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Paint Forge provides a flexible canvas system with configurable dimensions, grids, guides, and multiple view modes. This page covers everything related to the document canvas, viewport navigation, and visual overlays.
Canvas settings control the dimensions, background, and metadata of your document. Access them from the Canvas Settings panel in the right sidebar.
Set the canvas width and height in pixels. The resize dialog offers 13 presets organized into four categories:
Save frequently used canvas dimensions as custom presets. Up to 8 custom presets can be saved and recalled from the Canvas Resize dialog. A performance warning appears when the total pixel count exceeds 4 million pixels.
When resizing the canvas, a 3x3 anchor grid lets you choose where existing content is positioned within the new dimensions. For example, selecting the top-left anchor places content at the top-left corner, adding new space to the right and bottom.
Choose a solid background color using the color picker, or enable transparent background mode. When transparent background is active, the canvas renders a checkerboard pattern to indicate transparency. PNG export preserves the alpha channel, while JPEG and WebP formats fall back to the configured background color.
Set the document DPI (dots per inch) for print workflow reference. This is a cosmetic value that does not change pixel dimensions. Preset buttons are available for common values: 72, 150, 300, and 600. Physical dimensions in inches and centimeters are displayed in the Canvas Settings panel, the Status Bar, and the Export dialog.
The grid overlay helps with precise object placement and alignment. Two grid types are available, toggled from the Canvas Settings panel or the View menu.
| Grid Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Rectangular | Standard square grid overlay. Grid intersections serve as snap targets. |
| Honeycomb | Pointy-top hexagons with odd-row offset. Snap targets are hex centers. |
A separate 1px pixel grid appears automatically at 800% zoom and above, showing individual pixel boundaries. This is independent of the configurable grid overlay and can be toggled separately in the View menu or Canvas Settings panel.
Horizontal and vertical rulers appear along the top and left edges of the canvas. Guides are draggable reference lines that can be used for alignment and layout.
Five built-in guide presets are available for common layout patterns. Presets use percentage-based positioning so they adapt to any canvas size. Custom presets can be saved and loaded.
| Preset | Description |
|---|---|
| Thirds | Divides the canvas into a 3x3 grid |
| Center Cross | Horizontal and vertical center lines |
| Golden Ratio | Lines at golden ratio proportions |
| Margins 10% | Inset guides at 10% from each edge |
| Halves & Quarters | Half and quarter divisions |
Smart guides are dynamic alignment helpers that appear when dragging objects. They show snap points to other objects’ edges and centers, making it easy to align elements precisely without manual guide placement.
Enable Snap to Pixels in the Canvas Settings panel to automatically round object positions and dimensions to whole pixel values during move, resize, and creation operations. This ensures crisp edges on raster-targeted artwork.
Symmetry painting mirrors brush strokes across one or more axes in real time. Guide lines on the overlay canvas indicate the active symmetry axes. Configure the symmetry mode in the Canvas Settings panel.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Vertical | Mirrors strokes left/right across the vertical center of the document |
| Horizontal | Mirrors strokes top/bottom across the horizontal center |
| Both | Mirrors on both axes simultaneously (4-fold symmetry) |
| Radial / Mandala | Rotational symmetry with 3 to 32 fold count, distributed evenly around the center |
Supported tools: Brush, Smart Brush, Eraser, Spray Paint, Calligraphy, Blur, Sharpen, Dodge/Burn, Smudge, Clone Stamp, Color Replace, and Liquify.
The Status Bar shows the active symmetry mode with a green indicator. Click the indicator to disable symmetry painting.
Composition guides are overlay lines that help frame your artwork according to classical composition principles. Toggle them from the View menu, Canvas Settings panel, or Command Palette. Only one composition guide type is active at a time.
| Guide | Description |
|---|---|
| Rule of Thirds | 3x3 grid overlay dividing the canvas into nine equal regions |
| Golden Ratio | Lines positioned at golden proportion divisions |
| Diagonals | Corner-to-corner diagonal lines |
| Center Cross | Crosshair at the exact center of the canvas |
| Isometric | 30-degree and 60-degree angle grid for isometric illustration |
| Action Safe | 90% centered rectangle indicating the broadcast-safe area |
| Title Safe | 80% centered rectangle indicating the title-safe area |
These operations modify the canvas dimensions or content structure. They are available from the Image menu and Command Palette.
| Operation | Description |
|---|---|
| Resize Canvas | Adjust canvas dimensions with an anchor grid to position existing content within the new size |
| Auto-Crop to Content | Scans all visible layers for non-transparent pixels and crops the canvas to the tightest bounding box around content |
| Expand Canvas to Content | Grows the canvas when vector objects extend beyond the current document boundaries |
| Flip Canvas Horizontal | Mirrors all layers’ raster data, mask data, and vector object positions left-to-right |
| Flip Canvas Vertical | Mirrors all layers’ raster data, mask data, and vector object positions top-to-bottom |
| Flatten Image | Composites the full document (raster, vector, adjustments, masks, blend modes, background) into a single flat raster layer and removes all other layers |
Flatten is destructive
View modes change how the canvas is displayed without affecting the actual image data. They are all view-only and do not affect export output.
Outline mode renders all objects as blue 1px outlines on a white background, hiding fills, raster content, and effects. This is useful for inspecting object placement and overlap without visual clutter. Toggle with Ctrl+Shift+O or from the View menu.
Simulate how your artwork appears to viewers with different types of color vision deficiency. This is a post-composition filter applied to the display only.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Protanopia | Reduced sensitivity to red light |
| Deuteranopia | Reduced sensitivity to green light |
| Tritanopia | Reduced sensitivity to blue light |
| Achromatopsia | Complete color blindness (monochrome vision) |
The exposure clipping overlay highlights pixels that may be losing detail due to extreme brightness or darkness. Blown highlights are shown with a red overlay, and crushed shadows with a blue overlay. Thresholds are configurable: the highlight threshold defaults to 250 (range 200-255) and the shadow threshold defaults to 5 (range 0-50). Toggle from the View menu or Canvas Settings panel.
The render stats overlay displays a small pill in the corner of the canvas showing the current frames per second (rolling 60-frame average), layer count, object count, and document dimensions. Toggle from the View menu or Canvas Settings panel.
The viewport controls how you navigate and view the canvas. Zoom, pan, and rotate the view without affecting the underlying document content.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl | += / - — Zoom in / out |
| Ctrl | +0 — Reset to 100% |
| Ctrl | +Scroll wheel — Zoom centered on cursor |
| Zoom presets | 25%, 50%, 100%, 150%, 200%, 300% available in the zoom dropdown |
| Click zoom % | Click the zoom percentage in ZoomControls to type a custom value |
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Space + drag | Hold Space from any tool to temporarily pan the canvas |
| Middle-click + drag | Middle mouse button pans the canvas directly |
| Scroll wheel | Bare scroll wheel pans vertically |
| Shift + scroll wheel | Pans horizontally |
Canvas rotation is a non-destructive view transform. The rotation does not affect export output or object positions.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Alt + scroll wheel | Rotate canvas 1 degree per scroll tick |
| Alt+Shift + scroll wheel | Rotate in 15-degree increments |
| Escape | Reset rotation to 0 degrees |
The current rotation angle is displayed in the Status Bar. Click the rotation display to reset it to zero.
Paint Forge tracks your zoom and pan changes in a navigation history stack (up to 20 entries, debounced at 600ms). Navigate back and forward through your viewport positions just like browser history.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Alt+ArrowLeft | Navigate back to the previous viewport position |
| Alt+ArrowRight | Navigate forward to the next viewport position |
Scale calibration lets you assign real-world measurements to pixel distances so the Measure tool can display distances in physical units (inches, feet, centimeters, millimeters, meters). This is useful for architectural plans, maps, or any document where pixel distances represent real-world lengths.