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Clicking vertices around a cloud, a pastry, a plant or a puddle is slow and joyless. The Freeform tool trades clicks for a single continuous stroke: press, trace the outline like a pencil, release, done. PixlHub converts the stroke into an editable shape.
Available in image projects. Freeform shapes behave like polygons after creation: same class system, same vertex editing, same export geometry.

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When freehand beats clicking

The demo below uses a supermarket meringue bag: crinkled plastic, no straight edge anywhere, exactly the shape vertex-clicking hates.

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Draw a freeform shape

1

Arm the class

Press the class hotkey (Product here) or click the class name.
2

Pick the Freeform tool

Click the pen icon in the floating palette.
3

Press, trace, release

Hold the mouse button down and follow the outline in one continuous motion. Releasing closes the shape automatically.
Blue freeform Product outline around a meringue bag in the PixlHub editor with the instance panel visible

One stroke around the bag. The shape closes on release and joins Object Instances alongside the point annotations from earlier in this task.

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Refine after the stroke

A freeform shape lands as an editable outline with vertex handles, so a wobbly section takes seconds to fix: switch to Select, click the shape, drag the offending handles.
Zoomed view of a freeform annotation with vertex handles in PixlHub

Selected freeform shapes expose handles like any polygon; imperfect strokes are corrected, not redrawn.

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Stroke technique

  • Slow hand, smooth outline. Stroke speed maps directly to vertex density; a slower trace follows detail better.
  • Zoom to the object first. Freehand precision at 100 percent on a small object is luck, not skill.
  • Do not chase every wrinkle. Guideline-level fidelity beats pixel heroics; a clean approximate outline trains better than a jittery exact one.
  • Fix, do not redo. One rough section means dragging three handles, not redrawing the stroke.

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Frequently asked questions

Structurally they are both closed outlines. Freeform is a faster input method for the same kind of geometry, so exports treat them alike. Details in Exports.
Zoom in further (canvas motion smooths relative to image pixels) and slow the stroke. A drawing tablet helps for all-day freehand work, though most annotators do fine with a mouse at higher zoom.
Yes. AI-assisted annotation can generate an outline you only correct, which often beats hand-tracing on well-defined objects.

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Next steps

Polygon tool

Clicked vertices for angular, precise outlines.

AI-assisted annotation

Model-proposed shapes you refine instead of draw.