GSOC 2025: Advanced vector editing tool modes

[4adex]

Hi there,
I'm Adesh Gupta (@4adex ), and I’ll be working with Graphite as a GSoC 2025 contributor. My project is titled "Advanced Vector Editing Tool Modes", and it focuses on improving the vector editing experience in the Graphite editor by introducing new and state of the art tool features and extending existing tools to support vector meshes.

Introduction

The aim of this project is to add Segment Editing Mode and Region Editing Mode to the Path Tool, allowing more granular and flexible manipulation of vector elements. These modes will support individual and combined selections, with features like lasso/bounding-box selection, segment bending, region dragging, and more.

Alongside this, I will be refactoring the Pen and Path Tools to better support vector meshes. Current vector tools are limited to paths and struggle with shared anchors or overlapping regions. My work will enable operations such as merging anchors, gluing/peeling segments, and creating segments between selected anchors—expanding the editing capabilities significantly.

Benefits

• Enables precise control with segment and region selection modes, improving the overall editing workflow.
• Adds proper vector mesh support—anchors and segments can now be shared across multiple regions.
• Introduces topological operations like merging anchors, gluing/peeling segments, and merging regions directly in the editor.
• Refactors and extends the current tool architecture, making the Path and Pen tools more versatile and future-ready.

Deliverables

• Segment and Region Editing Modes with full UI and selection support
• Refactored Pen and Path Tools to support vector mesh editing
• New tooling operations including:
  • Scissor Tool for breaking segments at specific points
  • Knife Tool (stretch goal) for hand-drawn region splits using curve fitting
  • Segment creation, merging, separating, and region manipulation operations
• Updated overlay visuals and tool behavior based on selected editing modes

[4adex]

Week 1:

• Worked on finding the best approximation of two connected G1 continuous bezier curves by a single one, for path tool point sliding feature.
• Finished the implementation of sliding point with path tool. (Add anchor sliding along adjacent segments in the Path tool #2682)
• Finished the implementation of task 1 and task 2 according to proposal. (Add Pen tool support for starting and ending segment drawing on existing path edges for vector meshes #2692)
• Listed down the tasks for improving current tooling support for vector meshes. (Tracking Issue: Improving editing support for vector meshes #2695)
• Fixed a bug from previous feature (Fix the Path tool's segment insertion line overlay having hysteresis with distance away from the cursor #2677)

[4adex]

Week 2:

• Worked on segment editing mode feature of the path tool.
• implemented selection and storage of selected segments in SelectedLayerState
• Shift + click to select and deselect segments
• overlays for selgment selection mode (highlighting the segment hovering on + displaying selected segments)
• box and lasso selection of segments

2025-06-11.18-42-20.mp4

2025-06-13.01-20-03.mp4

2025-06-14.00-53-36.mp4

[4adex]

Week 3:

• Touched and Enclosed selection modes for Box selection of segments.
• Added support for delete segments by pressing delete.
• Shift select is now compatible in between of segment and point selection.
• Added G/R/S support for selected segments.
• Modifier + click selected segment to mold the segment.
• Dynamic hints, hints related to molding segment/ adding a point on segment/ deleting a segment only become visible when your pointer is actually close to the segment. Ended up with segment editing mode and it is up for review.
• This completes the segment select mode feat (Add segment editing mode to the Path tool #2712)
• Completed the first task of (Improve Path tool layer and point selection behavior #2716)
• Discussed a probable approach for vector mesh rendering with @indierusty