SVG Editor is a native Mac vector design app built around standard SVG files, classic floating palettes, precise Bezier editing, print-ready CMYK output, automation, and AI-assisted vector creation.
SVG Editor combines a classic illustration workflow with modern Mac technology. It is designed for logos, icons, posters, interface assets, technical drawings, print artwork, web graphics and editable AI-generated vector art.
Documents are saved as SVG, not as a locked proprietary project format. Layers, groups, paths, gradients, text, symbols, clipping masks and filters are represented as editable vector structures that can be inspected and reused elsewhere.
The app uses floating palettes, menu commands, keyboard chords, rulers, guides, measurement fields and a compact two-column toolbox. It is built for users who want direct control instead of template-driven design.
Beyond basic shapes, the app includes pathfinder booleans, compound paths, clipping masks, typography controls, linked images, CMYK swatches, DeviceCMYK PDF export, scripting, image trace and a GPU canvas.
The AI Console is not a raster image generator bolted onto the app. It creates or edits real vector objects so the result can be selected, recolored, reshaped, layered and exported like hand-drawn artwork.
The interface is organized around small, movable panels. You can keep precision controls, color, layers, typography, links, brushes and automation visible while the canvas remains focused on the artwork.
The full workspace combines a central canvas with the Toolbox, Control Palette, Layers, Swatches, Gradient, Brushes, Symbols, Links, Scripts, AI Console and other panels. Hide all palettes with Tab or keep only the Toolbox with Shift + Tab.
A precision strip for position, size, scale, rotation, alignment, fill, stroke and opacity. It is the fastest way to make exact numeric edits without opening a modal dialog.
Every major palette is available from the Window menu: Toolbox, Control Palette, Swatches, Gradient, Pattern, Hatch, Brushes, Symbols, Stroke, Transparency, Character, Paragraph, Align, Info, Links, Layers, Navigator, Pathfinder, Spray, Scripts, AI Console and Feedback.
The Navigator palette gives a minimap-style view of the document and the current viewport. It is useful when working on detailed posters, illustrations and large artboards.
Palettes can be rearranged for drawing, typography, print work, tracing or scripting. Reset Palettes restores a clean default layout when a workspace gets too busy.
Control Palette
Exact X/Y, W/H, scale, rotation, alignment, stroke, fill and corner controls in one horizontal strip.
Layers
Layer visibility, locks, disclosure, object rows, layer colors and stacking controls.
Symbols
A searchable built-in symbol library with document symbols as a separate tab.
Palette style
Compact floating panels keep the app close to the canvas instead of burying controls in inspectors.
SVG Editor is built for measured work. Document settings define artboard size, orientation, units, grid behavior and color mode, while the canvas keeps rulers and guides visible for precise alignment.
Create or adjust documents with preset sizes such as common print formats, orientation, units, grid settings and document color mode. Document Setup also keeps grid and snap settings in one predictable place.
Because the document remains SVG, these settings help guide editing without hiding the underlying vector artwork.
Show rulers with Command + R, drag guides onto the canvas, lock or hide guides, clear guides, and use Smart Guides while moving objects.
Show the grid, snap to grid, and snap to points. These controls support icon design, technical layout and repeatable geometric construction.
The Measure tool and Info palette expose distance, position and geometry information while editing. They are useful for matching dimensions, checking spacing and documenting layout decisions.
Operations such as Image Trace, path edits, palette changes and scripted actions are grouped into meaningful undo steps so complex experiments can be reversed cleanly.
The Toolbox mirrors the classic two-column vector editor pattern. Every tool is exposed in the UI, most have single-key shortcuts, and many include specialized behavior for production drawing.
The core toolbox includes Selection, Direct Selection, Pen, Free Hand, Spray, Eraser, Line, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star, Text, Text Pencil, Eyedropper, Scissors, Measure, Gradient, Rotate, Scale, Reflect, Shear, Hand and Zoom.
Use Selection for whole objects, groups and transforms. Use Direct Selection for anchor-level editing, handle adjustment and node-level geometry control.
The Pen creates precise Bezier paths. Add Anchor, Delete Anchor and Convert Anchor tools refine a path after it is drawn, making it possible to build clean logos and icons point by point.
Free Hand drawing turns loose sketches into vector paths. It is best for organic marks, rough lettering, quick shapes and hand-drawn texture that can still be edited afterwards.
The Spray tool scatters vector marks into an undoable group. Its options palette controls behavior such as density, direction, falloff and randomization seed.
The Eraser subtracts real geometry from vector shapes. It removes path areas rather than hiding them with a mask, so the result remains editable vector artwork.
Line, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon and Star tools create editable primitives. They support the usual proportional and centered drawing workflows expected in a vector editor.
The Text tool creates point text, area type and type on a path. Text Pencil draws with a phrase along a freehand path for expressive typographic strokes.
Scissors cut paths at specific points, Measure checks distances, and Eyedropper samples styling from existing artwork for fast visual consistency.
Edit gradient direction and handles directly on the artwork. If the selected element has no gradient, dragging can create a default gradient axis for it.
Rotate, Scale, Reflect and Shear provide direct manipulation and numeric transform workflows for exact geometric changes.
SVG Editor exposes the path operations expected in a serious vector app. These operations change actual geometry, which keeps exported artwork clean and editable.
Join connects compatible open path endpoints. Average aligns selected points to a shared coordinate, which is useful for repairing tiny gaps and enforcing clean geometry.
Converts stroked artwork into filled paths. This is essential when sending artwork to workflows where stroke rendering must be frozen as editable outlines.
Creates an inset or outset copy of a path while preserving curve shape. Use it for badges, stickers, contour lines, shadows and layered icons.
Smooth reduces roughness, Subdivide inserts points along path segments, and Add Anchor Points increases editability where more control is needed.
Rounds selected anchor corners without forcing the entire object into a generic rounded rectangle. It is useful for icons, UI assets and softened technical shapes.
Reorients path direction where direction matters, such as text-on-path behavior, markers, pattern-along-path effects and scripted geometry operations.
The path effect pack can roughen geometry, trim a visible section of a path, apply hatch fills, or distribute a pattern along a path. These are committed as vector geometry.
Turns selected artwork into a mesh-shaded object through a row and column setup. Mesh gradients support organic shading that ordinary linear or radial gradients cannot produce.
Generate a visual comparison showing one base shape transformed by Outline Stroke, Offset Path, Roughen, Trim Path, Hatch Fill and Pattern Along Path. This will make the geometry tools easier to understand at a glance.
Object workflows cover the everyday production tasks that turn simple shapes into structured artwork: ordering, grouping, locking, hiding, blending, masking, cropping and converting.
Move, Scale, Rotate, Reflect, Shear, Transform Each and Transform Again support exact repeatable edits. Transform Again Copy repeats a previous transform onto a duplicate.
Bring To Front, Bring Forward, Send Backward and Send To Back control stacking order without disturbing object geometry.
Group related elements, ungroup them later, lock selections to prevent accidental edits, and hide objects temporarily while working inside dense illustrations.
Expand converts supported objects into simpler editable vectors. Expand Appearance bakes styled or generated appearances into explicit geometry.
Turns complex transparency interactions into flattened output when a workflow requires predictable compositing or print handoff.
Converts selected vector content into raster artwork inside the document when a bitmap representation is needed for effects, compatibility or final delivery.
Blend Make creates interpolated steps between objects. Blend Options controls the step count, and Release dissolves the blend back into editable objects.
Make Compound Path combines shapes so interior holes and overlapping contours behave as one fill. Release separates the structure again.
Unite, Minus Front, Minus Back, Intersect and Exclude combine shapes. Divide, Trim, Merge and Crop split or simplify overlaps for production-ready vectors.
Make a clipping mask to reveal artwork only through a selected shape, or release it to restore the underlying objects.
Create Illustrator-style trim marks around selected artwork for print preparation, then release them when they are no longer needed.
Adjust area text frames to their content, or fit a rectangle to the inked bounds of selected text for layout and label production.
Besides menu commands, SVG Editor includes a Pathfinder palette so boolean operations can be accessed as quick visual buttons during shape construction.
SVG Editor gives color its own production system. Use reusable swatches, edit gradients in a dedicated palette, apply mesh shading, define patterns, style strokes, control transparency and add SVG-based effects.
Linear and radial gradients support multiple color stops, stop positions, alpha and spread behavior. Mesh gradients add per-vertex color control for organic shading, while swatches keep documents consistent across many objects.
The Toolbox exposes active fill and stroke. Swap them with X, set active paint to None with /, and reset defaults with D.
Control stroke weight, arrowheads and related stroke appearance from the Stroke palette and filter/stylize commands.
Use process colors, grayscale steps, registration colors, tints and custom swatches. Updating a swatch can retint every element that uses it.
CMYK swatches store real C, M, Y and K values from 0 to 100, enabling print-oriented color decisions inside SVG artwork.
Apply repeating vector pattern fills. Patterns are useful for fabric-like textures, diagrams, decorative surfaces and consistent branded motifs.
Hatch applies vector tile figures as real hatch fills, giving technical and illustrative artwork a reusable line-pattern vocabulary.
Define brushes from selected artwork and reuse them for repeated marks. Brush workflows support scatter and calligraphic-style artwork.
Store reusable artwork as symbols, place repeated instances, and keep complex documents smaller and more consistent.
Set object opacity and blending from the Transparency palette. Show the transparency grid to inspect alpha behavior visually.
Adjust Colors, Blend Front to Back, Blend Horizontally, Blend Vertically, Convert to Grayscale, Invert Colors and Saturate provide batch color transformation tools.
Free Distort, Punk and Bloat, Roughen, Scribble and Tweak, Twirl and Zig Zag reshape selected vector artwork for expressive effects.
Add Arrowheads, Drop Shadow, Round Corners and raster-style Image Effects such as grayscale, sepia, invert, brightness, contrast, saturation and blur.
CMYK swatches
Process swatches, tints and RGB colors can live together in the reusable swatch list.
Pattern fills
Dot, circle and image-based patterns can be applied to fills or strokes.
Brush controls
Scatter settings include size, spacing, spread, fade, follow path, anchors, variance and seed.
Symbols library
Reusable artwork is organized by category and searchable from a dedicated floating panel.
Text is treated as a first-class vector object. SVG Editor supports quick labels, area text, path text, advanced paragraph controls, threaded frames, text wrap and outline conversion.
Click once to create simple editable text for labels, callouts, logos and quick annotations.
Drag a frame to create a paragraph box. Area Type Options control frame dimensions, inset spacing and baseline behavior.
Attach text to a curve and adjust path alignment, flip, spacing and offset with Type on a Path Options.
An alternate area-text engine uses native paragraph layout for Unicode line breaking and justification. It can sit beside classic area text for comparison.
Browse installed Mac fonts with live preview while moving through the menu. Recently Used keeps active families near the top.
Control font family, size, leading, tracking and related type metrics with numeric fields for repeatable typography.
Align left, center, right, justify and justify all. Paragraph operations apply to selected text ranges where appropriate.
Convert selected text to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case or Sentence case without manually retyping it.
Link area text frames so long copy flows from one frame to the next. Create, release or remove threading as the layout changes.
Make area text flow around selected objects, then release the wrap when the story should return to a plain column.
Convert editable text into vector paths for final logo delivery, print workflows or artwork where font availability cannot be assumed.
Scale a single-line area text headline so it fills its frame width, useful for poster titles and lockups.
Generate a screenshot showing point text, area type, type on a path, threaded frames and the Character / Paragraph palettes together.
Raster images can be opened, placed, linked, embedded, traced, filtered or converted into vector-driven mosaic artwork.
Insert raster images into an existing document. Use Command + K for the main Place Image workflow.
Keep image artwork linked to its original file rather than embedding it immediately. This supports lighter documents and external asset updates.
Track placed image status, relink files, embed images, extract embedded files or reveal a linked asset in Finder.
PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, HEIC and HEIF images can be opened as new documents and used as source material.
Convert a selected placed image or imported raster file into editable vector paths, available from Object and Filter workflows.
Turn a selected image into a grid of vector or generated tiles based on sampled image color. It is useful for poster effects and stylized raster-to-vector treatments.
Apply SVG filter-based effects such as brightness, contrast, saturation, blur, sepia, invert and grayscale while keeping the artwork editable.
Convert selected vector objects to a raster representation inside the SVG when a bitmap treatment is needed.
This should show a placed bitmap, the Links palette, Image Trace options, and the traced vector result beside the original.
The app is designed for real-world handoff: it opens modern and legacy vector formats, keeps native work in SVG, and exports deliverables for print, web and imaging workflows.
| Workflow | Formats | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Native save | SVG | Documents are saved as standard SVG files with editable vector structures. |
| Vector import | SVG, PDF, AI, EPS | PDF, Illustrator and EPS files are converted into editable vector artwork rather than flattened previews where possible. |
| Image import | PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, HEIC, HEIF | Images can be opened as documents or placed inside existing SVG documents. |
| Export | PDF, PNG, TIFF | Create vector PDF or raster deliverables for web and imaging use. |
| Clipboard | Illustrator vector paste | Artwork copied from Illustrator can be pasted into SVG Editor as editable objects. |
| Share and print | SVG, PNG, PDF, print pipeline | Share artwork in common formats and print through the native Mac document workflow. |
SVG Editor imports AI and EPS files, but its native working format is SVG. Export focuses on SVG, PDF, PNG and TIFF rather than writing new AI or EPS files.
SVG Editor supports RGB and CMYK documents, process swatches, tints, print setup and press-ready vector PDF export with DeviceCMYK separations for CMYK documents.
Choose color mode when creating or setting up a document. The mode is visible in the workspace and influences print/export behavior.
CMYK swatches carry C, M, Y and K component values. Tints multiply those separations so print colors remain predictable.
When a CMYK document is exported to PDF, CMYK swatch colors can be written as native DeviceCMYK values instead of screen-color approximations.
Use Page Setup and Print for native Mac print workflows. Export PDF and Print use the same native vector pipeline where applicable.
Generate a print-focused visual with the New Document CMYK setting, CMYK swatches, a poster on the canvas and a PDF export confirmation.
The AI Console turns natural-language requests into document actions. It can insert new vector artwork, edit existing objects, write scripts and respect the active document structure.
Ask for a shape, an illustration component, a layer-aware insert, a color change or a whole-document edit. The result is built from vector objects, not a flat image.
The app can use the built-in assistant allowance, and settings support connecting provider keys for expanded workflows.
Create new shapes, groups, icons and illustrations from plain English. The output is inserted into the current document as editable objects.
Ask for targeted changes such as recoloring objects, modifying selected artwork or placing new content on a named layer.
The AI tooling can interact with the same script library used by the Scripts palette, helping generate repeatable document actions.
The app surfaces AI settings and prompt context so users can understand which assistant configuration is active.
Settings let users choose the native server engine or connect Claude, OpenAI or Gemini with their own key. The optional system prompt area gives advanced users control over the exact base instruction sent to the assistant.
SVG Editor includes automation surfaces for users who want to generate artwork, batch edit documents, build internal workflows or control the app from other Mac automation tools.
Run Illustrator-style JavaScript through the Scripts panel or File menu. The scripting DOM exposes application, document, selection, layers, path items, group items, text frames, compound paths and color objects.
Example scripts generate grids, color wheels, spirals, star bursts, text posters and recolor operations. They are useful as templates for custom automation.
Create new scripts or add existing .jsx and .js files. User scripts appear in the Scripts palette and File menu.
The app ships an AppleScript dictionary, including standard document commands and a custom do script command for running JSX against the active document.
Scripts can call menu-style operations such as pathfinder commands, allowing automation to use the same production features available through the UI.
The app includes an MCP server surface so AI assistants can access drawing tools and document workflows in controlled automation contexts.
The script editor can run Illustrator-compatible JSX examples such as Star Burst. Scripts operate on the active SVG document through the same object model exposed to AppleScript and automation tools.
The MCP Server settings expose external control for local MCP clients and AppleScript. When enabled, automation can drive drawing, brushes, gradients, patterns, pathfinder operations, layers, symbols and guides through the app's script bridge.
The View menu includes outline, pixel preview, zoom controls, transparency grid, rulers, guides, grid snapping, display quality and live GPU rendering control.
Toggle between normal preview and outline mode with Command + Y. Outline mode makes path structure visible without styling distractions.
Inspect how vector artwork rasterizes, useful for icons, web graphics and detailed screen assets.
Zoom in, zoom out, fit in window, actual size and zoom to selection support fast navigation in large documents.
Hide or show edges, artboard and page tiling depending on whether you need construction details or a cleaner artwork preview.
Show a checkerboard grid to evaluate transparent objects and alpha-heavy artwork accurately.
Switch between Fast Display, Typical Display and High Quality Display to balance render quality and editing speed.
Toggle Skia GPU rendering live. The GPU backend uses Metal for faster canvas performance, while CPU rendering is available as a direct rendering mode.
The app supports modern macOS appearance behavior, making long editing sessions more comfortable in different lighting conditions.
Use Pixel Preview, Outline mode and transparency grid together to inspect the same artwork as geometry, pixels and composited output.
The encyclopedia now uses the supplied Mac app screenshots for core palettes and settings. The remaining placeholders are targeted composite visuals that should be generated or captured later.
Before/after canvas showing Outline Stroke, Offset Path, Roughen, Hatch Fill and Pattern Along Path.
Close-up of Pathfinder controls next to overlapping shapes and four boolean results.
Point text, area type, type on a path, threaded frames and Character / Paragraph palettes.
Placed bitmap, Links palette, Image Trace options and final vector result.
Control Palette, Layers, Swatches, Pattern, Brushes, Symbols, Document Setup, AI settings, MCP settings and AI Script Console are now real page assets.
A final DeviceCMYK PDF export screenshot would complete the print section beside the existing CMYK setup and swatches screenshots.