Good news for perfectionists with a Kindle Scribe

Kindle Scribe users are finally getting smart shapes, a long-awaited feature that turns rough sketches into clean diagrams. The tool automatically refines hand-drawn shapes into cleaner, more precise versions.

Smart shapes arrived as part of the most recent software update, but you wouldn’t know it from the release notes. The relatively vague notes focus mostly on PDF improvements instead. As usual, the change has been spotted by users as it rolls out rather than being clearly outlined by Amazon.

Amazon’s smart shapes cover the basics, including squares, circles, triangles, lines, and arrows. It’s more than enough to organize notes or clean up sketches. To use the tool, you simply draw the desired shape to the best of your ability and keep your stylus engaged for an extra beat until the shape snaps into place. As a shape locks in, a menu appears with options to resize, rotate, copy, cut, or delete it. You can also adjust line thickness or fill the shape using the available color palette on supported models.

Shape recognition has been standard on competing e-ink tablets for years, and without it, the Scribe felt slightly unrefined, at least for those of us who can’t draw a perfect circle by hand. This update brings it more in line with what users expect from a device in this category.

As for availability, the update is rolling out gradually. Some Reddit users already have it, while others are still waiting. To see if your Kindle supports smart shapes yet, make sure you are using the latest software version 5.19.3.0.1. Then, open a new notebook and the tutorial pictures above will appear if smart shapes are available.