Changing Draw Tool Style

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2019-05-09 21:18:22

It’s entirely possible that I’m missing something obvious but is it possible to change the style of the shape I’m about to draw? Making changes in Style affects the currently selected layer, as do the settings in the Draw tool itself. Even Save as Default doesn’t change the style of the shape I’m about to draw.
Here’s hoping someone can help.
- Stef.
(Pixelmator Pro 1.3.3 on macOS 10.14.4)
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2019-05-10 11:57:51

This is a tricky one — the "Save as Default" feature saves not the default values but the actual styles themselves, so if you have two fills and save that as the default, resetting to default will bring up two (uncustomized fills). An important caveat is that only applies to text and image layers. Shape layers have the standard 4-style default list and this cannot be customized. Right now, this whole system is convoluted and confusing, to be honest, and something we're planning to improve after the next round of updates.

In the meantime, there is a workaround to get the result you're looking for:

1. Choose any kind of shape tool (Rectangle, Ellipse, Custom Shape, etc.)
2. Shift-Command-N to add an empty new pixel layer
3. Customize the style in the Tool Options pane
4. Draw the shape

Basically, when a pixel layer is selected, customizing the options in the Tool Options pane will change the style of the shape you're about to draw. So you can add an empty pixel layer whenever you'd like to do this. It really isn't the best workaround and the whole shape drawing/customization system could do with a little overhaul.
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2019-05-10 14:59:37

Thanks Andrius.
I look forward to having controls in the Draw tool that are dedicated to what the tool is about to draw. :wink:
That said, the work-around isn't difficult. I just need to keep an empty layer hanging around when I do vector work.
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2019-05-11 06:26:05

+1