The Book of Inkscape

11.1 Shape Tools

A new shape object is created by dragging on the canvas with the corresponding tool—for example, dragging with the Rectangle tool creates a new rectangle. The newly created shape remains selected, and any selected shape displays its editing handles (similar to the gradient handles). By dragging those handles, you can immediately edit what you have created.

Most handles work differently when you drag them with or without various keyboard modifiers (, , ). When you hover your mouse over a handle, the status bar tells you what this handle ...