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Help Centre
This article is about tools that are used to edit artwork in Harmony Premium and Advanced. If you would like to read about drawing tools in Harmony, see About Harmony’s drawing tools.
Editing tools in Harmony Premium and Advanced consist of the following:
- Tools that only edit artwork on vector layers
- Tools that edit artwork on both vector and bitmap layers
- Tools that edit specific types of lines.
If you would like to know about the difference between bitmap and vector artwork in Harmony, please see About bitmap and vector in Harmony.
Select tool
| Icon: | Properties: |
| Vector or Bitmap?: Both | |
| Description: Allows you to select one or many shapes and do overall edits to them such as scaling, moving and rotating. | |
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Can be used on:
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About the Select tool
When using the Select tool, it will create an orange envelope or box around the object. On vector layers, you will be able to see the outline or centerline of each shape. On bitmap layers, artwork is surrounded by a bounding box that selects all of the flattened art.
After selecting the artwork, you can rotate, scale, or move it. If you want to edit specific points on the artwork, you should use the Contour Editor tool.
| Vector lines selected with the Select tool | Bitmap art selected with the Select tool |
Contour Editor tool
| Icon: | Properties: |
| Vector or Bitmap?: Vector only. | |
| Description: Allows you to select one or many points along a vector line or contour. This gives you detailed control over your editing. | |
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Can be used on:
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About the Contour Editor tool
The Contour Editor can only be used on vector artwork. After drawing a vector line, you can use the Contour Editor to select and edit points on the line to manipulate the shape. The appearance of these vector points and contours will appear differently depending on whether the line was created by a pencil or brush tool, and they will also behave differently when edited.
Below you can see how the Contour Editor manipulates each of these lines:
| Pencil lines | Brush lines |
| Textured/Hybrid brush line |
Cutter tool
| Icon: | Properties: |
| Vector or Bitmap?: Both. | |
| Description: Allows you to cut away sections of artwork so that it can be separated or deleted. One of the few tools that allow you to do detailed editing on bitmap artwork. | |
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Can be used on:
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About the Cutter tool
The Cutter tool can be used to cut away sections of artwork on both vector and bitmap layers, which makes it quite versatile. This is especially helpful for artwork that is one shape or flattened. Selections can be deleted, cut and pasted, or moved, rotated and scaled. You can also use it to cut away overlapping sections of lines.
Below you can see how the Cutter tool manipulates artwork:
| Vector artwork | Bitmap artwork |
Centerline Editor tool
| Icon: | Properties: |
| Vector or Bitmap?: Vector brush lines only. | |
| Description: Allows you to edit a brush stroke using a centerline instead of a contour. | |
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Can be used on: Harmony brush lines only. |
About the Centerline Editor tool
The Centerline Editor tool is made specifically for brush lines. This tool works similarly to the Contour Editor, except instead of editing the brush line with an envelope or contour, it allows you to edit the brush line with a spine, similar to how a pencil line is edited. This gives you more control over the overall shape of the line instead of just the outside shape.
Pencil Editor tool
| Icon: | Properties: |
| Vector or Bitmap?: Vector pencil lines only. | |
| Description: Allows you to edit a pencil line using a contour instead of a centerline. | |
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Can be used on: Harmony pencil lines only. |
About the Pencil Editor tool
The Pencil Editor tool is made specifically for pencil lines. This tool works similarly to the Contour Editor, except instead of editing the pencil line with a centerline, it allows you to edit the line with a contour, similar to how a brush line is edited. This gives you more control over the overall contour of the line instead of just the center shape.
Pencil Retouch tool
| Icon: | Properties: |
| Vector or Bitmap?: Vector pencil lines only. | |
| Description: Allows you to edit the appearance of specific areas on a pencil line. | |
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Can be used on: Harmony pencil lines only. |
About the Pencil Retouch tool
The Pencil Retouch tool is made specifically for pencil lines. This tool allows you to edit the opacity or thickness on isolated sections of a pencil line. This is done by ‘painting’ areas of the line, which gives you controlled manipulation with unique results.
Other editing tools
The following tools are also useful for editing artwork in Harmony.
| Tool: | Properties: |
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Eraser tool |
Vector or Bitmap?: Both Description: Has the same settings and application as the Brush tool, but removes artwork instead of creating it. Can be used on:
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Perspective tool |
Vector or Bitmap?: Vector only. Description: Allows you to edit artwork with points that help to create an illusion of perspective on the object. Can be used on: Vector artwork created in Harmony. |
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Envelope tool |
Vector or Bitmap?: Vector only. Description: Allows you to edit artwork with points and curves in a mesh layout. This gives you the ability to manipulate artwork with customized areas of influence. Can be used on: Vector artwork created in Harmony. |
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Edit Gradient/Texture tool |
Vector or Bitmap?: Both. Description: Allows you to change the orientation and scale of a gradient or texture in a filled area. Can be used on: Areas filled with gradients/textures in vector and bitmap artwork created in Harmony. |
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Smooth Editor tool |
Vector or Bitmap?: Vector only. Description: Allows you to reduce the amount of points on a line or shape by smoothing it out. Can be used on: All vector artwork in Harmony. |