User guides
Everything the app does,
one guide at a time.
Short narrated walkthroughs with the steps written out. Choose your device; each guide is marked Free or Plus.
Recorded from the current build in the Simulator, and updated with the app.
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Getting started
- Welcome tourFreeThe first launch opens a painting that already moves; here is where everything on the screen lives.
- How a stroke worksFree + PlusEvery stroke is Paint, Marks and Motion, and a brush is your recipe for all three. The idea behind the wheel, the brush settings and the library.
- Opening the appFreeEach time Doodly Doodle opens, carry on with your last painting, paint a book by number, or start a new painting in the Studio.
- Your first paintingFreePick up a brush from the stroke wheel, choose a colour, paint, and undo a mark.
- Gestures and the viewFreeZoom, pan and rotate the page, undo and redo with a tap of two or three fingers, use the Zoom menu and the Hand tool, and hide the interface.
- Apple Pencil and touchFreePaint with Apple Pencil pressure, tilt and hover, choose what double-tap and squeeze do, and decide whether your finger paints or moves the page.
- Mouse, trackpad and keyboardFreePaint on the Mac with a mouse, trackpad or drawing tablet, call the stroke wheel with a secondary click, scroll to move and zoom, and use the keyboard shortcuts.
- Motion Brushes tour and lessonsFreeA short tour, on the first launch and in Actions → Motion Brushes tour, of what Motion Brushes are and what you can make. Then lessons in Actions → Learn and practise that teach the tools, Motion Brushes and effects. Set the tools with a ring pointing the way, trace a small scene, and press Play.
- Daily practiceFreeFive minutes a day in Actions → Learn and practise. Three short drawing exercises, a warm-up, a shape and a skill, each scored with stars, a match and one tip. Or pick anything to trace from the library, from lines to boxes, cylinders and perspective. The help fades as you improve, and a streak and calendar keep count.
Color: paint by number
- Paint by numberFree + PlusOpen one of the app's books by number in Color, choose a number, tap its areas to paint them in, and find the ones left.
- Color's first pageFreeThe first time Color opens, a finger shows what to do, tap a colour, then tap its areas, and any touch puts it away. The book's music card waits for your first area.
- Paint with steps in the StudioFreeIn the Studio, a numbered page's numbers bar offers each number's steps as brushes, Base, Darks, Highlights and a brush that moves, to paint a number yourself.
- A finished page and the StudioFree + PlusA finished page plays and offers Share, the Studio and the next page; Color · Studio switches to the whole app with the same page and paint, and the numbers come too.
- Color lessonsFreeThree hands-on lessons in Learn and practise, each on a real page, where each step ticks as you do it. Fill a page, Finish and share, and Paint with steps in the Studio.
- Coloring booksFree + PlusColour the books that come with the app, or turn your own PDF into a book of colouring pages.
Paintings and files
- GalleryFreeOpen your paintings, start a new one from a template or a custom size, and rename, duplicate or delete paintings with a touch and hold.
- Canvas sizeFreeResize the page with paper and screen presets or your own dimensions, in pixels, inches, centimetres or millimetres at a chosen dpi.
- Files and iCloudFreePaintings save themselves; each keeps a self-contained .doodly copy in Files, in iCloud Drive or on this device, and Open project… and Save project as… move paintings in and out.
- Books and pagesFreeGive any painting more pages, for a comic, a coloring book or a story, and go between them, reorder, duplicate and delete them.
- Book ViewFreeRead a book full screen with its pages moving, and turn the pages with a swipe, a tap near the edge or the arrow keys.
- Draw togetherFree + PlusPaint with one other person over SharePlay, each on layers of your own, with real brushes, motion and watercolor; both keep an editable copy.
Wheel and brushes
- The stroke wheelFreeEvery part of the wheel in the corner, from the media on its rim to Undo and Tools under your thumb.
- The brush libraryFree + PlusBrowse the medium's brushes, every mark and every motion, choose and arrange the brushes on your wheel, save and manage your own brushes, and search them all.
- Brush StudioFree + PlusChange everything about a brush on its three pages, Paint, Marks and Motion, watch it apply live, and keep, revert or reset it.
- Brush parameters and filesFreeSet every value a brush or stroke sends to the renderer, and share brushes as files or import them.
Paint
- The seven mediaFreeWatercolor, Ink, Pen, Marker, Pencil, Pastel and Charcoal, how each behaves, and why each has its own layer.
- ColourFreePick colours from the rings around the wheel's centre, make them lighter or darker as paint does, or use the colour panel's palettes, mixer and hex field, or the painting itself with the Eyedropper.
- Watercolor and inkFreeHow much water a brush carries, wet paint running together and blooming, drying, wetting or drying a whole layer, and replaying the drying.
- Erase and lift paintFreeRub out paint with the Eraser on every medium, or take whole strokes with it; lift paint the painterly way with a medium's lift brush.
- Blending toolsFreeSoften, spread and move paint already down with each medium's tools, from the Water Brush to Smudge, Blend and Dust.
Marks and effects
- MarksFree + PlusChoose shape in Marks, then set the whole stroke, individual marks or their interior moving in Motion.
- EffectsFree + PlusBrowse 156 effect looks, including separate drops, splash droplets, puddle rings and foam trails. Choose which parts move in Motion.
- Separate drops and ringsFree + PlusPaint effect parts separately, hold them as static marks, and change the perspective of impact rings.
- Variations for layeringFree + PlusPaint the stroke in hand nearer or farther, broader or finer, and build an effect from its parts, each stroke moving in its own time.
Motion and animation
- Add motion to your strokesFreeChoose from 48 whole-stroke motions in five families, with separate controls for mark movement and colour inside marks.
- Change how painted strokes moveFreeSelect strokes already on the page and set them moving, give them more or less motion, make them still, or freeze them or a whole layer in place.
- Play, pause and the timelineFreePlay and pause the painting, scrub its timeline, and set its loop's length, looping and overall motion in Living paint settings.
- Combine motionsFreeStack several motions on one brush, so a single stroke can wave and bounce at once.
- Motion inside a washFreeKeep a wash's outline still and move only its colour, with Current, Ripples, Eddies and blooms.
Paper and canvas
Layers
- LayersFree + PlusAdd, switch, reorder, hide, lock, rename, duplicate, group and delete layers, from the layer strip or the Layers sheet.
- Layer blend modes and adjustmentsFreeChange how a layer meets the layers below with opacity and blend modes, adjust its colour and tone, and let grouped wet layers mix.
Images and colouring pages
- Image layersFreeBring in a photo or picture as its own layer, place it by hand or with sliders, and let it take on the paper.
- Colouring pagesFreeTurn a line drawing, or lines you ink yourself, into a colouring page, so paint stays inside the area where each stroke starts or the one you choose, and fill areas with one tap.
Selecting and drawing aids
- Select and change strokesFree + PlusTap strokes or loop several to move, scale, turn, recolour, fill, flip or delete them, change how they move, or open one stroke's every setting.
- Fill an areaFreeTap inside a shape to fill it with the brush in hand, drag to fill several areas at once, and fill behind your lines.
- Write textFreeWrite words as ordinary strokes in the brush in hand, in single-line fonts, then place, size and turn them.
- Paint with symmetryFreeMirror every stroke left and right or top and bottom, or repeat it in radial folds for mandalas.
- Guides, ruler and flipped viewFreeDraw along an ellipse or French curve, in 1- to 6-point perspective or on a grid, with the ruler, and check your painting flipped.
- Panel layoutsFreeLay out a comic page from a library of panel layouts, draw the borders with any brush, and paint inside one panel at a time.
Export and share
- Share and exportFree + PlusSend a still or a loop in one tap, or export an image, video, time-lapse or layered file with Export….
- Time-lapse and musicFree + PlusExport a replay of your painting taking shape, framed square, 4:5 or 9:16 for sharing, with music scored from the way you painted it.
- Layered files and frame sequencesFree + PlusExport your layers as a Photoshop file, or every frame of the motion as numbered PNGs, including ordered frames for lenticular prints.
- PDF, ebook and web pageFree + PlusExport a book, or one painting, as a PDF for print, an EPUB ebook or a single web page, with the pages moving where the reader can play them.
Sound
Settings and Plus
- SettingsFreeEvery setting in one place, from appearance and input to Apple Pencil gestures, sound and music, storage, the practice reminder, achievements, and the app's version and links.
- Free and PlusFree + PlusWhat Free includes, what the one-time Plus purchase adds (every book, every effect, unlimited layers, exports without the mark), and how to buy, restore, redeem a code or share Plus with your family.
- AccessibilityFreeDoodly Doodle follows your text size, speaks every control to VoiceOver, keeps touch targets large, and opens paintings paused with Reduce Motion.
- Larger previewsFreeMagnify brushes, marks and motions under the pointer, or inspect them in a separate moving preview.
- Experimental settingsFreeTry Finger pressure and tilt, which gives finger strokes a swell and a taper.
- AchievementsFreeOptional badges for drawing days, strokes into the millions, the motions, media, effects and brushes you try, and your practice days, streaks, lessons and exercises, with a dashboard of how you're doing. Off until you turn them on; iCloud adds up your devices, and Game Center is a separate choice.
Try it in the app.
Download on the App Store Free for iPad, iPhone and MacSomething not behaving as expected?
Visit support or write to support@doodlydoodle.app.