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The Select tool is the primary tool for selecting and transforming content. It lets you pick layers, move them around, and resize, rotate, skew, and flip them using interactive bounding box handles or keyboard-driven transforms. Activate it by clicking its icon in the tool shelf or pressing V (for the letter's arrow shape that resembles the tool icon).
Tool options
The tool's control bar across the top of the viewport provides controls that apply to the Select tool.
Selection mode
The selection mode dropdown controls which layer gets chosen when you click on a stack of overlapping layers.
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Shallow Select | Clicking picks the shallowest (outermost) matching layer. Double-clicking drills down into the hierarchy one level at a time. Press ShiftEsc (or Select > Select Parent in the menu bar) to go back up one level to the parent. |
| Deep Select | Clicking immediately picks the deepest (innermost) layer beneath the cursor. |
Regardless of mode, holding Ctrl (macOS: ⌘) while clicking always selects the deepest layer directly.
Pivot
The pivot is the point in space used by the tools for rotation and scale manipulation. When enabled, it is visualized by a gizmo drawn at that point. Specifically, it is the center point for:
- Rotating with the transform cage rotation handles
- Scaling with the transform cage edge/corner handles when Alt is held
- Rotating and scaling via the G/R/S keyboard-driven transforms
It is important to understand that the pivot is purely a tool-level concept; it is not stored as part of the layer's data. When the pivot does not coincide with the layer's own local origin, the tool achieves the correct visual result by combining a rotation or scale with a compensating translation, so that the layer appears to transform around the pivot. The layer's actual transform (as seen in its Transform node) reflects only the net result of that math, not the pivot itself. Editing a layer's Transform node values directly always operates around the layer's own local origin, regardless of where the pivot gizmo is placed.
The pivot gizmo checkbox toggles the on-canvas circle indicator. When disabled, the center of selection bounds is used as the pivot. When enabled, the pivot type dropdown chooses what determines the pivot's location:
| Type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Custom Pivot | The pivot is a freely draggable point. Drag the on-canvas gizmo to place it anywhere. The 9-point reference grid widget snaps it to one of nine reference positions on the bounding box: the four edge midpoints, the four corners, or the center. By default the custom pivot is not persistent; it resets to the last-chosen reference point on the 9-point widget whenever the selection is replaced with a different set of layers. The pin button changes this behavior, keeping the pivot fixed at its current canvas position regardless of selection changes. |
| Origin (Average Point) | The pivot is automatically placed at the average of all selected layers' origins. It cannot be moved manually. |
| Origin (Active Object) | The pivot is placed at the origin of the most recently selected layer. It cannot be moved manually. |
Alignment
Six alignment buttons become active when two or more layers are selected:
- Align left edges
- Align horizontal centers
- Align right edges
- Align top edges
- Align vertical centers
- Align bottom edges
Each button aligns all selected layers relative to the combined bounding box of the entire selection. This means a center alignment, for example, places every object at the midpoint between the outermost edges of the whole group, not the center of any individual object.
A useful consequence of this is a two-step technique for centering objects onto the largest one: first apply an edge alignment (e.g. align left edges), which collapses all objects so their edges coincide and shrinks the combined bounding box down to the size of the widest or tallest object. Then apply a center alignment; because the combined bounds now match the largest object, everything centers onto it rather than onto some point in empty space between them.
To align the selected object(s) with an artboard, include the artboard in the selection by Ctrl-clicking (macOS: ⌘-clicking) the artboard in the Layers panel.
Flip and turn
Two flip buttons mirror the selection horizontally or vertically. Two turn buttons rotate the selection by exactly −90° or +90°. Like alignment, both operations are performed relative to the combined bounding box of the entire selection, so all selected layers move together as a group rather than each being flipped or rotated independently in place.
Boolean operations
Boolean operations combine or subtract the filled regions of vector shapes to produce new geometry. Five operations are available:
| Operation | Result |
|---|---|
| Union | Merges all shapes into one, keeping the area covered by any of them. When applied to a single self-intersecting path, all enclosed regions are filled regardless of how many times the path winds over them. |
| Subtract Front | Removes the area of the frontmost shape from all shapes behind it. |
| Subtract Back | Removes the area of the backmost shape from all shapes in front of it. |
| Intersect | Keeps only the area where all shapes overlap, discarding everything else. |
| Difference | Keeps only the areas covered by an odd number of overlapping shapes. |
Union and Difference are also useful when applied to a single self-intersecting path. Union fills every enclosed region regardless of winding, producing a fully solid shape. Difference applies the even-odd rule, alternating between filled and unfilled regions each time the path crosses itself, which can produce rings, cutouts, or other effects from a single complex path.
Clicking a boolean operation button wraps the selected layers into a new group and adds a Boolean Operation node to that group's node graph. The operation is non-destructive; the original shapes remain intact inside the group and can be selected, moved, reshaped, or reordered at any time. The boolean result updates live as the contents change.
If a group already has a Boolean Operation node applied, clicking any of the five buttons switches to that operation instead of creating a new one. This makes it easy to try each option to find the desired result.
Selecting layers
Clicking
Click any unselected layer to select it and deselect everything else. The clicked layer gets highlighted with a bounding box.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Click | Select the layer under the cursor |
| Shift Click | Add/remove the clicked layer to/from the current selection |
| Alt Click | Remove the clicked layer from the current selection |
| Ctrl Click (macOS: ⌘ Click) |
If the selection mode is set to the default Shallow Select, this overrides it and selects the most deeply-nested layer beneath the cursor for that click |
| Double-Click | If the selection mode is set to the default Shallow Select, this drills down into the layer grouped within the current one |
| Click an Empty Area | Deselect everything; alternatively, CtrlShiftA (macOS: Shift⌘A) |
Box/lasso selection
Drag on an empty area of the canvas to draw a rectangular selection box or freehand lasso shape. Releasing the mouse finalizes the selection.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag | Rectangular box select |
| Ctrl Drag | Draw a freehand lasso polygon instead of a rectangle |
| Alt Drag | Remove layers inside the box from the current selection |
| Shift Drag | Add layers inside the box to the current selection |
Whether a layer must be fully enclosed by the selection area or merely touched by it is controlled by a preference in File > Preferences (macOS: Graphite > Preferences) under the Selection setting:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Touched (default) | Selects any layer that the selection area touches or overlaps. |
| Enclosed | Selects only layers fully contained within the selection area. |
| Directional | Automatically chooses based on drag direction: dragging rightward uses Enclosed, dragging leftward uses Touched. |
Transform cage
Selected layers are surrounded by the transform cage: a bounding box with interactive handles for moving, resizing, rotating, skewing, and more.
Moving
To move a layer, click and drag it. Or with an existing set of selected layers, drag any of them to move them in unison. When offset, a visualization displays the offset distance from the initial drag position.
If the clickable area of the intended layer makes targeting difficult, the circular ring of the transform dial offers another method of dragging. It appears while placing your pointer within the transform cage and viewing it in a sufficiently zoomed viewport to fit the dial on screen. Red (X) and green (Y) arrows on the dial may also be dragged to translate the selection along the object's local axes.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag | Move freely |
| Shift Drag | Constrain movement to the horizontal or vertical axis, whichever is dominant |
| Alt Drag | Duplicate the selection and move the copy, leaving the original in place |
When dragging with Alt held, a duplicate is created and moved instead of the original. While still dragging, pressing CtrlD (macOS: ⌘D) places copies at the current position.
Resizing
Drag an edge midpoint handle or corner handle of the transform cage to resize the selection.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag an Edge or Corner Handle |
Resize the selected objects while the opposite edge or corner stays fixed |
| Alt Drag | Scale around the center or pivot point instead of the opposite edge or corner |
| Shift Drag | Preserve the initial aspect ratio |
Rotating
Hover just outside a transform cage corner until the pointer changes to a rotation cursor, then drag to rotate the selection around the pivot point.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag | Rotate freely |
| Shift Drag | Snap rotation to 15° angle multiples of the initial rotation |
Skewing
Skew handles appear as small triangles on either side of each edge midpoint when the edge appears large enough on screen. Drag one to shear the selection along that edge.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag a Skew Triangle |
Skew along the dragged edge |
| Ctrl Drag | Allow free movement by dragging the edge anywhere |
Keyboard transforms (GRS)
While the Select tool is active and layers are selected, pressing G (grab), R (rotate), or S (scale) begins a keyboard-driven transform. Moving the pointer then applies the transform interactively.
Nudging
Arrow keys move or resize the selected layers in small increments without starting a drag.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Arrows | Move the selection by 1 px |
| Shift Arrows | Move the selection by 10 px |
| Alt Arrows | Resize the selection by moving the bottom/right edges of its bounding box |
| CtrlAlt Arrows | Resize the selection by moving the top/left edges of its bounding box |
Quick measurement
Press and hold the Alt key anytime while hovering the pointer over an unselected layer to display the offset distances, in pixels, between the selection bounding box and that hovered layer's bounds.