Path & Vector

Paint Forge ships a full vector pipeline alongside its raster engine. These features unlock non-destructive shape work, editable strokes, and reusable brushes — all backed by the same underlying engine the rest of the app uses.

Path Boolean Operations

Combine two vector objects into a new PathObject using boolean operations. Select exactly two shapes (rect, ellipse, polygon, star, path, or brush stroke), then choose an operation from the Image > Path submenu, the Arrange toolbar, or the command palette.

Brush Stroke Editing

Vector brush strokes (BrushStrokeObject) remain editable after you draw them. Double-click a stroke with the Select tool to enter Edit Brush Stroke mode. Each centerline point shows two handles: a blue dot for position and an amber ring for per-vertex width.

• Drag the blue handle to move a point — half-width and pressure ride along untouched.
• Drag the amber ring to project the cursor onto the perpendicular and resize that segment.
• Shift+click on the polyline to insert a new point with interpolated halfWidth.
• Alt+drag from an endpoint to extend the stroke with new points.
• Shift+Alt+click on the polyline to split the stroke into two independent objects at the click point.
• Delete or Backspace removes the selected point (when at least 3 would remain).
• Escape returns to the Select tool.

Custom Vector Variants

Beyond the 47 built-in vector brush variants, you can save your own. The Brush Customize dialog lets you tune taper, halo, color jitter, pen tilt, pressure curve, dash pattern, and per-vertex gradient stops — then save the result as a Custom Vector Variant. Saved variants appear under their own section in the Variant Grid and can be renamed, duplicated, or shared to the community.

Stroke Recording & Macros

Record a sequence of strokes and replay them later with different colors, sizes, or even a completely different brush variant. Recordings can be saved as macros and recalled from the Brush Macros picker for one-click replay.

Animation Power Tools

Frame Groups

A frame group is a group layer with cel-animation playback enabled. When isFrameGroup is on, only the layer at currentFrameIndex renders during compositing — siblings stay in the document and remain editable but are hidden from the active frame. Each group has its own FPS, loop mode, and per-frame duration overrides.

• Loop modes: loop (wrap), pingpong (forward+reverse), once (stop at the end).
• Per-frame duration: override the group FPS for individual frames via frameDuration.
• Use Alt+, and Alt+. to step backward / forward through frames manually.
• The Animation panel cel blocks size in proportion to each frame’s duration.

Onion Skin

Onion skin renders ghosts of adjacent frames around the active frame so you can register new strokes against neighbors. Configure 0–3 previous and next frames with independent opacity and tint per direction. Strictly view-only — exports stay clean.

Draw-Through & Auto-Advance

Two stroke modes specific to frame groups (set per-group):

• Draw-Through: a raster stroke on any child copies onto every sibling on stroke end. Use this for backgrounds shared across all frames.
• Auto-Advance: stroke end steps currentFrameIndex forward and activates the next child. Lets you draw frame-by-frame without leaving the canvas.

Object Links & Collaboration

Sticky Links

Sticky links are persistent constraints between two vector objects — move the source and the target snaps to stay in compliance (e.g. “B always sits 1 inch to the right of A”). Create one by selecting two objects and pressing Ctrl+Alt+L (or right-click > “Link to other selected object…”); manage them in the Links section of the Properties panel.

• Per-axis constraints (X / Y) with min / center / max anchors and a measured distance — type 1 in, 25 mm, or 72 pt and it converts via the document’s scale calibration.
• Constraint kinds: offset (fixed distance), mirror (reflect across the source), match-size, proportional (multiplier), and equal-spacing (distribute-and-link 3+ objects).
• Bidirectional links — move either object and the other follows.
• Health chips flag broken links (missing / locked / hidden partner) with one-click fixes.
• Keyframe a link’s distance, or bake an animated link into a motion path.
• Link scenes — named snapshots that enable/disable subsets of links as a unit (e.g. switch a "Mobile" vs "Desktop" layout).
• 18 built-in link presets (rigid follow, align centers, edge-to-edge, mirror, match-size, …) plus your own saved + community-shared presets.

While a linked object is selected, the canvas draws blue (outgoing) and green (incoming) dimension lines so the relationship is visible, and smart-guide snaps to a linked partner render in a distinct color.

Realtime Collaboration

When several signed-in people open the same cloud project, Paint Forge shows live presence: colored avatar dots in the top bar, each collaborator's cursor with a name label on the canvas, and indicators for which slices someone is viewing or commenting on. Up to 8 collaborators are shown per project, each with a distinct color. This is presence and awareness — not yet live co-editing of the document, so coordinate edits to avoid save conflicts (see Sharing & Collaboration).

Batch Operations

Operations that apply across many layers or objects in a single command. All push one history entry so a single undo reverses the whole batch.

View Modes

View-only display modes that change how the canvas is rendered without affecting export. All toggle from the View menu or command palette.

Workflow Recipes

Frame-by-Frame Animation

• Create a group layer, then enable Frame Group on it.
• Add empty layers as children — each becomes a frame.
• Turn on Auto-Advance and Onion Skin (1 prev, 1 next).
• Draw on the active frame; on stroke end the timeline advances and a new ghost appears for reference.
• Open the Animation panel to scrub or play back.

Non-Destructive Color Grade

• Stack adjustment layers above a raster layer (Curves, then Color Balance, then Split Toning).
• Use Layer Comps to save before/after configurations.
• Turn on Filters Split View to drag-compare original vs graded.
• Use Copy/Paste Adjustment to reuse the same grade across other projects.

Reusable Vector Stamps

• Draw a complex shape using the brush + path tools.
• Save it to the Object Library (right-click → Save to Library…).
• Use the Pattern Brush dialog to scatter copies of the saved object along a brush stroke centerline.
• Optionally orient each instance to the centerline tangent for natural strokes.