how to draw
a tour of every tool, gesture, and toggle.
the two surfaces
canvas (the drawing area)
The big square at the top is your canvas. What touch does on the canvas depends on the direct draw toggle:
- direct draw OFF (default): single-finger touch is ignored. Two fingers pinch to zoom (1× to 4×) and drag to pan around. Useful for working on details.
- direct draw ON: a single touch on the canvas draws directly with the current tool. Pinch and pan are suspended.
Mouse and stylus always draw directly on the canvas regardless of the toggle.
trackpad (the strip below the canvas)
The trackpad is your remote pen. It's split into two zones:
- cursor zone (the dotted area): drag a finger here to move the pen cursor on the canvas, like a laptop trackpad. Faster sweeps cover more ground.
- INK button (the orange one): tap and hold to ink at the cursor's current position. Release to stop. The cursor stays put when you lift your dragging finger, so you can re-position your hand without losing your place.
Either finger can land first — order doesn't matter, only which zone you're touching.
Tip: your finger has to start inside the trackpad — that's how the trackpad claims it. But once it's down, it can leave the trackpad box entirely: drag across the canvas, off the screen edge, anywhere. The trackpad keeps tracking it until you lift, so long sweeping strokes don't need re-positioning.
Tip: the same trick works for the INK button. Tap to start inking, then slide your INK finger off the button — anywhere is fine. The ink stays armed until you actually lift, so your INK finger doesn't have to camp on the button while your other hand draws.
tools
Open the right-edge orange "tools" tab. Tap a tool to select it.
- marker — constant-width pen. Same thickness regardless of how fast you move. Predictable lines.
- brush — dynamic width. Slow strokes are fatter, fast strokes are thinner. With stylus mode on and a pressure-sensitive pen (Apple Pencil etc.), real pressure controls width directly.
- erase — paints in the paper color, removing what you drew underneath.
- fill — flood-fills any enclosed area with the current color. Tap inside a closed shape.
- spray — speckled spray-paint. Hold the pointer (or hold INK) to keep spraying in one spot for denser coverage.
- eyedrop — tap a spot on the canvas to grab whatever color is there. Auto-switches you back to brush after sampling.
brush size
Four sizes: thin · medium · thick · fattest. Affects all drawing tools (including erase and spray radius).
opacity
Four presets: 100% · 75% · 50% · 25%. Lower opacities let strokes overlap and build up tone. Marker, brush, and spray all respect opacity. Erase always paints solid paper. Fill always flood-fills solid.
colors
48 swatches grouped by family — neutrals, browns, reds, pinks, oranges, greens, teals/blues, purples. Tap to select. Tapping a swatch while in erase or eyedrop automatically switches you back to brush.
other actions
- save draft — saves your in-progress drawing locally so you can come back to it later. Available in the drawer; restores on next visit if a draft exists.
- undo — drops the last stroke. The button under the trackpad is always available; it's also in the drawer (useful in fullscreen).
- clear — wipes the whole canvas (asks before doing it).
- reset view — un-zooms back to 1× and re-centers if you've panned around.
- fullscreen — hides page chrome to give the canvas the full screen. Tap "done" in the corner to exit.
toggles
- stylus (default ON) — read pen pressure on stylus hardware (Apple Pencil, Surface Pen, Wacom). When off, brush always uses the speed-based curve. Fingers always use speed since they don't report real pressure.
- smooth (default OFF) — averages the last few input points before drawing each segment. Hides shaky-hand wobble. Subtle but real.
- direct draw (default OFF) — single-touch on the canvas draws with the current tool. Turning this on disables pinch-to-zoom and two-finger pan (the gestures would conflict with stroke drawing). The trackpad still works as normal. Use reset view to un-zoom before flipping it on if you want to start at 1×.
- lefty (default OFF) — swaps the trackpad's cursor and INK zones so INK is on the left. Persists across visits.
- hide trackpad (default OFF) — hides the trackpad and INK area entirely for max canvas space. Useful if you're using a stylus or prefer direct draw on the canvas. Persists across visits.