Which tool is the main drawing/painting tool?
- It is a Paint tool
. It makes nice, antialiased stroke. Set different brushes to simulate pen, pencil, chalk, coal, crayon, airbrush, dots and many other real tools
Other painting tools are:
- Pencil
- generates hard edge strokes (no antialiasing), it should be used mainly for pixel-art
- Wet Paint
- advanced painting tool which also smudges content below, should be used to simulate real wet paintbrush
Why Pencil tool makes hard-edge strokes?
In the old Artstudio it was main paint tool. Now the main drawing/paintg tool is Paint tool
. More details in previous question.
How to create a new document?
- Choose in main menu: File > New, then choose apropriate option to create empty canvas or canvas from existing Photo
- You can also open Document Browser and tap '+' icon
How to import image from Photos as a new layer?
- Choose in main menu: Layer > Add > Add Layer From Photos...
- Or drag and drop image file over the canvas
I can see only 12 tool icons in the left toolbar, where are the rest?
Some tool icons has small arrow indicator in the corner. It means you can long-press (or just tap if tool is active) to show more tools.
Where are all the brushes?
First choose any tool which uses a brush, for example Paint tool
. Then tap brush icon (next to tool icon in top toolbar) to open Brush Editor.
Is tapered stroke from the old Artstudio still available?
Yes, activate Paint tool
, then make sure the active brush group is 'Sketching' (bottom toolbar in Brush Editor), and choose 'Taper' brush in thumbnails.
Where is 'Select by Color' tool?
Activate Magic Wand tool
and disable 'Contiguous' switch.
Where is Redo button?
You can use the following gestures on canvas:
- 2-finger tap to Undo
- 3-finger tap to Redo
You can also long-press 'Undo' button in top toolbar to show Undo/Redo popover
How can I recover projects from the old version?
1. Export document in PSD format in the old Artstudio.
2. Import the PSD file in Artstudio Pro.
How can I paint straight lines/ellipses/rectangles?
Activate any painting tool, tap 'More...' button and choose apropriate item from 'Drawing Mode' list.
How can I move/scale/rotate a layer?
If you want to only move it - choose Move tool
.
If you want to move/scale/rotate/skew/perspective - tap Edit > Transform...
You may want to disable snapping - choose View > Snap in main menu.
If a selection is active - only the selected part will be changed.
You can even move/transform multiple layers and groups together.
Is it possible to stabilize (smooth) painted line?
Yes, in any painting tool tap 'More...' button and type value from 1 to 9 in 'Smoothing' textfield.
Where are Glow and Drop Shadow features?
In the old Artstudio there operations were available as filters. Artstudio Pro introduces layer effects with Glow, Drop Shadow and few other functions. To use it open Layers view, tap 'Fx' button, chose 'Edit Effects', enable Glow/Drop Shadow/... switch and configure them.
How can I disable canvas rotation?
Choose in main menu Artstudio > Preferences and disable 'Canvas Rotation' switch.
How can I lock transparency for a layer?
Open Layers view, choose a layer, tap on 'Padlock' icon in top toolbar, and choose 'Lock Transparency'. 'Padlock' icon will appear in select row. You can then tap this icon to lock/unlock transparency.
How to start Screen Recording?
Screen Recording is disabled by default because it adds a small lag after each stroke, and makes document file bigger. To enable just tap File > Screen Recording > Recording
How to disable Snapping?
Tap in main menu View > Snap
How are layer masks working?
Masks work a bit different to old Artstudio and some other apps. The difference is that any layer can become a mask (ont only raster layer, but also Text layers). You have to remember that in Artstudio Pro transparent pixel in mask is like black pixel in classical mask model. We had to do that to allow setting Text layer (which contains text on transparency) as a mask. To create simple mask do the following steps:
1. Create empty layer.
2. Tap Edit > Fill Special > Fill With White.
3. Paint something using black color.
4. Change layer to mask: tap in main menu Layer > Mask/Clipping Mask > Enable mask, or in Layers view open layer's details and choose 'Mask' in Masking list.
One more thing - layer can contain many masks - in this case all masks are first merged like normal layers. Merged content is then applied as a mask (white color - show content below, black color or transparency - don't show).
When open documents are saved?
- app is entering background
- switching active document
- creating new document
- closing document
- opening document browser
How to close edited document?
1. Show 'Open Documents' popover.
2. Then use one of the following options:
- swipe left on a table row
- tap 'Edit' button then uses system red button to close a document
- tap 'Edit' then tap 'Close All' to close all open documents
How to perform 'Save As...' action?
In Artstudio Pro there is no 'Save As...' menu item. But you can achieve the same result by duplicating existing document:
1. Open document browser.
2. Tap 'Edit' button.
3. Select a document.
4. Tap 'Duplicate' icon in top toolbar.
How to add guidelines?
1. Tap View > Show Rules to display ruler bars
2. Drag guideline from top or left ruler
3. To delete a guideline drag it out from the canvas
How can I change Ruler unit?
Tap on the top-left corner near ruler bars to show Units popover.