Pixlr Editor/Windows/Drawing tools

Drawing Tools

The second section of the Tools palette contains the eight tools shown below. Each tool has its own options bar located just below the main menu bar, which has the tool icon and options available for the chosen tool.

1. Pencil tool J

The Pencil tool icon looks like a pencil and is on the fourth row to the left side of the Tools window. It is used to draw lines on the image. The cursor will appear as a plus sign, "+". You can start with a new image and make your own drawings or draw lines on existing images. The line color may be changed using the Set main color window or the Color picker tool.

The Pencil tool options bar from left to right is the Pencil tool icon, Size, Type, Type Description, Opacity, and Amount. All selections have to drop down arrows. Type gives you a choice of 6 types; Plain, Sketchy, Trail, Shaded Sticky, and Ink. Go into Pixlr and test each to type to see that line which you need. The Type Description will appear next to Type in the options bar. Size allows you to change the with of the lines from 1 to 10. Opacity gives you the ability to pick the opacity of the line from 0 to 100 percent, e.g. from unseen to black.

2. Brush tool B

The Brush tool icon looks like an artist's paintbrush and is on the fourth row to the right side of the Tools window. It is used as an artist would use a paintbrush to paint an image. The creation of works of digital art would be best done with a pen tablet. Minor touch-ups to images may be done using a mouse. A large variety of brushes and colors are available. Colors are selected using the "Set Main Color" option, (the large rectangle toward the bottom of the Tools bar) or the Colorpicker tool. (It looks like an eyedropper.)

The Brush tool option bar from left to right is the Brush tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop-down arrow; Opacity with a drop-down arrow; and Hard tip, Scatter, and Diffuse, each of which may be selected to affect the brush strokes. Click on the drop-down arrow under the brush size will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number that can be modified instead of using the slider below. Opacity increases the intensity of the brush strokes, i.e., using 100 for a black brush stroke will show as black, using 50 will make the brush stroke gray, and using 0 will make the brush stroke invisible. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to keystrokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse, not solid. Selecting "More" will give you access to additional brushes.

3. Eraser tool E

The Eraser tool icon looks like a pencil eraser and is on the fifth row to left side of Tools window. It allows you to delete all or a portion of the image content using a brush type point. The Eraser tool is often used to erase a portion of an image to reveal and/or blend image content in the layer below.

The Eraser tool option bar from left to right is the Eraser tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop down arrow; and Opacity with drop down arrow. Click on the drop down arrow under the brush size will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Opacity increases the amount erased. A high opacity, i.e. 100 eliminates all the image brushed. Using lower opacities allows you to blend images in different layers.

4. Paint bucket tool G

The Paint bucket tool icon looks like a paint bucket with paint spilling out and is on the fifth row to right side of Tools window. It replaces any portion of an image that is clicked with the pointer, a Paint bucket icon according to the specified tolerance.

The Paint Bucket tool option bar from left to right is the Paint bucket tool icon; Opacity with drop down arrow and amount; Tolerance with a drop down arrow and amount; Anti-alias, Contiguous, and All layers. Opacity increases the amount painted. A high opacity, i.e. 100 replaces the area clicked on with the selected color. Using lower opacities blends the selected color with the area clicked on. Tolerance is used to define how much of area clicked on will be painted. Lower tolerances narrow the area painted. A high tolerance could paint all of the image. Anti-alias is checked or unchecked. Anti-alias is used to reduce image noise in the selection. If Contiguous is selected, i.e. checked, only areas touching the area clicked on will be painted. If Contiguous is not selected, all areas of the image within the specified tolerance will be painted. If All layers is checked, then all layers will be painted simultaneously. If All layers is not selected, only current layer will be painted.

5. Gradient tool

The Gradient tool icon is a rectangle that turns from black to white and is on the sixth row to right side of the Tools window. It draws a line along which it creates spectrum going from light to dark depending on options selected.

The Gradient tool option bar from left to right includes:

1. Opacity with drop down arrow and amount. Opacity decreases or increases the effect of the gradient. 100 totally covers the original image.

2. Gradient allows you to select a predefined gradient and modify it using the sliders under the gradient bar shown. There are over 40 predefined gradients plus a capability to define additional gradients.

3. Type: Linear or Radial. The default is Linear. Linear gradients are gradients perpendicular to the line defined by the Gradient tool. Radial gradients are circular in shaper radiating from a radius defined by the Gradient tool.

4. Space method has a dropdown box with 3 options: Pad, Reflect, and Repeat.

5. Mode has dropdown box with 14 options: Normal, Add, Alpha, Darken, Difference, Erase, Hard light, Invert, Layer, Lighten, Multiply, Overlay, Screen, and Subtract.

6. Clone stamp tool S

The Clone stamp tool icon looks like a rubber stamp and is on the sixth row to right side of Tools window. It is used copy from one area of an image to another with a brush like tool. It is particularly useful when fixing spots and or blemishes or to fill in blank areas of an image. To use the Clone stamp tool, you must first Ctrl click the area you wish to copy from. Then click on the spot to be amended. Drag the pointer over the area you wish to amend. The pointer appears as a circle with a plus sign in the middle. Where you are copying from appears as a circle on the image. Note, the area you are copying from changes as you drag the pointer.

The Clone stamp tool option bar from left to right is the Brush tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop down arrow; Opacity with drop down arrow; Aligned; and Sample all layers options. Click on the drop down arrow under the Brush box and it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Opacity increases the intensity of each stroke of the Clone stamp, i.e., using 100 will completely replace any area you brush over. The default for Aligned is unselected, the area to be copied from start point is an absolute location which does not change until it is redefined with a Ctrl click. If Aligned is selected, the area to be copied from start the point is a relative location defined by a set width and height from the point you brush. Sample all layers is not selected as the default. It useful when a blank layer is added to the image that you want to use to make changes to the image and see the effect of your changes before and after. So when you Ctrl click to sample an area to be copied, you are copying from both layers. Otherwise, you will be copying blank space from the second layer.

7. Color replace tool

The Color replace tool icon looks like a pencil with a small paint bucket and is on the seventh row to right side of Tools window. It is used to replace the color in an area that you brush with the tool with another color which you have selected. To use the Color replace tool, you must first select the color to use. You can use the Set main color block or the Colorpicker tool. Then brush over the area/object that you wish to change the color of.

The Color replace tool option bar from left to right is the Color replace tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop down arrow; Tolerance with number drop down arrow; and Match target lightness. Click on the drop down arrow under the Brush box and it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Next is Tolerance with a number box. The smaller the Tolerance number the less likely the color will bleed over to adjacent areas. The larger tolerance number allows you to replace color over a large range of shades of the color you wish to replace. Match target lightness is either checked or not checked. When checked, it keeps the Color replacement tool from changing the target's lightness.

8. Drawing tool

The Drawing tool is on the seventh row to the right and looks like a rectangle overlaid by an oval. The Drawing tool is used to draw rectangles, ellipses, and lines using the selected color. The rectangles can be outlines or filled in with a color to be selected. The default color in all cases is black. All objects are created on the layer selected and as such are part of that layer. You may wish to create a separate layer for drawing objects to give yourself greater flexibility in using these objects and not losing the underlying image.

The Drawing tool option bar from left to right is the Drawing tool icon, Rectangle tool, Rounded rectangle tool, Ellipse tool, Line tool, Opacity with drop down, Mode with drop down, Border size with drop down, and Fill shape with color selector box. The color selector may be overlooked since it is black against and black background. The Rectangle tool draws a rectangle by dragging the cursor, a cross diagonally across the screen to create a rectangle. It could be useful in creating a border for a photo.

a. The Rectangle tool is used to draw rectangles by dragging the cross pointer diagonally. It is the default.

b. The Rounded rectangle tool is used to draw rectangles with rounded corners by dragging the cross pointer diagonally.

c. The Ellipse tool is used to draw ellipses by dragging the cross pointer diagonally.

d. Line tool is used to draw a straight line from the initial point you click on to the point to click on at the end of the line. When the Line tool is selected, the menu options Border size and Fill color are replaced with Size which allow the width of the line to be changed from 1 to 100 pixels.

e. Opacity with the drop down is how dark the shape you draw will be. It goes from 0, transparent to 100 completely opaque.

f. Mode with drop down has different effects on the objects drawn. The various modes are: Normal, Add, Alpha, Darken, Difference, Erase, Hardlight, Invert, and Layer.

g. Border with drop down gives control of the depth of the object border from 1 pixel to 100 pixels. Note: while using the Rectangle tool with a large border of 100 pixels, the corners appear rounded.