Welcome to lifePAD

Drawing on the canvas

Tap or drag on the empty area to draw. Finger, mouse, or stylus all work. A stylus on a tablet gives you the best feel.

Brush or Eraser. Tap the Brush button in the toolbar to switch to Eraser. Tap it again to go back.

Size. Drag the Size slider to set stroke width from 1 to 48 pixels.

Color. Tap any colored swatch to set the color. Tap the small color box at the end of the row for a custom color.

Palm rejection. When you draw with an Apple Pencil, accidental palm touches are ignored.

Brushes and textures

Tap the brush name next to Size to open the full brush list, grouped by feel:

• Pens and pencils. Hard round pen, technical pen, fineliner, brush pen with taper, calligraphy pen with angled nib, HB pencil, mechanical pencil.
• Markers and paint. Felt marker, chisel marker, round and flat paint, gouache, acrylic, oil brush, airbrush.
• Texture. Soft and vine charcoal, pastel chalk, watercolor wash and detail, ink wash, spray paint, glitter, halftone dots, noise grain, stamp.
• Blend tools. Smudge and smear push existing pixels around. Mixer picks up colors and blends them as you draw. Dodge lightens, burn darkens.

Color Lab

Tap the round color wheel button to open the Color Lab. On desktop it sits at the top-left of the screen. On phones it sits at the bottom-left next to the menu button.

Inside the lab:

• Gradient wheel. Tap any spot on the wheel to set your color. The Lightness slider adjusts brightness.
• Artist palettes. Quick-pick gradient swatches at the top.
• Color Inspector. Type a hex, RGB, or HSL value directly. Copy the current color in either format.
• Harmony Modes. Generate matching colors: complementary, triadic, analogous, and more.
• Current Palette. Add colors to your active set, save it by name, load it back later, export to JSON.
• Gradient Builder. Add stops and build your own gradients.
• Image Extract. Upload any image and pull a palette from it.

Tap any section title (like "Current Palette") to fold it away when you do not need it.

Shapes, text, fill, and more

Open the Tools dropdown in the toolbar for the rest of the features:

• Shapes. Rectangle, ellipse, line, polygon, star. Drag on the canvas to draw at any size. To resize or move a shape after placing it, tap Select, tap the shape, then drag a corner or edge handle (move it by dragging the body).
• Text. Type and place text anywhere on the canvas.
• Fill (bucket). Pick a color, tap a closed area to flood it.
• Pan. Drag the canvas around when you have zoomed or moved.
• Ruler. Measure distances on the canvas.
• Import background. Add a reference image behind your drawing.
• Export SVG. Save your work as a vector file.

Zoom. Pinch on touch. On desktop, use the scroll wheel, or Ctrl + and Ctrl - on the keyboard. Ctrl 0 resets.

Saving, undo, and updates

Save PNG. Tap Save PNG in the toolbar to download or share your drawing.

Autosave. Your work is saved to the browser after every stroke. Closing the tab and coming back loads it again.

Undo and Redo. Step through your last actions one at a time. Brush strokes, shapes, text, fills, and clears all undo cleanly.

Clear. Empties the canvas. If you change your mind, Undo brings it back.

Updates. When a new version of lifePAD is published, a blue banner appears at the top. Tap "Update now" to reload. Your drawing is kept.

Phone, tablet, desktop

On desktop, the toolbar runs across the top.

On phones, the toolbar sits at the bottom. Tap the hamburger button at the bottom-left to hide or show it.

The colored circle button next to the hamburger always opens the Color Lab.

The small version label in the bottom corner shows which build you are on. Tap it to view that commit on GitHub.

Reopen this help any time from the Help button in the toolbar.

Thanks for using lifePAD. Stay creative.

Tim

Questions or feedback? support@lifepad.art

Your work stays on your device. Read our privacy promise.