Styling Objects
Everything about how an object looks is in the inspector on the right. Select an object and the sections below appear. Every property here can be set on several objects at once — select them all first.
Fill
The Fill section starts with a fill-type picker. The options are:
| Fill type | What it does |
|---|---|
| None | No fill; the object is transparent except for its stroke |
| Color | A single flat colour |
| Linear | A gradient along a straight line |
| Radial | A gradient radiating from a point |
| Conical | A gradient sweeping around a centre |
| Diamond | A gradient expanding in a diamond |
| Pattern | One of a set of built-in line and grid patterns, in two colours |
| Modern | A two-colour blended fill |
Colour fills
Color shows a single colour well. Click it to open the system colour picker.
Gradient fills
Linear, Radial, Conical and Diamond share the same gradient editor:
- A stops bar showing the gradient. Click anywhere on the bar to add a stop there, using the colour interpolated at that position.
- A list of stops, each with its own colour well, a slider, and a percentage field showing where it sits. Delete a stop with its minus button — a gradient always keeps at least two.
- Add Stop to append one at the end.
Each gradient type then has its own geometry controls:
| Fill type | Geometry |
|---|---|
| Linear | Angle |
| Radial | Position, plus the centre point (X and Y) |
| Conical | Angle, plus the centre point (X and Y) |
| Diamond | Centre point (X and Y) |
Rotate with shape makes the gradient turn when the object is rotated. It is available for linear, conical, pattern and modern fills; leave it off when you want the gradient to stay put while the shape turns.
Pattern and modern fills
Both use a main and a secondary colour. Pattern additionally offers a picker of the built-in patterns — lines, grids, tilted grids and chessboards, in dense, normal and loose spacings. Modern offers a mode picker that varies how the two colours are blended.
Stroke
The Stroke section has a toggle at its top; everything below it is active only when the stroke is on.
| Control | Options |
|---|---|
| Colour | Any colour |
| Width | Stroke thickness in points |
| Dash | Solid, Dash, Dot, DashDot |
| Position | On Path, Inside Path, Outside Path |
| Cap | Butt, Round, Square — the shape of the ends of an open path |
| Join | Miter, Round, Bevel — the shape of the corners |
| Start, End | The arrowhead at each end of an open path |
Position decides whether the stroke straddles the outline, sits inside it, or sits outside it — this matters most for thin shapes, where an outside stroke can visibly change the object's size.
The Start and End pickers offer a range of heads and tails: outlined and filled circles, triangles, squares and diamonds, plus bar terminators (single and double), half-arrows and No Arrow. The two ends are set independently, so a line can have an arrow at one end and a bar at the other.
Shadow
The Shadow section has a toggle, then:
| Control | Notes |
|---|---|
| Kind | Outer shadow, or inner shadow |
| Colour | Shadow colour |
| Radius | How far the shadow spreads |
| Opacity | How strong it is |
| Offset X, Offset Y | How far the shadow is displaced |
An inner shadow falls inside the object's outline, which is useful for giving a shape a recessed or inset look.
Background effects
Background Effects applies a blur, pixelate or magnifier to whatever is behind the object, rather than to the object itself. The object acts as a window onto the content underneath.
| Control | Notes |
|---|---|
| Kind | Blur, Pixelate or Magnifier |
| Radius | How far the effect reaches |
| Scale | Strength — larger values blur or pixelate more; for a magnifier, how much it enlarges |
This is the same property that the Pixelate, Blur and Magnifier tools in the Add menu set up for you. Drawing one of those regions is simply the quick way to create an object with this effect already configured.
Image
When an object is an image — one you inserted, or a shape you gave an image fill — the Image section lets you manage it:
| Control | Notes |
|---|---|
| Choose Image / Remove Image | Replaces or clears the image |
| Fill Mode | Fit, Expand, Actual, Stretch or Tile — how the image maps onto the shape |
| Opacity | How strongly the image shows |
| Scale | Available for Actual and Tile modes |
| Colour Scheme | A primary and a background colour applied to the image |
Fit scales the image to fit inside the shape, Expand to fill it, Stretch distorts it to the shape, Actual uses its real size, and Tile repeats it.
Opacity and blending
Opacity (0 to 1) is in the Position and Size section. The blend mode picker next to it decides how the object combines with what is beneath it:
Normal, Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Difference, Exclusion, Hue, Saturation, Color, and Luminosity.
Multiply is the one people reach for most often — it darkens where colours overlap, like printing with translucent ink.
Copying styles
Rather than rebuilding a look on every object, copy it:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Copy Style | Copies the selected object's whole style |
| Paste Style | Applies the copied style to the selection |
Both are in the Object menu, the Style menu and the right-click menu.
Favourite styles
Favourite styles are named looks you can reapply in one click. They are stored globally, so they are available in every document.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Manage Favorite Styles… | Opens the favourites window |
| Add from Selection to Favorites… | Saves the selected object's style as a new favourite |
| Update Selected Favorite Style | Replaces a favourite with the selected object's style |
Manage Favorite Styles has two tabs — Area Style for shapes and Linear Style for lines and arrows — because those two kinds of object carry different properties and a favourite only makes sense within one kind. From there you can add a favourite from the current selection, update the selected favourite, rename it, or delete it. A favourite that objects in the current document still use cannot be deleted; Qwing tells you so rather than silently breaking them.
The favourites bar also appears at the top of the inspector, with None to clear the applied favourite and a control to clear individual overrides — the properties you changed after applying the favourite — so the object returns to the favourite's own values.
Default styles for tools
Newly drawn objects get a default style. In the inspector's Tool Options section you can choose which style a tool uses:
- System Default — the built-in look.
- Any of your favourite styles.
This is per tool, so your pencil can draw one way and your rectangle tool another. Change it whenever you want the next object you draw to come out differently.