next to Strokes to add a black 1px stroke. Each row has, in order, a color square, a color value, the width number, a sliders button, an eye button, and a − button. The color value field is narrow and can look cut off, like “#0000”, so click the color square to check the exact value.
- Click the color squareOpen the Colors window
- Click the sliders buttonOpen the Stroke window
- Click the − buttonRemove the stroke
Width number
The number in the middle of the row is the width in px. Drag it left or right to change it, or double-click it to type a value. Press ↩ to apply what you typed, or esc to cancel.
- Drag left or rightChange the width
- ⇧+drag the number10 times as fast
- ⌥+drag the numberSlowly
- Double-clickType a number
Stacked strokes
Like fills, strokes can be stacked. Strokes are always drawn above fills, and rows lower in the list are drawn on top. Put a thin stroke of another color in the row below a thick one to get a double border. With several strokes, the title of the Stroke window shows which one you’re editing, such as “Stroke 2 / 2”.
Where strokes appear
Rectangles, ellipses, paths, text, frames, tables, images, and videos have strokes, and so do scenes. Groups don’t. Strokes on text and scenes have no Dash, Heads, or Trim. You pick a stroke’s color in the same Colors window as in Fills and gradients, so you can make gradient strokes too.
The Line tool is not the same as Strokes in the right panel
Both draw lines, but they’re two different things. The Line tool (L) in the toolbar draws a new line object, while Strokes in the right panel draws the edge of an object that already exists. To change an outline, select the object and edit the Strokes rows in the right panel. Lines drawn with the Line tool are styled with the same Strokes rows.
The Stroke window
To open the Stroke window, click the button with two slider bars, to the right of the width number in a row. A preview of the current stroke is at the top, and your changes show on the canvas right away. The window has a fixed height, so scroll down inside it to see the Heads and Trim sections at the bottom.
Width and opacity
Width is the thickness in px, the same as the width number in the row. The slider goes up to 20px; for a thicker stroke, type in the field. Opacity is 0–100%.
Align
Sets which side of the edge the stroke is drawn on. Outside draws it outside the shape, Center draws it half on each side of the edge, and Inside draws it inside the shape. New strokes use Center. Hover over the three buttons to see their names.
Ends
Cap is the shape of the line’s ends. Butt cuts the line off at the end point, while Round and Square extend past the end point by half the width, rounded or squared off. Join is the shape of the corners where the line bends. Miter joins them in a sharp point, Round rounds them, and Bevel cuts them off at an angle. The cap shows at the ends of open paths and of dashes.
Dash
Choose None, Dotted, Dashed, Long Dash, or Dash-Dot from the five squares. Dotted switches Cap to Round to make round dots, and the other patterns switch it to Butt. In the Pattern field, type the dash and gap lengths separated by commas. The unit is a multiple of the stroke width (×w): 4, 3 means dashes 4 times the width and gaps 3 times the width, and the proportions stay the same when you change the width.
Line heads
Line heads put a shape on each end of an open path. Lines drawn with the Line tool in the toolbar are open paths too. For Start and End separately, choose None, Triangle, Open, Diamond, Circle, Square, or Bar. Then use Size, which appears once you choose one, to scale it from 0.5 to 3 times. Line heads grow with the stroke width and take the stroke’s color. If the line is too short to fit its heads, neither the line nor the heads are drawn. Rectangles and ellipses don’t have this section, and closed paths show “Open paths only”. You also can’t add heads to a stroke painted with an image or dynamic fill. To swap the start and end, double-click the path to edit it, then right-click and choose Reverse Direction (Paths and the Pen).
Trim
Trim draws only part of a stroke. Start and End (%) set which stretch of the line, counted from its beginning, gets drawn, and Offset (%) slides that stretch along the line. With Start at 0 and End at 40, only the first 40% of the line shows. An ellipse with an Inner Radius (a ring) can’t use Dash or Trim, and the window shows “Not available on a ring”.
Strokes that keep the size, and lines that draw themselves
To keep the size when you thicken a stroke. Set Align to Inside. The stroke thickens only toward the inside of the shape, so edges you lined up with other objects stay where they are.
To make a line appear as if it’s being drawn. Set End under Trim to 0% and duplicate the scene, then change it to 100% in the new scene. Turn on the first scene’s transition as in Your first transition, and during playback the line draws from start to finish.
To change strokes on several objects at once. Select objects of the same kind together and change the stroke, and they all change. To carry it over to a different kind of object, use Copy Styles and Paste Styles in the right-click menu.
Shortcuts on this page
| Change the width number slowly | ⌥+drag the number |
|---|---|
| Change the width number 10 times as fast | ⇧+drag the number |
| Line tool | L |
| Reverse the path’s direction (while editing a path; swaps the line heads’ start and end) | ⇧R |
Updated 10/15/2026 · The videos on this page were recorded in the current editor.