Tutorial Open Editor
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Tools & Features Glossary

Explore the comprehensive list of drawing, selection, and animation tools available in PixelPad Pro.

brush Drawing & Painting

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Pencil Tool B

The primary drawing tool. Renders hard-edged pixels perfectly snapped to the grid. Use [ and ] to change the brush size.

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Eraser E

Removes pixels from the active layer, leaving complete transparency behind.

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Paint Bucket F

Fills contiguous blocks of the same color instantly. Great for blocking out base colors.

colorize

Eyedropper I

Samples a color from the canvas. You can also right-click anywhere while using the pencil to sample colors instantly.

find_replace

Color Replace

Click on any pixel to instantly swap all matching colors on the entire layer to your newly selected color.

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Spray / Dithering Shift+B

Paints scattered pixels within a radius to create textures, noise, or shading effects.

highlight_alt Selection & Transform

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Rectangular Select M

Draws a square/rectangle box to select portions of the artwork.

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Lasso Select L

Allows freehand drawing to select complex or irregular shapes.

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Magic Wand W

Automatically selects an entire contiguous area of the exact same color.

transform

Transform Shift+T

Turns your selection into a floating object with a full 8-handle bounding box. Move, rotate (hold Shift for 45° snaps), and scale freely.

Shift + scale → locks the original aspect ratio. Shift + move → snaps to 8px grid. A live W × H dimension label above the box shows the exact pixel size in real time.

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Arrow Key Nudge

While a selection is active, use the arrow keys to move it one pixel at a time for precise placement.

layers Layers & Canvas Features

lock

Alpha Lock

Locks the transparency of a layer. When active, you can only paint over existing pixels, protecting the transparent background.

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Mirror Symmetry

Draws a mirrored reflection of your strokes either horizontally or vertically in real-time.

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Pixel Perfect Mode

An algorithm that automatically removes unwanted "L" shaped pixels from freehand strokes, keeping outlines clean.

image

Reference Window

Opens a floating window where you can load a reference image. You can zoom, pan, and color-pick directly from the reference.

animation Animation & Timeline

timer

Custom Frame Delay

Allows you to override the global FPS for a specific frame, making it stay on screen for a custom amount of milliseconds (ms).

blur_linear

Onion Skinning

Displays a faded overlay of the previous frame (in red) to help you align movements and animations accurately.

label

Timeline Tags

Select multiple frames and assign them a color-coded tag (e.g., "Run Cycle", "Attack"). You can then preview play just that specific tag.

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APNG / GIF Export

Export your timeline into a high-quality GIF or a next-generation APNG (Animated PNG) that fully supports a transparent background.

content_paste Import & Paste

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Paste Centered Ctrl+V

Pasting from the clipboard or importing an external image always places it centered on the canvas. The image is automatically scaled down proportionally if it is larger than the canvas, and the Transform tool is activated so you can reposition before committing.

high_quality

Lossless Rescaling

The editor stores the original imported image at full resolution internally. You can shrink and enlarge the selection multiple times without accumulating quality loss — every rescale is always computed from the pristine source.

flip

Flip Horizontal / Vertical

Flip the active layer or the current floating selection. When a selection is floating, the flip is applied to the original-resolution source so the result stays sharp even if the selection was scaled.

animation

Import Animated PNG (APNG)

Import an existing APNG file and it will be automatically split into individual frames on a new layer, with each frame's original delay preserved in the timeline.

save Auto-Save & Session Recovery

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Auto-Save (30s interval)

Every 30 seconds the editor silently saves a snapshot of your current project to the browser's local storage. If the tab is closed accidentally or the browser crashes, the next session will offer to restore your work.

restore

Session Restore

On startup, the editor checks for a saved session from the past 24 hours. If one is found, a prompt asks whether to restore it — preserving all layers, frames, and delays exactly as they were.

smartphone Touch & Mobile

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Single-Finger Draw

Tap and drag with one finger on the canvas to draw with the active tool, exactly like a mouse click. Works on tablets, iPads, and any touchscreen device with a modern browser.

pinch

Pinch-to-Zoom

Place two fingers on the canvas and pinch in or out to zoom smoothly. The zoom follows the midpoint between your fingers, just like native mobile apps.

stylus

Stylus Support

Any stylus that emulates standard touch events (including Apple Pencil on iPad) works naturally with the drawing tools. Tap-to-draw is fully supported.