Line

This tool lets you draw simple line segments used, among other things, as connectors, technical elements, underlines, or as part of more complex graphical constructions.

Drawing a line

To draw a line:

1. Select the Line tool from the Toolbox.
2. Click at the point where the line should start.
3. Drag the cursor toward the end of the line and let go of the mouse button.
4. Release the mouse button to finish drawing.

Once inserted, the line appears on the screen along with handles that let you edit it. Unlike most objects (rectangles, ellipses, images), a line does not have eight scaling handles or a rotation handle. This results from its geometric nature — a line is defined by two endpoints.

A line provides three handles:

• Two end handles
  These let you:
• change the line's length (scaling),
• change its angle by moving one of the ends,

• drag the end of the line to any place on the screen.

• One middle handle
  Used to move the entire line, without changing its shape, the position of its ends, or its angle.

Thanks to this approach, editing a line is simple and precise — you can drive each of its ends independently, while the middle handle lets you quickly move the object without deforming it.

Line properties

Once a line is selected, the Properties panel provides, among others:

• Name — the object's identifier on the screen.
• Fill — has no effect on the displayed line's style.
• Stroke color — the color of the drawn line.
• Stroke thickness — the line's width in pixels.
• Stroke style — solid, dashed, dotted line.
• Opacity — the line's transparency.
• Position X / Y — the object's location.
• Width / Height — the distances between the endpoints along the X and Y axes.
• Angle — the line's angle relative to horizontal (a value indicating the rotation of a previously drawn line).