Drawing & Painting

Everything about pixel mode — tools, shortcuts, symmetry, color picking, and reference images.

Tools

Tool	Shortcut	What it does
Pencil	`B`	Draw pixels one at a time. Click or drag.
Eraser	`E`	Clear pixels (set to transparent).
Fill	`G`	Flood fill a contiguous region.
Eyedropper	`I`	Pick a color from the canvas.
Line	`L`	Click start point, drag to end point. Preview shown while dragging.
Rectangle	`R`	Drag corner to corner. Hold Shift for filled rectangle.
Select	`S`	Drag to select a rectangular region.
Move	—	Move selected content around the canvas.

Selection

After selecting a region with Select (S):

Shortcut	Action
`Cmd+C`	Copy
`Cmd+X`	Cut (copy + clear)
`Cmd+V`	Paste at selection origin
`Delete`	Clear selected pixels
`Escape`	Deselect

The selection appears as a cyan rectangle overlay.

Symmetry

Cycle through symmetry modes in the tool strip:

Off — normal drawing
H — horizontal mirror (left/right)
V — vertical mirror (top/bottom)
H+V — four-way symmetry (all quadrants)

All drawing tools respect the active symmetry mode — draw on one side, the mirror updates automatically.

Tip

Use H+V symmetry for floor tiles that need to tile seamlessly in all directions. Use H symmetry for front-facing character sprites — draw the left half, get the right half free.

Canvas controls

Shortcut	Action
`Space` + drag	Pan the canvas
Scroll wheel	Zoom in/out
`+` / `-`	Zoom in/out
`Cmd+0`	Reset zoom and pan
`H`	Toggle grid overlay
`Cmd+Z`	Undo
`Cmd+Shift+Z`	Redo
`Cmd+S`	Quick save
`Cmd+/`	Show all shortcuts

Color picker

Click the edit icon next to the foreground color to open the HSV picker:

SV square — drag to set saturation (horizontal) and value/brightness (vertical)
Hue bar — drag to pick the base hue
RGB sliders — fine-tune individual red, green, blue channels
Hex input — type a 6-digit hex code directly
Preview — old color vs new color side by side

Blueprint overlay

Toggle the blueprint overlay (person icon in the top bar) to show semi-transparent anatomy guides for character sprites:

Head, torso, limbs, feet positions
Eye placement and size recommendations
Adapts to the current canvas size (8x8 through 64x64)

Tip

At small sizes (8x8, 16x16), the blueprint omits features that won't read at that resolution — no individual eyes at 8x8, just the head region. Trust the guide and keep it simple.

Reference image

Load any image as a semi-transparent underlay for tracing. The reference is scaled to fit the canvas and rendered below all pixel layers. Useful for converting a sketch or concept art into pixel art.

Sprite animation preview

For tiles that belong to a spriteset, click Play Animation in the Tiles tab to preview the animation as an animated GIF in a popup. Shows all frames at the declared FPS so you can check timing without exporting.