Anonymous
on September 12th 2016
can't find ruler!! can't download help in PDF.
Drawing tool plug-ins
Drawing tools
The raster editor window uses the active drawing tool to modify the current image. The active tool receives commands given by the keyboard or using left mouse button (or tablet). The tool is responsible for displaying the preview of the outcome until the current action is finished (applied or canceled).
Drawing tools make use of fill styles.
Mode of operation
Most drawing tools are activated by the press left mouse button->move the mouse->release the button sequence. In some cases, only the last of the 3 actions is important.
Most drawing tools display control handles after the initial definition of the drawn shape and the control handles can be used to adjust the tool's function. There may be several classes of control handles, differentiated by color. Some control handles belong to fill styles (usually having purple color) and can be used to fine-tune gradients.
Selecting the active tool
The basic method for selecting a tool is to click its icon in the toolbar above the raster editor. This toolbar holds the frequently used tools, but not all available tools.
Drawing tool categories
Selection tools
SELECT - modify selection by adding or removing rectangular areas.
MAGICWAND - modify selection using a floodfill-like methods.
TRANSFORM - apply transformation to selected area.
MOVE - move the entire image(layer). Exterior can be either filled or the image can wrap.- SIMPLESELECT - select rectangular area and more or resize it. The selected area act as a floating selection.
VECTORSELECT - select objects in a vector layer, move, rotate and scale them.
Hand drawing
PENCIL - draw arbitrary curves using a pencil with a configurable tip.
BRUSH - a more advanced version of PENCIL tool with smoothing, more configuration options and tablet pen pressure support.
Text
TEXT - draw a text using specified font.
Shape drawing
These tools can be used to paint basic shapes.
LINE - draw solid or dashed poly-lines.
CURVE - draw curves.
STROKE - draw multi-part lines or curves.
ELLIPSE - draw filled ellipses or ellipse outlines.
LASSO - draw areas specified by their hand-drawn outline.
RECTANGLE - draw rectangles with optional rounded corners.
POLYGON - draw filled polygons.
SHAPE - draw arbitrary shapes.
Photographic tools
Tools focused on retouching of photos.
REDEYE - desaturate round area.
CROP - cut a portion of an image.
SHAPESHIFT - move or deform parts of image.
Miscellaneous drawing tools
DROPPER - make the color of a clicked pixel the active color.
PSHADOW - apply a projected shadow. The image must be transparent or the shadow will be hidden.
FLOODFILL - fill an area with fill style.
FILL - fill the entire image.
Specialized tools
HOTSPOT - set the hot spot of a cursor.
LUCE - add light rays to an image. This is a plug-in that must be installed before it can be used.
Meta-tools
Meta-tools modify behavior of other drawing tools.
- ALPHA - modify alpha channel instead of regular color channels; white = opaque, black = transparent (available since version 2009.1).
BUBBLE - put the drawn shape into a comics-like bubble (available since version 2009.1).
CLONE - copy pixels from one spot to another.- ERASER - draw with transparent color and Replace blend mode.
STYLIZE - add shadow or reflections to drawn shape, blur the background.
RETOUCH - apply an effects like darken, sharpen, etc.- SELECT - modify selection by adding or removing rectangular areas.
RECOLOR - change color in the affected area from the initially clicked pixel to the selected color.
Due to the plug-in nature of the tools and the existence of meta-tools, the total number of available tools is much higher. Meta-tools like ERASER or SELECT can be combined with ordinary tools yielding dozens of possible combinations (retouching with pencil, selecting with brush, ellipse, or polygon, etc.). Defining your own tools is an advanced topic, but it increases the power of the application considerably, for example when creating beveled text, selecting with text tool is a fundamental part of the process.
Probably the easiest way of accessing the uncommon tools is by using the toolbar with custom presets. The custom presets not only allows you to add the specialized tools, but also allows remembering and activating selected drawing modes in one click.
Tips
Many drawing tools support temporary switch to the dropper tool to change current color by holding down the CTRL key.
There are a lot of ways how to finish and apply a tool:
- Press ENTER.
- Perform the apply mouse gesture (Down->Right).
- Switch to another tool (except the crop tool, which must be explicitly applied).
- Right click and select Apply from context menu.
- Click Apply button in toolbar or in main menu.
- Just start drawing another shape (only valid for shape-drawing tools).
Selection can be canceled by:
- Pressing ESC.
- Pressing undo button (Ctrl+Z, or the undo mouse gesture).
Recent comments
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Anonymous
on September 12th 2016
so I'm looking to cut out an image but I cant figure out how. its not something I can do with the crop tool as it has curves and edges, I'm sure ill figure it out eventually
Anonymous
on January 25th 2018
The text buble script is unclear. How to cure it ? Thank you.
Le script des bulles de texte est flou. Comment y remédier ? Merci
Anonymous
on April 18th 2018
how can i change color from say blue to red to all the image?
Anonymous
on June 25th 2020
HI, Tks for RWPaint!
How can I change the color of the text shadow in the RWPaint?
Anonymous
on June 2nd 2021
cu
Anonymous
on November 27th 2021
no freaking ERASER???? Never seen THAT left out of a program!!!!
#1fisherman
registered user
on February 12th 2022
how do you put a n outline around a text letter?
Anonymous
on September 4th 2023
Save as window cant be seen.
Have to use save for web.
Frame list has disappeared from gif editor.
Clone brush toggle has reversed.
@Anonymous who wrote:
IS there an eraser :-(@Anonymous who wrote:
no freaking ERASER???? Never seen THAT left out of a program!!!!I'll design that article soon. Alternately, you can use 00FFFFFF (completely transparent) as the fill color of the Pencil tool as a "quick eraser".
@#1fisherman who wrote:
how do you put a n outline around a text letter?An option to add an Outline is below the Fill section.
@Anonymous who wrote:
HI, Tks for RWPaint!
How can I change the color of the text shadow in the RWPaint?Add the text to your image, then go to Effect > Drop Shadow... and change the color of the shadow in question.
@Anonymous who wrote:
how can i change color from say blue to red to all the image?Please note that this forum post is the precursor to this tool.
Use the recolor tool.
Anonymous