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grymmjack edited this page May 11, 2026 · 13 revisions
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DRAW — User Manual

A pixel art editor written in QB64-PE — that exports your artwork as QB64 source code.

Version 1.4.1 · Manual revision 2026-05-10

By Rick Christy (grymmjack) · github.com/grymmjack/DRAW · MIT License

DRAW icon
Inspired by Dazzle Draw, Deluxe Paint, Grafx2, Inkscape, The GIMP, and yes... Photoshop

Table of Contents

  1. Ch. 01 🎬 Introduction & Setup
    What DRAW is, how to install it, and a 5-minute UI tour.
  2. Ch. 02 🖌️ Core Drawing Fundamentals
    Brush, dot, lines, shapes, polygons, fills, spray and eraser.
  3. Ch. 03 🎨 Color & Palette Mastery
    FG/BG, color picker, mixer, 56 built-in palettes, palette ops.
  4. Ch. 04 📚 Layer System Deep Dive
    64 layers, opacity, 19 blend modes, groups, symbols.
  5. Ch. 05 ✂️ Selection & Clipboard
    Marquee, freehand, wand, copy/cut/paste, stroke selection.
  6. Ch. 06 🔄 Transforms & Image Adjustments
    Flip, rotate, scale, transform overlay, color correction.
  7. Ch. 07 📝 Text System
    Fonts, rich text, text layers, character mode.
  8. Ch. 08 📐 Grid, Symmetry & Drawing Aids
    4 grid geometries, 3 symmetry modes, angle snap, crosshair.
  9. Ch. 09 🪄 Custom Brushes & Drawer Panel
    Capture, transform, recolor, 30-slot drawer, dithering.
  10. Ch. 10 💾 File I/O & Export
    Open/save, the .draw format, 9 export formats, sprite extraction.
  11. Ch. 11 🖥️ Canvas & View Controls
    Zoom, pan, preview window, tile mode, reference image.
  12. Ch. 12 ⚙️ UI Customization & Settings
    Settings dialog, theming, panel docking.
  13. Ch. 13 🔊 Audio — Music & Sound Effects
    SFX bank, tracker music, customization.
  14. Ch. 14 🔍 Pixel Art Analyzer
    Find and fix orphans, jaggies, banding, pillow shading, doubles.
  15. Ch. 15 🖼️ Reference Image & Import
    Tracing, oversized image import, Aseprite/PSD support.
  16. Ch. 16 ⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts & Command Palette
    200+ commands at your fingertips.
  17. Ch. 17 ↩️ Undo, Redo & History
    The unified history system, text-local undo, fearless experimentation.
  18. Ch. 18 🎓 Real-World Pixel Art Workflows
    Game sprites, tileable textures, isometric, mandalas, ANSI art.
  19. Ch. 19 💡 Tips, Tricks & Advanced Techniques
    10 time-savers, advanced layer techniques.
  20. Ch. 20 📋 Appendix — Quick Reference
    Full cheat sheet, 56 palettes, 19 blend modes.

About this Manual

This manual is the companion reference to the DRAW pixel art editor. It mirrors the structure of the upcoming 55-episode video tutorial series and walks you from "I just installed DRAW" through real-world pixel-art workflows, advanced layer techniques, and the quirky touches that only DRAW offers — like exporting your artwork as runnable QB64 source code.

You can read it cover-to-cover, jump to any chapter from the Table of Contents, or use it as a quick-reference once you know your way around. Every chapter ends with practical exercises and every keyboard shortcut you'll see in the manual is also listed in the appendix and the live CHEATSHEET.md.

Who this is for

  • 🎨 Pixel artists moving from DPaint / Aseprite / ProMotion who want a free open-source alternative.
  • 🎮 Game developers who need fast sprite, tile, and palette workflows with deep export options.
  • 💻 QB64-PE / QBasic enthusiasts who appreciate that the whole editor and its native export format is QB64 code.
  • 🆕 Newcomers to pixel art who want a guided walkthrough rather than a feature dump.

Conventions used in this manual

Convention Meaning
Ctrl+S Press the keys together. On macOS, Ctrl is ⌘ Cmd unless the manual says otherwise.
B Press a single key (no modifier).
[ ] Brackets around a key reference (often used for brush size keys).
Click / Right-click / Middle-click Mouse buttons L / R / M.
Drag Press and hold the left mouse button while moving.
🎯 Goal What you'll be able to do after the section.
🎨 Try it A short, practical exercise.
💡 Tip Something useful but optional.
⚠️ Gotcha Something that commonly trips people up.

How this manual is organized

docs/
├── MANUAL.md            ← this cover + master TOC
└── MANUAL/
    ├── 01-introduction.md       … 20-appendix.md
    ├── SCREENSHOTS.md   ← capture checklist for missing visuals
    └── images/          ← captured screenshots + placeholder.svg

If you are reading this on GitHub, every chapter link above will jump straight to the rendered chapter file. If you are reading offline in VS Code, open the Markdown preview (Ctrl+Shift+V) on this file and the entire manual is one click away.

Contributing & feedback

DRAW and this manual are open source. If you find a mistake, or want to add a workflow, please open an issue or pull request on the GitHub repository. Thank you for reading — now go make something pixelated.

— grymmjack

DRAW Manual

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