User guides
Everything the app does,
one guide at a time.
Short narrated walkthroughs with the steps written out. Choose your device; each guide is marked Free or Pro.
Recorded from the current build in the Simulator, and updated with the app.
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Getting started
- Welcome tourFreeThe first launch opens a painting that already moves; here is where everything on the screen lives.
- How a stroke worksFreeEvery stroke is Paint, Marks and Motion, and a brush is your recipe for all three. The idea behind the wheel, the brush settings and the library.
- Your first paintingFreePick up a brush from the stroke wheel, choose a colour, paint, and undo a mark.
- Gestures and the viewFreeZoom, pan and rotate the page, undo and redo with a tap of two or three fingers, use the Zoom menu and the Hand tool, and hide the interface.
- Apple Pencil and touchFreePaint with Apple Pencil pressure, tilt and hover, choose what double-tap and squeeze do, and decide whether your finger paints or moves the page.
- Mouse, trackpad and keyboardFreePaint on the Mac with a mouse, trackpad or drawing tablet, call the stroke wheel with a secondary click, scroll to move and zoom, and use the keyboard shortcuts.
- LessonsFreeFour short lessons in Actions → Learn living media walk through the three parts of every stroke, Paint, Marks and Motion, then your own brush, and hand you a brush to try.
Paintings and files
- GalleryFreeOpen your paintings, start a new one from a template or a custom size, and rename, duplicate or delete paintings with a touch and hold.
- Canvas sizeFreeResize the page with paper and screen presets or your own dimensions, in pixels, inches, centimetres or millimetres at a chosen dpi.
- Files and iCloudFreePaintings save themselves; each keeps a self-contained .doodly copy in Files, in iCloud Drive or on this device, and Open project… and Save project as… move paintings in and out.
Wheel and brushes
- The stroke wheelFreeEvery part of the wheel in the corner, from the media on its rim to Undo and Tools under your thumb.
- The brush libraryFree + ProBrowse the medium's brushes, every mark and every motion, star your favourites, save and manage your own brushes, and search them all.
- Brush StudioFree + ProChange everything about a brush on its three pages, Paint, Marks and Motion, watch it apply live, and keep, revert or reset it.
- Brush parameters and filesProWith Pro, set every value a brush or stroke sends to the renderer, and share brushes as files or import them.
Paint
- The seven mediaFreeWatercolor, Ink, Pen, Marker, Graphite, Pastel and Charcoal, how each behaves, and why each has its own layer.
- ColourFreePick colours from the rings around the wheel's centre, the colour panel's palettes, mixer and hex field, or the painting itself with the Eyedropper.
- Watercolor and inkFreeHow much water a brush carries, wet paint running together and blooming, drying, wetting or drying a whole layer, and replaying the drying.
- Erase and lift paintFreeRemove whole strokes with the Eraser, or lift paint off the layer with Lift paint, in every medium but Ink.
- Blending toolsFreeSoften, spread and move paint already down with each medium's tools, from the Water Brush to Smudge, Blend and Dust.
Marks and effects
- MarksFreeMarks are what each stroke leaves. Turn a stroke into beads, streams, shapes or hatching that travel, breathe and join, and set how they move.
- EffectsFreePaint fire, smoke, clouds, snow, water, leaves and more with any brush. Pick a look by category, then tune it with the wheel's three effect gauges.
Motion and animation
- Add motion to your strokesFreeChoose a motion on the wheel's Motion ring, set how much and how fast it moves, and fine-tune it under Advanced motion.
- Paint motion onto strokesFreeBrush motion onto strokes already on the page, take it away, strengthen or soften it, and freeze strokes or a whole layer in place.
- Play, pause and the timelineFreePlay and pause the painting, scrub its timeline, and set its loop's length, looping and overall motion in Animation settings.
- Combine motionsProStack several motions on one brush, so a single stroke can wave and bounce at once.
Paper and canvas
Layers
- LayersFree + ProAdd, switch, reorder, hide, lock, rename, duplicate, group and delete layers, from the layer strip or the Layers sheet.
- Layer blend modes and adjustmentsFreeChange how a layer meets the layers below with opacity and blend modes, adjust its colour and tone, and let grouped wet layers mix.
Images and colouring pages
Selecting and drawing aids
- Select and change strokesFree + ProTap a stroke to change its paint, or loop several to move, scale, turn, recolour, fill or delete them.
- Fill an areaFreeTap inside a shape to fill it with the brush in hand, drag to fill several areas at once, and fill behind your lines.
- Write textFreeWrite words as ordinary strokes in the brush in hand, in single-line fonts, then place, size and turn them.
- Paint with symmetryFreeMirror every stroke left and right or top and bottom, or repeat it in radial folds for mandalas.
- Guides, ruler and flipped viewFreeDraw along an ellipse or French curve, in 1- to 6-point perspective or on a grid, with the ruler, and check your painting flipped.
- Stabilization and Snap to shapesFreeSteady a slow, shaky line, and let rough lines and loops land as clean straight lines, circles and ellipses.
Export and share
- Share and exportFree + ProSend a still or a loop in one tap, or export an image, video, time-lapse or layered file with Export….
- Time-lapse and musicFree + ProExport a replay of your painting taking shape, cropped vertical for phones, with music scored from the way you painted it.
- Layered files and frame sequencesFree + ProExport your layers as a Photoshop file, or every frame of the motion as numbered PNGs, including ordered frames for lenticular prints.
Sound
Settings and Pro
- SettingsFree + ProEvery setting in one place, from appearance and input to Apple Pencil gestures, sound and music, storage, and the app's version and links.
- Free and ProFree + ProWhat Free includes, what the one-time Pro purchase adds, and how to buy, restore, redeem a code or share Pro with your family.
- AccessibilityFreeDoodly Doodle follows your text size, speaks every control to VoiceOver, keeps touch targets large, and opens paintings paused with Reduce Motion.
- Experimental settingsFreeTry Live paint, which shows the real paint under the pencil as you draw, and Finger pressure and tilt, which gives finger strokes a swell and a taper.
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