Perspective guides

There are four types of perspective guides:

1 Point Mode

Create an image with a single vanishing point and a horizon line. Draw images that appear as if you are viewing them head-on, such as looking down a street, train tracks, hallway, or at a building. Drag to reposition the vanishing point and horizon.

2 Point Mode

Create an image with two vanishing points and a horizon line. Draw images of an object with a corner facing you, such as the corner of a building. The walls will recede to the vanishing points.

3 Point Mode

Create an image with three vanishing points and a horizon. Draw images of an object that you are viewing from either above or below. When you mouse over or drag a vanishing point, a horizon line (blue) and triangle connecting the three points (light blue) appears.

Fisheye Mode

Only available with Sketchbook Pro for desktop

Create a panoramic or hemispherical image with a very wide angle of view. Draw images of a scene viewed from a convex mirror or lens.

This mode has five vanishing points: left, right, top, bottom, and center. The grid is composited of a horizon line, vertical line, and circle. Curves intersect at the vanishing points. Moving the center point moves the entire grid. Moving an edge point changes the circle’s radius.

Perspective guide tools

Snap and Unsnap

When enabled , strokes will be straight and constrained to being parallel to the horizon, perpendicular to the horizon, and to the vanishing points.
When disabled , draw freehand curves, etc., without being constrained to straight lines. The guides are a reference only and do not affect the stroke.

Horizon Line

You can reposition the blue horizon line by tap-dragging the vanishing point(s).
NOTE: If the horizon line won't move, disable Lock perspective guides.

Vanishing points

The selected Perspective Guide sets the number of vanishing points. Therefore, 1 Point Mode will have one, 2 Point Mode will display two, and so on.

To move a vanishing point, tap-drag and reposition it. If the vanishing point cannot be moved, tap to unlock the vanishing points, then tap-drag them into position.

Vanishing points can even be moved off the canvas to create a less dramatic camera angle. To do this, zoom out of the canvas, then drag and reposition your vanishing points.

Locking vanishing points

When locked , the vanishing points are locked into place and there is no worry of accidentally moving them.
When unlocked , they can be repositioned.

Show and Hide perspective guides / horizon line

If you don't want to see the perspective guides on the screen, tap . The guides are still active, but the lines are not visible. Tap to display the lines again.

Accessing the Perspective tools in Sketchbook Pro

Tap to access the Perspective guides.

The Perspective cursor

When you select a guide, the cursor changes to a dashed, three-line cursor.

As the cursor moves around the canvas, one of the dashed lines rotates to always point at the vanishing point.

If you draw in the general direction of the vanishing point, your stroke will automatically snap to it.

Saving perspective guides

Only in Sketchbook Pro on desktop

The file format determines whether the location of the perspective guide is saved in the document, and will reappear in the same location when the file is reopened.

To maintain the last location of the perspective guide, the file must be saved as a Sketchbook TIFF. Perspective guide locations are not maintained if you save your file as PSD