Guides / Images and colouring pages
Paint by number
Paint the app's coloring books by number, where each number chooses its areas and hands you its colours and brushes, or colour them freely.
- Free
- Everything in this guide works in Free.
Open the Actions menu and choose Coloring books.
Tap a book. The books that come with the app start two ways. Paint by number shows a number in every area. Start colouring leaves the page plain, for your own colours.
Click a book. The books that come with the app start two ways. Paint by number shows a number in every area. Start colouring leaves the page plain, for your own colours.
Tap Paint by number. Each area shows its number, and the page's numbers line up above it, each in its own colour.
Click Paint by number. Each area shows its number, and the page's numbers line up above it, each in its own colour.
Tap a number. All its areas are chosen together, the rest of the page dims, and the number's first step, its base colour and brush, is in your hand.
Click a number. All its areas are chosen together, the rest of the page dims, and the number's first step, its base colour and brush, is in your hand.
Paint. The colour lands only in that number's areas, and each area's number goes once it has paint.
Each number has a few steps. Darks is a deeper colour with a finer brush, for shadows over the base.
The last step is a brush that moves. Here it is Ripples, so the river keeps moving after you lift the pen.
Tap Done to let the number go. To colour the page freely instead, open the Canvas and paper menu and turn off Paint by number.
Click Done to let the number go. To colour the page freely instead, open the Canvas and paper menu and turn off Paint by number.
The numbers go, and the page is a plain colouring page, with the book's palette on the wheel. Turn it on again whenever you like. Nothing you painted changes.
Two ways to colour a book
The coloring books that come with the app are also paint-by-number books. Open one from Actions → Coloring books… and its preview offers both:
- Paint by number 1: every area shows a number, and each number brings its colours and brushes.
- Start colouring 2: the same pages as a plain coloring book, with the book's palette on the wheel and your own choice of what goes where.
You can change your mind at any time. Paint by number, in the Canvas and paper menu 1, turns the numbers on and off for the page you are on, and the app remembers it for the next page and the next book. Nothing you painted changes.
Numbers
With Paint by number on, each area of the page shows its number, and a bar above the page 1 lists the page's numbers, each a chip in its own colour.
Tap a number, in the bar or on the page (choose Choose area in the Canvas and paper menu, then tap an area):
- All its areas are chosen together, and the rest of the page dims. Every stroke stays inside them, wherever it starts, so one sweep can cross several.
- Its first step is in your hand 2: the base colour and its brush.
- An area's number goes once the area has paint, so the numbers left are the areas still to do.
Done lets the number go, and strokes stay in the area they start in again. Small areas show their number only when you zoom in, and the smallest show none: choosing the number still lights them up.
Steps
A number is more than one colour. Its steps are under the numbers, one tap each, and each sets the brush and the colour together:
- Base: the area's colour, in a brush that covers.
- Darks: a deeper shade and a finer or drier brush, for shadow and texture.
- Highlights: a lighter tint, usually a pastel, for where the light falls.
- A brush that moves: named for what it does. Ripples on water, Rustle in leaves, Flame and Embers in fire, Clouds and Mist in the sky, Twinkle on gold. The paint keeps moving after you lift the pen.
A step in another medium paints on a layer of its own, which the app makes the first time and puts under the page's lines. You are free to ignore the steps: any brush and any colour you take still stays inside the chosen number's areas.
Tip: To paint a few areas of your own choosing rather than a whole number, use Choose area and Add areas (see Panel layouts).
Pro: Paint by number is Free, and every step in the app's books uses a Free brush.
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