Tools Reference

Paint Forge includes 53 tools for drawing, editing, selection, and transformation. Tools are organized in the left toolbar. Right-click a tool button to access variants. Most tools have a single-key shortcut — these are customizable via Preferences.

Selection & Navigation

These tools let you select, move, resize, and rotate objects on the canvas, as well as pan around the viewport.

Select — Click to select objects, then drag to move them. Use the selection handles to resize or rotate. Hold Shift and click to add objects to your selection.

• Ctrl+A to select all objects
• Shift+click to multi-select
• Drag selection handles to resize
• Delete or Backspace to remove selected objects
• Double-click a path / brush stroke to enter its editor; double-click a gradient-filled object to drag its endpoints
• Double-click a shape (rect / ellipse / polygon / star / callout / line / arrow) to re-enter the QuickShape reshape window via Edit Snapped Shape

Drawing & Painting

Painting tools draw directly onto the active raster layer. The Brush tool has 23+ stamp-based variants for traditional raster painting, and the Smart Brush adds 47 editable-vector variants (pencil, pen, ink, marker, neon, charcoal, watercolor, and many more) whose centerlines and per-vertex widths stay editable after the stroke is committed.

Brush — Paints stamps directly onto the active layer's raster pixels — the dominant brush tool, matches Photoshop's mental model. Choose from 23+ stamp variants (soft, hard, flat, pixel, airbrush, charcoal, watercolor, scatter, stipple, bristle, crayon, chalk, splatter, sponge, fur, crosshatch, oil, pastel, ribbon, dots, galaxy, smoke, sand, and more). Destructive — finished strokes commit to the raster layer; use the Smart Brush instead if you want editable vector strokes. Stroke stabilization smooths input via a weighted ring buffer. Custom brush tips can be imported from image files via the Brush Tip dialog. The Smart Brush is a separate editable-vector counterpart described below.

• [ and ] keys to decrease/increase brush size
• Pen pressure modulates size + opacity (toggle in options)
• Strokes paint to raster pixels — no vector path is produced
• Use the Smart Brush instead if you want editable strokes
• Alt+click samples a color into primary; Alt+Shift+click samples into secondary

Eraser — Erases raster layer content using destination-out compositing, making pixels transparent. Size and opacity respond to pen pressure when pressure sensitivity is enabled. Supports symmetry painting and pixel selection clipping. Like the brush,Alt+click samples a color instead of erasing.

Smart Brush — Paints editable vector strokes — each drag emits a single BrushStrokeObject whose centerline + per-vertex width remain editable after the fact (double-click to enter the centerline editor). Variants include pencil, pen, ink, marker, neon, calligraphy-nib, wet-ink, dry-media, textured-marker, and hatching, plus user-authored custom variants. Use the regular Brush instead if you want stamp-based painting committed to the raster layer. Each drag emits a single BrushStrokeObject whose centerline and per-vertex halfWidth stay editable after the fact. Double-click the stroke (with the Select tool) to enter the centerline editor.

• [ and ] keys to decrease/increase brush size
• Change variant in the tool options bar
• Strokes stay editable as vectors — double-click to edit the centerline + width
• Pen pressure modulates per-vertex width when enabled
• Alt+click samples a color into primary; Alt+Shift+click samples into secondary
• QuickShape: hold ~½ second mid-stroke to snap freehand to a clean line, ellipse, rectangle, or polygon — the recognized shape commits as a styled BrushStrokeObject so variant taper, multipass halo, color jitter, dash, and closedFill are preserved
• Pre-snap pen-pressure variation is resampled along the snapped polyline when pressureSize is on, so the "perfect shape" still reads as hand-drawn
• Three-finger tap during the snap cancels and resumes freehand
• Hold ~1.2 s after the snap (green ring) to commit mid-stroke when Hold-to-Vector is on; subsequent drag reshapes the committed object live until you lift
• Always-Snap mode recognizes shapes on lift without needing to hold still — ambiguous strokes still commit freehand
• Snapped shapes commit as outlines by default; enable "Fill Snapped" in tool options for filled commits, or hold Shift while lifting for a one-off filled snap
• When Canvas Settings → Snap to Grid is on, the snapped shape’s bbox aligns to the grid (great for technical illustration)
• When Canvas Settings → Smart Guides is on, the snapped shape’s bbox magnetically aligns to other objects on the layer during reshape — dashed guide lines mark the snap axis
• During the post-snap reshape, a floating W × H px label near the cursor shows the snapped bbox dimensions
• A faint "→ ellipse" hint appears near the cursor during the pre-snap drag so you can see what would snap before holding still
• Draw a line with a small V at one end to snap to an arrow shape — the V is baked into the stroke centerline so it commits as a styled arrow
• Tool-options Mode buttons (Technical / Sketch / Loose) flip all five QuickShape settings at once — Technical enables every aggressive snap, Loose disables every gesture, Sketch is the default
• A faint dashed preview of the recognized shape appears DURING the hold-still timer so you can see exactly what will snap before it commits
• Stars (5 / 6 / 8 points) and rounded rectangles are recognized — draw an alternating-radius star or a rect with curved corners and the snap preserves the right geometry
• During the post-snap reshape, press Tab (or Shift+Tab) to cycle through alternative recognized kinds when the top pick is wrong but your stroke geometry is fine
• Type exact W/H dimensions (or length + angle for line/arrow) in the floating Numeric HUD that appears next to the cursor during reshape — drag-to-resize still works alongside it
• Hold Alt during the post-snap reshape to rotate a rect/polygon/star/heart around its bbox center; add Shift to snap rotation to 15° steps
• Hearts, spirals, and 45°-rotated squares (diamonds) are recognized — draw them naturally and the snap covers them
• The live "→ kind" hint shows the recognizer's confidence as a percentage; when the recognizer rejects your stroke a brief "Stroke too irregular" toast explains why
• Cleanup workflow: Layer → Snap All Freehand Strokes… sweeps every recognizable freehand stroke on the active layer OR the whole document in one undo step (per-kind filter + per-kind preview counts)
• Select multiple freehand strokes and run Edit → Snap to Shape (or right-click → Snap Strokes to Shapes) to batch-snap them in one undo step
• Hatching + symmetry siblings render unfilled around the primary so parallel offsets stay visible
• During the post-snap reshape, drag from INSIDE the snapped bbox to translate the whole shape; drag from outside keeps the existing corner-anchor resize
• Ellipses snap with rotation — draw a tilted ellipse and the snap preserves the angle; Alt+drag during reshape also rotates ellipses
• Triangles get a dedicated "triangle" history label + their own row in the Snap All Freehand dialog — draw a clean triangle and it commits as a triangle instead of a generic polygon-3
• Enable "Auto Handoff" in the QuickShape options to auto-switch the toolbar to the matching Shape / Line tool after a snap with the just-committed object selected — keep editing via the Properties panel + transform handles
• More shapes recognized: parallelogram (4-corner skewed quad → PolygonObject), X-mark (single-stroke X → multi-subpath PathObject), checkmark (asymmetric V → open PathObject); the speech bubble + cloud kinds have scaffolding in place with conservative heuristics that may not always fire
• Touch users can pinch-rotate during the post-snap reshape window to rotate the snapped shape; an on-screen Move / Resize / Rotate mode toggle in the HUD lets single-finger users flip into rotate mode without needing modifier keys
• During post-snap reshape, click + drag any vertex of a recognized polygon / triangle / star / heart / parallelogram to fine-tune that single vertex (handles render automatically as small dots on each vertex)
• Type exact polygon sides / star points / spiral turns + radii / triangle + heart bbox dimensions directly into the numeric HUD that appears next to the cursor during reshape
• Numeric HUD now covers all 14 recognized kinds — parallelogram skew, speech-bubble tail offset, X-mark length + angle, checkmark arm lengths + pivot, and cloud bumps can be typed exactly
• Snap-to-neighbor: during reshape, the snapped shape's width / height / length magnetically snaps to match other objects on the active layer (cyan dashed dimension guides mark the match) so technical drawings can lock to consistent sizes
• Double-click any committed snapped shape in Select to re-enter the reshape window via the Edit Snapped Shape tool — works on shapes drawn from any tool, not just QuickShape
• Recognition Sensitivity picker (Strict / Default / Permissive) in the tool options lets you dial in how aggressively the recognizer fires for your stroke style; the Per-kind button opens a 14-kind override grid for fine-tuning
• Hold Ctrl/Meta during the post-snap drag to resize the snapped shape symmetrically from its bbox center (matches Photoshop / Illustrator / Figma); combines with Shift (aspect lock)
• Shift+click a second snapped shape to multi-select, then double-click any one to enter Edit Snapped Shape on the whole group — proportional resize / translate / rotate apply to every selected object as a unit
• Toggle "Vertex Coords" in the tool options to show a small [x, y] label next to the cursor-nearest vertex during reshape — useful for technical-drawing accuracy
• During reshape, the HUD shows Undo / Redo buttons that walk a per-session stack (rewinds each drag / numeric edit individually without leaving reshape mode); Ctrl+Z works too
• No default keyboard shortcut — bind one in the Shortcuts dialog

Spray Paint — Scatters random dots within the brush radius. Higher flow produces denser coverage. Pen pressure modulates the brush size and/or opacity when enabled. Works with symmetry painting and pixel selection clipping.

Fill — Flood-fills a contiguous color region using a scanline algorithm. The tolerance slider (0-255) controls how many similar colors are included. The fill respects the active pixel selection mask, clipping the filled area to the selection. A liquid-fill animation radiates outward from the click point for visual feedback.

Calligraphy — Simulates a flat calligraphy nib whose stroke width varies based on the angle of movement relative to the nib angle. Moving perpendicular to the nib produces thick strokes; moving parallel produces thin strokes.

• Adjust the nib angle to change stroke direction sensitivity
• Min Width controls the thinnest possible stroke
• Alt+click to sample a color from the canvas
• Works with symmetry painting and pressure sensitivity
• QuickShape: hold ½ second mid-stroke to snap freehand to a clean line, ellipse, rectangle, or polygon — calligraphic width modulation is preserved per segment
• Three-finger tap during a snap cancels and resumes freehand
• Hold ~1.2s after the snap (green ring) to commit as an editable vector object

Shapes & Lines

Shape and line tools create editable vector objects on the canvas. Hold Shift while dragging to constrain proportions.

Draw rectangles, circles, polygons, stars, or gradient rectangles. Right-click the tool button to switch between shape variants. Shapes are created as editable vector objects.

• Right-click the toolbar button to switch shape type
• Drag on the canvas to draw the shape
• Adjust fill, stroke, and width in tool options
• Hold Shift for constrained proportions
• Hold Ctrl/Cmd to draw centered on the click point (combine with Shift for centered square / circle)
• Per-stroke dash, line cap, and line join controls in the tool options panel

Text

Text tools create vector text objects with full font styling, letter spacing, and text transforms. Double-click any text object to re-enter editing mode.

Text — Click anywhere on the canvas to place a single-line text object and begin typing immediately. The text object supports font family, size, weight, style, alignment, letter spacing, and text transform (uppercase, lowercase, capitalize). Double-click any existing text object with the Select tool to re-enter editing mode. Ctrl+B/I/U/Shift+X toggle bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough.

Textbox — Drag to define a bounding rectangle, then type word-wrapped area text. The textbox reflows content automatically when its width changes. Supports underline, strikethrough, line height, and all the same font controls as the Text tool.

Text on Path — Click to add anchor points along a curve (drag for bezier handles), then press Enter or double-click to finalize the path. Type your text and it will flow along the path. Supports letter spacing, text transforms, reversed direction, and baseline alignment (above, center, below the path).

• Click to add straight anchor points, click and drag for bezier curves
• Press Enter or double-click to finalize the path and start typing
• Adjust start offset to shift text along the path
• Toggle reversed direction to flip text flow
• Set baseline alignment to above, center, or below the path
• Convert any text object to an editable path via Edit > Convert Text to Path

Path Tools

Path tools create and edit vector paths made of anchor points and bezier curves. Paths can be combined with boolean operations (union, subtract, intersect, exclude).

Pen — Click to place straight anchor points; drag to create smooth bezier curves with symmetric handles. Hold Alt during a drag to break handle symmetry (asymmetric corner). Alt+click an existing anchor of the in-progress path to toggle it between smooth and corner. Click the START or END anchor of an existing open path to continue drawing it. New anchors snap to nearby anchors / guides / grid.

• Click for a straight anchor; drag for symmetric curve handles
• Alt-drag during the curve drag to break handle symmetry (asymmetric corner)
• Alt-click an existing anchor of the in-progress path to toggle smooth ↔ corner
• Click the start or end of an existing open path to continue drawing it
• Snap to anchors / guides / grid (toggle "Snap to anchors" in tool options)
• Shift snaps the next anchor to a 15° ray from the previous one
• Click the first anchor to close the path
• Double-click or press Enter to finish an open path
• Backspace, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y all step through anchors during drawing
• Press Escape to cancel

Edit Path — Double-click any path object while the Select tool is active to enter Edit Path mode. In this mode, individual anchor points and bezier handles are shown and can be dragged to reshape the path. Press Escape to exit Edit Path mode and return to the Select tool.

Raster Effects

These brush-based tools apply localized effects to the raster layer by painting over areas. They support symmetry painting and pen pressure sensitivity.

Liquify — Drag to displace pixels via bilinear interpolation. Eight warp modes (push / bloat / pucker / twirl / push-left / mirror / erase-warps / forward-warp) plus freeze and thaw mask paint. A baseline snapshot at activation lets Alt+drag reconstruct toward the original; Restore Original reverts every warp from the session in one history entry. Bigger brushes use a WebGL fragment-shader pixel pipeline; small brushes stay on the synchronous CPU path. Hold Alt and drag to reconstruct (blend pixels back toward their original positions).

• Drag to apply the active warp mode (push by default — sets pixels in the cursor’s direction of motion)
• Press Shift+[ / Shift+] to cycle through warp modes without leaving the canvas
• Bloat / Pucker push pixels outward / inward from the brush center; Twirl rotates them; Mirror reflects across the line perpendicular to the stroke
• Hold Alt and drag to reconstruct pixels back toward the activation snapshot — pick Loose / Smooth / Rigid in Reconstruct to control how much texture detail survives
• Erase Warps is a no-Alt variant of reconstruct — every stroke reverts pixels along the path; Forward Warp replays the recorded warp script at a new cursor offset
• Freeze / Thaw paint a protection mask — frozen pixels are skipped by every warp pass; load a mask From Selection / Luminance / Alpha or Invert it for the opposite region
• Adjust Aspect + Angle for an elliptical brush; Smooth (0–100) stabilizes shaky cursor input via a weighted ring buffer
• Pen pressure modulates Size / Strength independently — pick a named curve (Linear / Soft / Firm / S) or author a custom piecewise-linear curve
• Velocity Size / Strength toggles modulate per-stamp by drag speed (works on mouse + pen) — slow drag = full effect, fast drag tapers
• Falloff curve picker (Linear / Quadratic / Cubic / Smooth / Sharp + Custom) controls the per-pixel weighting from brush center to edge
• Press Ctrl+Z mid-session to undo one stroke at a time; the local undo stack holds the most recent 10 strokes capped at 50 MB
• Open the Animation panel + click "+ Liquify keyframe" to capture the warp progression at the current playhead — keyframes scrub through the recorded script for warp-in / warp-out animations
• Restore Original prompts before wiping — confirms how many timeline keyframes will be removed alongside the warp script
• Symmetry painting (vertical / horizontal / both / radial) and Quick Mask Mode are both supported; preset picker has 6 starter combinations

Retouching

Retouching tools are designed for photo editing workflows such as blemish removal, color correction, and red-eye fixing.

Clone Stamp — Alt+click to set a source point, then paint to copy pixels from the source location. The offset between source and destination is maintained across strokes. Opacity, flow, hardness, and spacing shape each stamp; pen pressure can modulate size and opacity; and the sampled source patch can be rotated, scaled, or flipped before it lands at the destination. The source point persists across tool switches. Enable “All Layers” to sample from the full composite instead of the active layer only.

• Alt+click to set the clone source
• Paint to clone from the source point
• Lower Hardness for soft-edged stamps that blend with surrounding pixels
• Lower Flow with high Opacity to build up the clone gradually over multiple passes
• Spacing controls how often stamps land along a stroke (lower = smoother)
• Pressure toggles modulate stamp size and opacity on pen tablets
• Press , and . to rotate the source by ±15°; the indicator shows a tick at the active angle
• Press Shift+, and Shift+. to scale the source by ÷/×1.1
• Toggle the Flip H / Flip V buttons to mirror the source patch; the indicator shows ↔/↕ glyphs
• Hold five distinct source slots — press 1-5 to switch between them; Alt+click stores into the active slot; right-click a slot in the panel to clear it
• Respect canvas symmetry — when on, each stamp fans out to every mirror destination (vertical / horizontal / both / radial). Source stays fixed; toggle off for plain single-stamp clones
• Toggle "Kaleido" to mirror the SOURCE alongside each mirror destination — produces a true kaleidoscope where each mirrored stamp samples a mirrored region. Off by default; needs canvas symmetry enabled
• Switch Source to "History" or "Snapshot" to clone from a past state — useful for undoing edits selectively or pulling content from a milestone snapshot
• Switch Source to "Pattern" to stamp a tileable pattern (dots / lines / crosshatch / checkerboard / diagonal stripes); pick foreground + background colours and scale
• Click "Import…" in pattern mode to load your own PNG / JPEG as a tileable pattern (max 1 MB, downscaled to 256×256)
• Arrow keys nudge the active source slot by 1px (10px with Shift) — fine-tune alignment without touching the mouse
• Watch for the amber "Source set on a different layer" chip — toggle Sample All Layers or re-Alt+click on the layer you want to clone from
• Aligned keeps the source-destination offset across strokes; Unaligned resets it each stroke
• Enable "Sample all layers" to read source pixels from the composited visible layers

Healing Brush — Alt+click to set a source point, then paint to blend the source texture with the destination luminosity. Produces smoother results than clone stamp for retouching skin and surfaces. Uses the source hue and saturation combined with the destination luminosity (HSL blending) for seamless results. The source point persists across tool switches. Enable “All Layers” to sample from the full composite.

• Alt+click to set the healing source
• Paint over blemishes to heal them
• Uses source texture with destination brightness
• Green indicator shows the source point

Color Replace — Alt+click to sample a target color, then paint to replace matching pixels with the current brush color. Four Photoshop-style blend modes control which HSL channels get swapped: Color (default, preserves luminosity), Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity. The tolerance slider controls how closely pixels must match the sampled color before being replaced. Useful for selectively recoloring objects or correcting color casts in specific areas.

• Alt+click to sample the target color
• Paint over areas to replace that color
• Adjust tolerance for broader/narrower matching
• Color mode preserves source luminosity (most natural-looking)
• Hue mode preserves saturation and luminosity, only swaps the color cast
• Luminosity mode keeps the source color but takes the foreground brightness
• Shift+[ / Shift+] cycles blend modes; digits 1-4 pick a mode directly

Red-Eye Removal — Click on red-eye areas in photos to automatically detect and desaturate red pixels while preserving luminosity. Uses flood-fill detection to find connected red regions. Uses flood-fill red detection followed by HSL desaturation to neutralize the red channel while preserving other colors. The correction radius adjusts how large an area is processed per click.

• Click directly on the red area in the eye
• Adjust tolerance for broader detection
• Works best on raster layer content

Pixel Selection Tools

Pixel selection tools create selection masks that constrain painting and editing operations. All selection tools support modifier keys for combining selections: hold Shift to add, Alt to subtract, or Shift+Alt to intersect.

Marquee — Drag to create a rectangular or elliptical pixel selection. Selected areas can be deleted or used as a mask for painting operations. Supports feathering for soft edges. The selection mode (New/Add/Subtract/Intersect) can be set in the tool options or via modifier keys (Shift/Alt/Shift+Alt). Marching ants are color-coded by mode: blue = New, green = Add, red = Subtract, amber = Intersect.

Lasso — Draw a freehand selection boundary by dragging. The selection auto-closes when you release the mouse. Supports feathering for soft edges. Supports all four selection modes (New/Add/Subtract/Intersect). The resulting selection follows the exact shape you draw.

• Draw around the area you want to select
• Selection closes automatically on mouse release
• Press Delete to remove selected pixels
• Press Escape to clear selection

Polygonal Lasso — Click to add vertices one at a time, forming a polygonal selection boundary. Close the polygon by clicking near the first vertex, double-clicking, or pressing Enter. Supports selection modes and feathering. Each click adds a new segment. Close the selection by clicking near the first vertex, double-clicking, or pressing Enter. Press Backspace to remove the last placed vertex. Supports all four selection modes.

• Click to place vertices around the area
• Click near the first vertex (red dot) to close
• Double-click or press Enter to close with 3+ vertices
• Press Backspace to undo the last vertex
• Press Escape to cancel
• Press Delete to remove selected pixels

Magic Wand — Click to select all connected pixels that match the target color within the tolerance range. Use contiguous mode to select only connected areas, or disable it to select all matching pixels globally. Tolerance ranges from 0 (exact match) to 255 (select all). Supports all four selection modes.

• Click on the color you want to select
• Adjust tolerance for broader/narrower matching
• Toggle contiguous mode in options
• Press Delete to remove selected pixels

Transform & Utility

Transform and utility tools handle canvas cropping, color sampling, distance measurement, and advanced image warping.

Crop — Draw a crop rectangle on the canvas, then confirm to trim the canvas to that region. Resize the crop area using the handles before confirming. Preset aspect ratios (16:9, 4:3, 1:1, etc.) and a custom W:H input are available in the tool options. Aspect ratio lock is enforced during handle drags.

• Drag to define the crop area
• Use handles to adjust the crop region
• Press Enter to apply the crop
• Press Escape to cancel

Image Crop — A non-destructive crop for individual image objects. Activate it via right-click > Crop Image or from the Properties panel. Eight drag handles let you frame a region of the image without discarding any pixel data. Press Enter to apply the crop or Escape to cancel. The crop can be adjusted or removed at any time.

Color Picker — Click anywhere on the canvas to pick the pixel color and set it as the active brush color. Supports averaged sampling over a configurable area (1px, 3x3, 5x5, or 11x11). The sample size is configurable from 1×1 pixel to 11×11 pixel average. When “Capture Alpha” is enabled, sampling a semi-transparent pixel also sets the brush opacity. After sampling, the tool automatically returns to the previously active tool.

• Click to sample a single pixel color
• Adjust sample size in tool options for averaging
• Sampled color becomes the active brush color

Measure — Click to set measurement points. In standard mode, click twice to measure between two points. In cumulative mode, each click adds a segment to a polyline with per-segment distances and a running total. Real-world units can be calibrated via the Scale Calibration feature in the tool options. Press Backspace to undo the last measurement point; press Escape or double-click to clear.

• Click twice to measure between two points
• Shows distance in pixels and angle in degrees
• Enable Cumulative mode for polyline measurement
• In Cumulative mode, double-click or Enter to finalize
• Press Escape to clear measurement
• Press Backspace to undo the last point (cumulative mode)

Perspective — Modal 4-corner perspective warp that applies a real DLT homography to the selected object(s). On activation, shapes (rect / ellipse / polygon / star / line / arrow / callout) auto-convert to paths and text auto-converts to outlines so they can be warped; brushstrokes warp their centerline; images warp their pixels in place via backward homography + bilinear sampling. Modes: Distort lets every corner move freely; Keystone mirrors the dragged corner to its same-edge neighbours for a vanishing-point look. Press Enter to commit one history entry; Escape to revert.

• Click any object on the canvas to engage — no need to pre-select
• Right-click an object and choose "Perspective" to start with that object
• Shift while dragging axis-locks the delta (horizontal / vertical / 45°)
• Alt while dragging mirrors the move onto the diagonally-opposite corner (symmetric)
• Keystone mode keeps the quad in a "looking-down-a-hallway" shape
• Images warp within their current bbox by default; toggle "Expand image bounds" to make the bbox follow the dragged corners
• Re-edit a vector warp: select the warped object → activate Perspective again. The corners restore to where you left them last time (vector only — images are one-way)
• Re-edit only restores the prior warp on single-object vector selections — multi-object commits start at identity on the next activation
• "Width follows perspective" only scales vector brushstroke half-widths via the local Jacobian — path stroke outlines and shape stroke widths are unaffected
• Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y undo/redo individual corner moves within the tool
• No default keyboard shortcut — bind one via Edit > Preferences > Shortcuts if you use Perspective often

Perspective Crop — Click to place four corner points defining a perspective-distorted region. Drag the corners to align them with a flat surface in the image, then commit (Enter) to warp the content into a rectangular image using a backward homography transform (Direct Linear Transform). The result is cropped and corrected in a single operation. Backspace removes the last placed point; Escape cancels.

Mesh Warp — Creates a grid of draggable control points over the active layer's raster pixels. Drag points to warp the image. Uses backward mapping with bilinear interpolation for smooth results. Vector objects on the same layer are not affected — rasterize them first if you want them warped too. The grid density (N×N) is configurable. Press Apply to commit or Cancel to discard the warp.

• Drag grid control points to warp the image
• Adjust grid size in options (2-8)
• Vector objects on this layer stay vector — rasterize first to warp them
• Press Enter to commit the warp
• Press Escape to revert

Mask Brush — A dedicated brush tool for painting on layer masks. If the active layer does not have a mask, one is created automatically. Choose “Reveal” mode to paint white (makes areas visible) or “Hide” mode to paint black (makes areas transparent). Configurable size, opacity, and hardness. Pen pressure is supported. Activate via the mask editing UI in the Layers panel.

Pressure Sensitivity

When using a pen tablet, Paint Forge can modulate brush size and opacity based on pen pressure, pen tilt angle, or drag velocity. Each modulator is toggled per-tool in the tool options bar. Mouse users are unaffected — pressure defaults to 1.0, tilt to 0°, and velocity falls back to a constant width.

Supported tools: Brush, Smart Brush, Eraser, Spray Paint, Calligraphy, Healing Brush, Color Replace.

• Toggle pressure size and/or pressure opacity in each tool's options bar
• Pressure range is 0.0 (no contact) to 1.0 (full pressure)
• Size modulation scales the brush radius proportionally to pen pressure
• Opacity modulation scales the stroke opacity proportionally to pen pressure
• Tilt opacity drops alpha as the pen flattens (perpendicular pen = full alpha, flat pen ≈ 40%) — natural pencil-shading feel
• Velocity affects size modulates per-vertex width by drag speed: slow drag = full width, fast drag tapers toward minWidthFactor
• Brush presets can include pressure, tilt, and velocity sensitivity settings

Symmetry Painting

Symmetry painting mirrors brush strokes across one or more axes in real time. Configure the symmetry mode in the Canvas Settings panel. Guide lines are drawn on the overlay canvas to show the symmetry axes.

Modes: Vertical, Horizontal, Both (4-way), Radial/Mandala (3–32 fold).

Supported tools: Brush, Smart Brush, Eraser, Spray Paint, Calligraphy, Blur, Sharpen, Dodge/Burn, Smudge.

• Vertical mirrors strokes across the vertical center of the document
• Horizontal mirrors strokes across the horizontal center
• Both combines vertical and horizontal for 4-way symmetry
• Radial distributes strokes evenly around the center (3-32 segments)
• Symmetry axis is shared across all supported tools
• The Status Bar shows the active symmetry mode; click to disable

Alpha Lock

Alpha Lock constrains painting so that only pixels with existing non-zero alpha are affected. This lets you paint within the boundaries of existing content without spilling outside shapes or strokes. Toggle Alpha Lock per-layer in the Layers panel.

• Toggle with the grid icon on each layer in the Layers panel
• When active, painting only affects pixels that already have opacity
• Useful for recoloring shapes without affecting their edges
• Works with all painting tools: brush, vector brush, eraser, spray paint, calligraphy, fill, and all raster effect tools
• Implemented via alpha channel snapshot and restore for each stroke

Pixel Selection Clipping

All painting tools automatically clip their strokes to the active pixel selection mask. This means that if you have a marquee, lasso, or magic wand selection active, paint will only land inside the selected area. Feathered selections produce soft edges on the clipped strokes.

• Zero performance cost when no pixel selection is active
• Works with all painting tools: brush, vector brush, eraser, spray paint, calligraphy, fill, blur, sharpen, dodge/burn, smudge, liquify, clone stamp, healing brush, color replace
• Supports feathered selections with proportional blending at edges
• Quick Mask mode is exempt (painting edits the selection mask itself)
• Uses a snapshot-restore pattern: captures raster state before stroke and clips after