Alignment, Layout & Transforms
Overview
Chitmunk includes a full set of precision layout tools for aligning, distributing, and transforming elements. Whether you are lining up a row of stat icons, centering a title on the card, or adding a subtle perspective tilt to a shape, these tools let you do it exactly, without eyeballing and nudging by hand. Mastering them is the difference between a card that looks roughly right and one that looks polished and professional.
Multi-Select Alignment
Select two or more elements, then use the alignment buttons in the properties panel to snap them into position relative to each other. The six alignment directions are:
- Align Left: Moves all selected elements so their left edges line up with the leftmost element.
- Align Center H: Lines up the horizontal centers of all selected elements.
- Align Right: Moves all selected elements so their right edges line up with the rightmost element.
- Align Top: Moves all selected elements so their top edges line up with the topmost element.
- Align Center V: Lines up the vertical centers of all selected elements.
- Align Bottom: Moves all selected elements so their bottom edges line up with the bottommost element.
Tip: Alignment snaps to the bounding box of each element, including any rotation. If you get unexpected results on rotated elements, try aligning before rotating.
Distribution
Select three or more elements and use the distribute buttons to space them evenly. Unlike alignment, distribution does not move the outermost elements; it only adjusts the ones in between.
- Distribute Horizontal: Places equal spacing between elements from left to right.
- Distribute Vertical: Places equal spacing between elements from top to bottom.
Distribution is essential for creating uniform grids, rows of icons, and stacked lists. Select a column of text boxes and hit Distribute Vertical once; they snap into even spacing instantly.
Match Size
Select two or more elements to make them the same size. The first element you selected acts as the size reference, all other elements resize to match it.
- Match Width: All selected elements take the first element's width.
- Match Height: All selected elements take the first element's height.
- Match Both: All selected elements take both the width and height of the first element.
This is particularly useful for making a row of stat boxes or icons that all need to be exactly the same size. Select them all, hit Match Both, and they are uniform, no typing in numbers required.
Tip: The selection order matters for Match Size. The first element you click (shown with a slightly different selection handle) is the reference. If you are using a marquee selection, the reference is the topmost element in the layers panel.
Align to Card
These buttons work on a single element or a multi-selection, centering it relative to the full card area (including bleed).
- Center H: Centers the selected element(s) horizontally on the card.
- Center V: Centers the selected element(s) vertically on the card.
Use this for a quick way to perfectly center a title, logo, or hero image. Select the element, click Center H, and it snaps to the exact horizontal midpoint of the card.
Align to Safe Zone
Works the same as Align to Card, but uses the safe zone boundary as the reference area instead of the full card. Content centered within the safe zone will not be at risk of being cut off during printing.
- Center H (Safe): Centers the element within the safe zone horizontally.
- Center V (Safe): Centers the element within the safe zone vertically.
Tip: For print-ready cards, prefer Align to Safe Zone over Align to Card when placing important content like titles, costs, or flavor text. The safe zone margin ensures nothing gets trimmed in production.
Opacity
Every element has a per-element opacity slider in the properties panel, ranging from 0% (fully transparent) to 100% (fully opaque). Opacity affects the entire element, including its fill, stroke, shadow, and any children if it is a group.
Common uses include:
- Watermarks: Set a logo or text to 15–30% opacity to create a subtle background stamp.
- Ghost text: Placeholder or flavor text at reduced opacity to de-emphasize it visually.
- Layered effects: Stack multiple shapes or images at partial opacity to blend them together.
Blend Modes
Blend modes control how an element's colors interact with the elements below it. Chitmunk supports 13 modes:
- Normal: No blending: the element renders on top as-is. The default for all elements.
- Multiply: Darkens by multiplying color values. White becomes transparent; dark colors intensify. Use this to overlay dark textures or ink effects onto a colored background.
- Screen: The opposite of Multiply: lightens by inverting, multiplying, then inverting again. Black becomes transparent; light colors glow. Use this for light rays, sparkle effects, or fire overlays.
- Overlay: Combines Multiply and Screen, darkens dark areas and lightens light areas. Great for increasing contrast and punch.
- Darken: Keeps whichever pixel is darker between the element and what's below it.
- Lighten: Keeps whichever pixel is lighter.
- Color Dodge: Brightens the underlying layer based on the element's color. Creates intense highlights.
- Color Burn: Darkens the underlying layer. Creates rich, saturated shadows.
- Hard Light: Like Overlay but more extreme, strong contrast with harsh transitions.
- Soft Light: Like Overlay but gentler, subtle contrast enhancement without harsh edges.
- Difference: Subtracts colors, produces inverted, psychedelic effects. Useful for special stylistic treatments.
- Exclusion: Similar to Difference but lower contrast and softer.
Tip: Start with Multiply for overlaying dark textures or parchment patterns, and Screen for glowing or light-based effects. These two modes cover the vast majority of practical use cases. The others are worth exploring once you are comfortable with those two.
Anchor Points
The anchor point defines the center of rotation and transforms for an element. By default it is set to the element's geometric center (0.5, 0.5). You can change it using the 9-point anchor grid in the properties panel, visible when the editor is in Advanced mode.
The nine positions correspond to the corners, edge midpoints, and center of the element's bounding box:
- Center (default): The element rotates around its own midpoint.
- Top-left corner: The element pivots around its top-left corner, useful for unfolding or hinge-style animations.
- Any edge midpoint: Useful for flipping around an axis or creating a door-swinging effect.
When you rotate an element, it always rotates around its anchor point. Changing the anchor point before rotating gives you control over where the pivot sits, without needing to manually reposition the element afterward.
Skew
Skew shears an element along the X axis (horizontal lean) or Y axis (vertical lean), from −45° to 45°. It is available in Advanced mode and works on text, images, and shapes. QR codes and tables cannot be skewed.
Use cases:
- Italic-style effect on shapes: Skewing a rectangle gives it a dynamic, angled look without needing a custom shape.
- Perspective simulation: Skewing an image slightly along X can suggest depth or motion.
- Stylized text boxes: Combine a skewed shape background with normal text on top for a parallelogram-style header.
Tip: Keep skew values subtle, values above 20° tend to look distorted rather than stylized. For text, skew works best on the container shape rather than the text element itself.
Flip
Flip mirrors an element along its horizontal or vertical axis. Unlike rotation, flip produces a true mirror image.
- Flip Horizontal: Shift+H, mirrors the element left-to-right.
- Flip Vertical: Shift+V, mirrors the element top-to-bottom.
Flip works on any element type. A common use is mirroring a decorative flourish or border element: design one half, duplicate it, flip it, and position the copy to create a symmetrical ornament without needing separate artwork.
Tips
- Use the alignment tools instead of manually nudging elements into place. Even experienced designers waste time nudging. The alignment buttons are faster and exact.
- Distribution is essential for consistent card layouts. If you have a repeating grid of elements, distribute them once and they will be perfectly even, regardless of how many there are.
- Blend modes are powerful but can be subtle at first. Start with Multiply and Screen; they cover most practical use cases and the results are predictable.
- Save anchor point changes for intentional rotations. Changing the anchor point affects where the element pivots on rotation, so reset it to center (0.5, 0.5) when you are done with a specific transform.
- Opacity and blend modes stack: a 50% opacity element using Multiply will look different from a 100% opacity element using Multiply. Experiment with both together for fine-grained layering control.