Rectangle Tool

This tool can be used to paint rectangles, or create rectangle shapes on a vector layer. Click and hold to indicate one corner of the rectangle, drag to the opposite corner, and release the button.

Hotkeys and Sticky-keys

There’s no default hotkey for switching to rectangle.

If you hold the Shift key while drawing, a square will be drawn instead of a rectangle. Holding the Ctrl key will change the way the rectangle is constructed. Normally, the first mouse click indicates one corner and the second click the opposite. With the Ctrl key, the initial mouse position indicates the center of the rectangle, and the final mouse position indicates a corner. You can press the Alt key while still keeping down to move the rectangle to a different location.

You can change between the corner/corner and center/corner drawing methods as often as you want by pressing or releasing the Ctrl key, provided that you keep pressed. With the Ctrl key pressed, mouse movements will affect all four corners of the rectangle (relative to the center), without the Ctrl key, one of the corners is unaffected.

New in version 5.0.

If you hold Ctrl and Alt keys while drawing, the rectangle will be rotated around the marked corner. If used with holding Shift key, a square will be rotated around the marked corner.

Tool Options

Fill

Not filled

The rectangle will be transparent from the inside.

Foreground color

The rectangle will use the foreground color as fill.

Background color

The rectangle will use the background color as fill.

Pattern

The rectangle will use the active pattern as fill.

Outline

No Outline

The Rectangle will render without outline.

Brush

The Rectangle will use the current selected brush to outline.

Brush (Background Color)

The Rectangle will use the current selected brush with the current background color to outline.

Note

On vector layers, the rectangle will not render with a brush outline, but rather a vector outline.

Pattern Transform

New in version 4.4.

This enables upon using pattern as the fill, and has options for changing the pattern transformation a little.

Rotation

This allows you to rotate the pattern used in the fill.

Scale

This allows you to scale the pattern used in the fill.

Size

Width

Gives the current width. Use the lock to force the next rectangle made to this width.

Height

Gives the current height. Use the lock to force the next rectangle made to this height.

Ratio

New in version 4.2.

Gives the current ratio. Use the lock to force the next rectangle made to this ratio.

Round X

The horizontal radius of the rectangle corners.

Round Y

The vertical radius of the rectangle corners.