Guides

The Guides feature in Vectornator gives you better control over your document elements; allowing you to align them to other objects.

What is a Guide?

Before learning to create and manage guides in Vectornator, it's essential to define first what a guide is and why it's crucial when working with a vector tool.

Guides are straight lines that help you precisely align text and other vector objects on your canvas. They're always displayed on top of your design to help you follow the structure you defined for your project. However, they do not interfere with your document's layers, and they will not be displayed in the exported document.

There are three different types of guides available in Vectornator:

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‍Horizontal and Vertical Guides | created by dragging them out directly from the Ruler.

Object Guides | can take the form of any shape (line, circle, etc.) and are created with the Guide Toolbar that appears when the Guides Panel is activated.

Smart Guides | are straight vertical or horizontal lines that appear automatically when objects are moved on the canvas if the Snapping option “Smart Guides” is enabled.

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By default, all Guides in Vectornator are active and visible, but you can choose to hide them by going to View > Show Guides.

The Object Guides

The Object Guides in Vectornator can be created by accessing the Guides Panel. Click on the Guides ~ic-guides~~ic-guides~ icon on the right side of the Artboard’s title in the Layers Panel and a new panel will open. The Toolbar will automatically transform and display only the drawing tools.

Creating a New Object Guide

Select any of the tools in the Guides Toolbar to start drawing your Object Guide. The guide can have any shape you need, as a simple straight line, or a more complicated square, circle, polygon, or spiral.

Once you draw the guide, place it in the position you need on your canvas, and then navigate back to the Layers Tab.

The Object Guides will be automatically locked. You can also activate the Snap to Guides feature from the Menu bar under View > Snap to Guides to better align the elements in your document.

Note: The Object Guides will be always displayed on top of your design, and the elements within the Guides Layer will be always locked when drawing on the other Layers.

Duplicating an Object Guide

Navigate to the Guides Layer, then select the guide you want to duplicate, and drag and drop your Guide while pressing the <key>⌥<key> key.

Hide / Show Object Guides

Click on the Hide/Show icon next to the Layer’s title to hide or show all of that layer's Guides.

Click on the Hide/Show icon next to each Guide to hide or show that specific Guide.

Note: When hiding the guides from the layers, any Smart Guide on your artboard will be hidden too.

Lock the Guides

Any elements within the Guides Layer will be locked when drawing on the other Layers, but when you’re creating your Guides' structure and want to lock a specific Guide, you can do it by tapping the Lock button to the right of each sublayer inside the Guides Layer.

How to Use Rulers and Create Guides

Vectornator shows the Rulers by default, which are attached to each Artboard in your document, allowing you to use them as a reference point.

Creating a New Horizontal or Vertical Guide

Guides are straight vertical or horizontal lines that you can add to your artboard from the Ruler.

Note: Adding Guides is only possible when the Ruler is activated.

To add a new Guide, click anywhere on one of the Rulers and drag it onto the canvas to set a new Guide. A blue Guide line will become visible and will help guide you during your design process.

To create Horizontal Guides, click and drag on the Ruler in the left border of your Artboard

To create Vertical Guides, click and drag on the Ruler in the top border of your Artboard

Deleting a Guide

To delete a Smart Guide, simply click and drag the Guide's handle and drop it outside the canvas. The Guide will disappear.

How Snapping to Guides Work

As you move and snap any elements to your document, Vectornator will automatically display light blue lines against nearby elements as Smart Guides that will help you snap to a nearby path’s center or edges.

You can also activate the snapping options for your own Guides. This option is very useful for aligning your vector elements to the Guides and helping you be as precise as possible.

To activate the Snapping option, go to View > Snap to Guides from the Menu Bar.