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Brush Ninja

How to create and edit drawings

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Paint Ninja Help

Get help creating art with Paint Ninja.

Paint Ninja is a free online drawing app that lets you create art in your browser. It’s perfect for creating emoji art, doodles, and sketches. This page will help you get started with Paint Ninja and show you how to use its features.

Features

Paint Ninja has 2 toolbars, the file toolbar and the drawing toolbar. The file toolbar is at the top of the screen and the drawing toolbar is underneath it.

File Toolbar

The file toolbar has the following options:

  • New: Start a new drawing.
  • Open: Open an existing drawing (or photo).
  • Save: Download your finished image as a PNG file.

You can also use the file toolbar to undo and redo your actions, and zoom in and out of the image.

Paint Ninja saves your current work in this browser automatically. This is useful if you refresh or return later, but it is not a replacement for downloading a finished PNG: browser storage can be cleared by you or your browser.

Undo and Redo

Use the undo and redo buttons in the file toolbar, or use these shortcuts:

  • Undo: Ctrl + Z on Windows and Linux, or Command + Z on Mac.
  • Redo: Ctrl + Y or Ctrl + Shift + Z on Windows and Linux, or Command + Shift + Z on Mac.

Zooming and Panning

Use the +, −, and Zoom controls in the file toolbar to zoom in, zoom out, or return to 100%.

On a trackpad, pinch over the canvas to zoom and use a normal two-finger gesture to pan around a zoomed drawing. With a mouse, hold Space and drag, or drag with the middle mouse button, to pan. A two-finger touch gesture also pans on touch devices.

Drawing Toolbar

The drawing toolbar has the following options:

  • Paint Tool: The current drawing tool. Click it to choose another tool from the drawing-tools menu.
  • Move Active Layer: Move the currently selected text or paint layer around the canvas.
  • Layers: Open the layer panel to add, select, reorder, hide, lock, or delete layers.
  • Brush Size: The size of the brush. You can change this by moving the bar on the slider.
  • Colour Picker: The current colour. Click on this to change the colour you are drawing with.
  • Colour Palette: A selection of pre-defined colours. Click on one to change the colour you are drawing with.

Drawing Tools

  • Pen: The classic solid brush line. Automatically smooths out your line as you draw.
  • Paint Brush: A textured brush that simulates the look of real paint.
  • Spray Can: A splattery spray of colour that changes sizes as you move. The faster you move the smaller the area covered.
  • Quill: A brush that changes size as you draw. Move slowly to draw small lines, and quickly to draw larger lines.
  • Stamp: Add emojis to your drawing. Select your emoji from the sticker palette.
  • Paint Bucket: Fill in areas with a solid colour.
  • Eraser: Remove unwanted lines and shapes from your drawing.
  • Smudge: Drag colours already on a paint layer to blend them together.
  • Eyedropper: Pick a colour from the canvas, then return to the tool you were using.
  • Text: Add editable text as its own layer. Choose the wording, size, colour, weight, and alignment in the text window.

Working with Layers

Layers let you keep parts of a drawing separate. Paint tools work on the active paint layer, while each text item is a lightweight editable text layer. Use the Layers button to choose the active layer, create another paint layer, change the stacking order, hide a layer, lock it, or delete it.

Choose Move Active Layer and drag on the canvas to reposition the selected layer. This works for both paint and text layers. To edit a text layer again, open the Layers panel and double-click that text layer.

Paint Ninja supports up to 6 paint layers and up to 24 text layers, with a maximum of 30 layers in one drawing.

Website Embeds

You can embed Paint Ninja on your website. This is a great way to engage your users and get them to interact with your site. To learn how to embed the editor on your website visit the Paint Ninja Website Embed page.