Guides / Settings and Plus
Settings
Every setting in one place, from appearance and input to Apple Pencil gestures, sound and music, storage, the practice reminder, achievements, and the app's version and links.
- Free
- Everything in this guide works in Free.
Settings is the last item in the Actions menu.
Settings is the last item in the Actions menu.
Interface and input comes first. It sets the appearance, which side the controls sit on, what your finger does, whether zooming in stays sharp, and whether the paper's light shows.
Interface and input comes first. It sets the appearance, which side the controls sit on, what your finger does, whether zooming in stays sharp, and whether the paper's light shows.
Further down are Sharp zoom, which keeps zoomed-in painting sharp, and Paper light, which shows the paper's own light.
Appearance follows the system unless you choose Light or Dark. Here, Dark.
Appearance follows the system unless you choose Light or Dark. Here, Dark.
Hover previews offers a separate enlarged card, Dock-style magnification, or Off. Touch users can press and hold a brush, mark or motion to inspect it before choosing Use.
Hover previews offers a separate enlarged card, Dock-style magnification, or Off. Touch users can press and hold a brush, mark or motion to inspect it before choosing Use.
Tap System to follow the device again.
Click System to follow the device again.
Tap System to follow the device again. Under Apple Pencil, choose what a double-tap and a squeeze do.
Sound sets the stylus sound, music while you paint, and this painting's musical style and mood.
Sound sets the stylus sound, music while you paint, and this painting's musical style and mood.
Storage decides where your paintings' copies live, and shows the room that brush previews and exports take.
Storage decides where your paintings' copies live, and shows the room that brush previews and exports take.
Practice turns on a daily reminder at a time you choose, and syncs your practice days through your own iCloud.
Practice turns on a daily reminder at a time you choose, and syncs your practice days through your own iCloud.
About shows the version, the privacy policy, support, a link to rate the app and acknowledgements. Tap Done when you're finished.
About shows the version, the privacy policy, support, a link to rate the app and acknowledgements. Tap Done when you're finished.
About shows the version, the privacy policy, support, a link to rate the app and acknowledgements. Click Done when you're finished.
Actions → Settings… opens the app's preferences. Changes take effect at once; Done closes the sheet. Without Plus, a More with Plus card comes first, and Get Plus on it opens Free and Plus; with Plus it isn't there. Settings belong to the app on this device, except the music's Style and Mood, which belong to the painting that's open.
Interface & input
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Appearance | System (the default), Light or Dark for the app's controls. The painting and its paper don't change. |
| Controls on right | Puts the stroke wheel in the bottom-right corner and the layer strip on the left, for left-handed painting. Off by default. |
| Ask before a new layer | Off, choosing a medium with no layer of its own makes one, and the wheel says so. On, it asks first. Off by default. |
| Wheel labels | While learning (the default): the wheel names each control on its rim, gauges and corner until you've used it three times, then shows only its symbol. Always: the names stay. Off: symbols only. A name shows only where it fits whole, in any language; a ring's chips name themselves beside your finger while you touch them. |
| Finger draws (off: finger pans) | On: one finger paints. Off: one finger moves the page and only Apple Pencil paints. The first time, it follows the Settings app's Only Draw with Apple Pencil. See Apple Pencil and touch. |
| Finger pressure and tilt (experimental) | Shown while Finger draws is on. Makes up pressure and tilt from how your finger moves. Off by default. See Experimental settings. |
| Sharp zoom | Zoomed in, what is in view is drawn again at the screen's own resolution, so edges, grain and paper stay sharp. Where a painting is more than the device can keep up with, it draws a little softer to stay smooth. On by default; off, zooming in magnifies the painting, softer close up. |
| Paper light | The paper's own light falls on the paper and on the paint lying on it, so its tooth shows through a wash or pencil; set its strength in Paper. On by default. Off, the canvas draws the paper flat, which asks a little less of the device; pictures you export keep the paper's light. |
| Inside the lines | With a colouring page or panels, each stroke stays inside the area it starts in, or the area you chose. The same switch is in the Canvas and paper menu. See Colouring pages. |
| Show the area you're in | While you paint inside one chosen area, the rest of the page dims. On by default. In Color the chosen number's areas still to paint wear a light checkerboard instead, and nothing dims. |
The caption under each of these says what the current setting does.
Apple Pencil
On iPad only.
| Setting | Choices |
|---|---|
| Double-tap | Follow system setting, Brush controls at the pencil, Switch to eraser, Previous brush, Eyedropper, Color panel, Play / pause the painting, Nothing |
| Squeeze | The same choices. Squeeze needs Apple Pencil Pro. |
Follow system setting (the default for both) uses the Apple Pencil page of the Settings app. What each choice does is in Apple Pencil and touch.
Sound
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stylus sound | A slider for the sound of the tip on the paper, for every brush. All the way left (the default) is silent. |
| Music while painting | Music that follows your painting as you work. Off by default. |
| Style | The instruments and arrangement of this painting's music, with a line describing it. All 21 styles are Free. |
| Mood | From the painting lets its colours guide the harmony; Calm, Hopeful, Wistful, Dreamy, Playful, Mysterious and Adventurous steer it. A line describes each. |
| How painting shapes music | What your strokes, colours and coverage do to the music. |
| Advanced sound | Tool sound editors and music mapping, and exporting and importing sound settings. |
Stylus sound and music follow the silent switch and mix with your own music. The painting's soundtrack and time-lapse music use the same style and mood.
Plus: Every setting is Free, every music style and Advanced sound included.
Storage
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Keep copies in iCloud Drive | On (the default): each painting's .doodly copy is in iCloud Drive → Doodly Doodle. Off: on this device, in On My iPad (or iPhone) → Doodly Doodle. See Files and iCloud. |
| Brush previews | How much room the cached brush pictures take. |
| Clear brush previews | Deletes them; they're rebuilt when needed. Your brushes and paintings aren't affected. |
| Exports | How much room Files → Doodly Doodle → Exports takes. |
| Delete all exports… | After you confirm, deletes every file in the Exports folder. Anything you've shared or saved elsewhere stays. |
Practice
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Practice reminder | Off by default. On, a notification at the Time you choose (7:00 pm unless you change it), only on days you haven't practised yet. The first time, iOS asks to allow notifications. It's scheduled on this device; nothing is sent. See Daily practice. |
| Sync practice with iCloud | On (the default): your practice days, finished lessons and exercise stars reach your other devices on the same Apple Account, through your own iCloud, so your streak and calendar count all of them. Only the days and lessons travel, never a drawing. Off: new practice stays on this device; nothing is erased. The line beneath says whether it's syncing now. Separate from Keep copies in iCloud Drive. |
Achievements
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Achievements on this device | Optional badges for drawing days, strokes, the motions, media, effects and brushes you use, and your practice, counted on this device. Off by default; turn it off at any time to stop counting. |
| Sync achievements with iCloud | Adds up your devices' counts through your own iCloud. On by default; needs achievements on. |
| Share achievements with Game Center | Sends earned badges, and only those, to Game Center. Off by default; needs achievements on. |
| Achievements | Your progress, your totals and every badge; also in Actions while achievements are on. |
| Delete achievement data… | Deletes this device's counts and badges, here and in iCloud, and turns the switches off. |
See Achievements.
Language
Doodly Doodle is in English and 16 other languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. It follows your device's language. To use another for Doodly Doodle alone, choose it in the Settings app → Apps → Doodly Doodle → Language. In Arabic and Hebrew the interface reads right to left.
On the Mac, choose it in System Settings → General → Language & Region → Applications.
About
| Item | What it is |
|---|---|
| Version | The app's version and build |
| Privacy policy | Opens doodlydoodle.app/privacy |
| Support | Opens doodlydoodle.app/support |
| Rate Doodly Doodle | Opens the app's page in the App Store to rate or review it |
| Acknowledgements | Licences for the sound libraries, fonts and recordings the app uses, and a note on the coloring packs' line art |
Your paintings stay on this device: no account, no tracking, no subscription.
Brush previews
Hover previews offers Magnification (the default), Separate preview, or Off. A mouse or trackpad magnifies the hovered stroke and its neighbours, or opens a larger moving card beside it (from the wheel, beyond the rings). Press and hold a brush, mark or motion for a larger preview on touch screens, then choose Use to apply it. See Larger previews.
Try it in the app.
Download on the App Store Free for iPad, iPhone and MacSomething not behaving as expected?
Visit support or write to [email protected].