Brush

This tool is simple, wherever we put or drag on the screen, it draws pixels there, but it does come with the most customization of all tools.

Brush types

We have 3 brush types with different utilities.

Regular brush

This is the simplest one, it draws solid strokes onto the canvas, using the properties of stroke types.

Spray

Instead of applying a continuous line like the regular brush, this brush type "sprays" random spots on the canvas using the current stroke type.

This brush type is pressure-sensitive. We can adjust the intensity and the spray size of this brush type.

Spray with opacity

Same as the spray type, only that it will also randomize the opacity of each stamp.

Pixel-perfect

Everyone wants smooth and sharp lines, this option is to assist with that. When pixel-perfect is on, Pixquare will make sure that the drawn stroke won't have "jittery" pixels.

Watercolor

This option is on by default, and when it's on, translucent colors (opacity < 100%) will blend with the existing colors. If this option is off, the new color will replace the existing ones on the canvas completely.

Watercolor is not available in indexed color mode.

Pressure sensitivity

Apple pencil supports pressure sensitivity so Pixquare takes advantage of that to add the functionality to its toolset. With this option on, the size of the stroke will be dynamic based on how hard you're pressing on the screen.

A few things to note:

When this is on, a sub-menu will appear so that you can adjust the pressure curve range
The pressure curve range manifests based on the current size of the brush
If the touch is not from a pencil, it won't register the pressure.

Contour

The contour brush will auto-connect the last and the first point of a stroke, then fill the area encapsulated by the stroke.

Dithering

Dithering is the pixel art term for painting intertwining patterns between 2 colors. In Pixquare, the dithering brush uses the current color as 1 color and transparent as the other color.

It relies on pressure to determine the pattern. Pressure 0 means all transparent, and 1 means it's all the current color.

If we want the pattern to stay constant, we can drag both the lower bound and upper bound of the dithering intensity to the same value.

When Contour is on, dithering will be disabled.

Stroke types

Round and square

These are just the shapes of the brush tip, circle or square

Spray and spray with opacity

These will put random pixels within the radius of the brush. The only difference between them is that spray with opacity will also randomize the opacity of the new pixels.

We can also adjust the intensity of these 2 stroke types.

Jumble

This stroke type will jumble and mix the existing pixels inside its radius. If we want to randomly reorder some pixels in an area, this is perfect for that.

Blur

Blur brush applies a simple radial blur (3x3 size) to the pixels.

Custom

Create and use custom shapes of the brush yourself or import it from other sources.