Angle: 0° = east, counter-clockwise positive. Numeric handle edits set exactly what you type (no mirroring). Break needs a selected node; a hole rim won't break (it must stay closed to compose). Path ops target the selected node's contour, or all contours when no node is selected.
Capture
off
Fit
55
off
Width
1.00
12%
off
off
Every slider re-fits the most recent Pencil stroke (or the active one) live from its raw samples — nothing is baked until you draw the next stroke. Ends that land near the start close the loop (a closed loop never tapers). Pen pressure and taper become per-node widths; edit any node's Width in the Nodes panel. Settings are remembered on this device.
20px
The Eraser only touches shapes on the active screen — never the paper, images, locked or hidden screens. Open lines are cut into pieces (same shape, new sub-paths); filled shapes get true holes and notches baked into their outline. Erasing a Pencil stroke bakes it: the Fidelity sliders no longer re-fit it.
Join closes an open path whose ends meet, or welds two open paths that share an endpoint.
Merge is live: contours stay independent and the union follows them. Weld bakes into one true outline — select several shapes and Weld, or Weld one shape onto whatever overlaps it, or Weld an existing merge. Holes survive; curves become simplified sharp nodes (double-click to re-add handles).
Corners apply at Corner nodes on any path (Pencil strokes are smooth until you Corner a node); Align applies to closed shapes. Convert turns the stroke into a region: a thick line becomes its rectangle (with caps); a closed shape becomes a ring honouring Align, with mitered corners. Multi-contour shapes refuse.
This path has no Corner nodes yet — Corners only show where a node is set to Corner (Nodes panel or double-tap a node).
Profiles & taper shape open lines (Esc to finish). Taper sets how much of the line the profile occupies — or the swell depth. Closed shapes keep a uniform keyline.
0
100
1.00
Graded Dots grow across the shape — dense to sparse along the ramp. Image mode turns the Lightbox photo into dots. Spacing sets the dot grid; Angle rotates it (screen angle). Fill open path pours the area closed by a straight line back to the first node (shown dashed) — the stroke stays open, so a three-sided box can carry a tone.
No sheet loaded — load a .glyphs.json, or draw letters and Add them.
Tap a glyph to stamp it; Compose stamps a kerned, grouped word on the baseline. Stamped type is ordinary screens — documents never need the sheet.
Live source of the clean export (what Download SVG saves). Pin the panel to watch it update as you draw. Click in and paste any SVG, then hit Import pasted — it arrives as editable shapes (the live view pauses while you’re typing). Free-form edits to the live source itself don’t write back — see the roadmap for why two-way editing is parked.
Snapping follows the grid: Isometric snaps to the triangular lattice; Size sets the snap step everywhere (moves, pastes, handles). Off hides the grid but keeps square snapping.
Screens
Studio Guide
Draw (P): Click to drop nodes. Click near the first node (it swells) or press Enter to close; Esc finishes an open line.
Resume a line: Click the endpoint of an open path to keep drawing; Enter closes it at any time.
Straight edges: Hold Shift while placing or dragging nodes to lock 45°/horizontal/vertical.
Curves: Double-click a node for handles; double-click again for a sharp corner. Handles snap to the grid; hold Shift while dragging one to break the pair.
Add Node: Click anywhere on the shape's outline.
Delete Node: Click a node, press Backspace.
Stroke / Keyline: Each shape's outline has its own colour (black by default), width, and end cap (Round/Flat/Square). Open lines take a profile (Brush, Taper, Swell) plus a Taper amount controlling how much of the line it shapes — calligraphic marks and speed lines.
Reference images: Lightbox imports are normal screens — move, resize by corner nodes, rotate 90°/flip via Arrange, set opacity via Ink, lock via the panel (locked = click-through for tracing). They never export.
Units: the Grid panel's Units select shows Size, Canvas and Bleed in px, mm, in or pt. The document itself is always 96 px per inch (SVG user units), so a 210 × 297 mm Paper is a true A4 in any page layout that reads the SVG. Switching units converts the fields, never the artwork.
Press furniture: Bleed (Paper panel) draws a dashed guide and expands exports; Marks adds registration targets + crop marks to the composite and EVERY separation. Rake (Stroke panel) turns an open line into N parallel spines — speed lines that move as one. Snap now magnetises to other screens' nodes and the paper's edges (grid still applies elsewhere).
Pinnable panels: every dropdown has a pin — pinned panels float, drag by their title bar, stay open, and sync live (open Stroke + Fill + Nodes together). Source panel shows the live export SVG with copy-out. Import SVG… (File) brings external SVGs in as ordinary editable screens — paths, shapes, colours; gradients/text/filters are declined with a report.
Pencil (B): Freehand draw — pen pressure becomes per-node stroke widths (Pen profile); mouse strokes are uniform. Fidelity & Pressure γ re-fit the latest stroke live. Ends near the start auto-close; closed pressure strokes render as variable-width rings.
Stroke upgrades: Corners (Round/Miter/Bevel) + Align (Center/Inside/Outside) on closed shapes; Convert Stroke to Shape outlines any line or shape into a filled region. Selected paths glow teal along their geometry.
Nodes panel: Smooth/Corner, exact handle length + angle, Break (inverse of Join), + Nodes (subdivide, shape-identical), − Nodes (simplify, same look), Smooth Path. Stroke corners (Round/Miter/Bevel) live in the Stroke panel.
Shape ops: Merge composes fills AND outlines live (contours stay editable and independent — every node on every contour, holes included, is editable). Weld bakes a merge into one true outline. Cut Hole punches the active shape from the topmost overlapping shape (or vice versa); hole nodes edit like any others. The paper is never a target.
Ben-Day layering: Screens are registered to the press (world space) by design — identical settings = identical lattices. To layer: give each ink its own Screen ∠ (or Auto-Assign Press Angles for the classic 45/15/75/0 set), or nudge Offset X/Y by half the spacing for same-angle lattice shifts. Rotating a shape rotates its screen with it.
Engraving fill: Graded Hatch ribbons follow the ramp — including a Lightbox photo — with cross-hatch emerging in the shadows. Grain (Ink panel) erodes ink like toothy paper (renders in browsers; simple rasterisers may skip SVG filters).
Graded Dots: Ben-Day dots that grow across a shape — set the ramp (Linear/Radial), its direction, spacing, and screen angle. Real vector circles, clipped crisp at the shape edge.
Snap (S): Toggle grid snap; hold Alt to momentarily invert it. The Grid panel sets style (dots / graph / isometric / off), size, and colour — snapping follows the style, including the isometric lattice.
Select (V): Click selects; Shift+click builds a multi-selection; drag empty canvas for a marquee. Drag to move (snap in grid steps, Shift free). Corner handles resize (Shift = uniform); the top handle free-rotates (Shift = 15° steps). Click a node to select it — Backspace deletes it; nodes are never created here.
Pan: Hand tool (H), hold Space, middle-drag, or two-finger swipe.
Zoom:Ctrl+scroll / pinch, +/-/0, or toolbar.
Screens and shapes (v23): a Screen is what gets burned — one ink colour, opacity, blend and grain, in press order — and a Shape is a stencil element on it. New shapes land on the active screen (the highlighted row), so all your black line work stays on one Black screen however many strokes you draw. The Ink panel edits the active screen and moves shapes between screens; the Stroke panel picks which screen a keyline prints from (a black outline on a blue tone is two screens). Drag the grip on any row to reorder shapes, move them between screens, or reorder the press. The chevron on a screen row folds its shapes away. Copy, Paste and Duplicate act on the whole selection: a group pastes as a group. Separations export one file per screen. Paper and reference images are substrate — never a separation.
Copy / Paste / Duplicate:Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V / Ctrl+D — copies land one grid step offset; Ctrl+Shift+V pastes in place. All three are in the Arrange menu too. Ctrl+S saves, Ctrl+O opens.
Nodes on iPad: tap a node and a pill appears with Delete / Continue / Smooth / Corner. The hollow square ends of an open path are where Continue picks it up (from the start node, the path is reversed first). Hover or touch a row in Ink Screens to see that screen glow on the canvas; the padlock in the panel header badges every locked screen.
Delete a shape: Move tool + Backspace, or Arrange → Delete Shape.
Free rotate: Arrange → degree field with ⟲/⟳.
Ink Screens panel: rename (double-click), show/hide, solo a separation, and lock — locked shapes are click-through until unlocked here.
Undo / Redo:Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z, or the toolbar arrows.
Save / Open: Projects save as a single .json including the lightbox and camera.