Layers and elements

Layers #

The Layers panel lists the layers of the picture, topmost first, each with a thumbnail of what that layer alone draws. Right-click a layer row for everything below.

Add creates a layer; Dup (Ctrl+J) copies it; Delete removes it.
Reorder: drag a row, or Ctrl+] and Ctrl+[.
Visibility: the eye at the left of the row. A hidden layer is shown faint in its thumbnail.
Opacity and blend mode (eleven, from Multiply to Difference) are above the list, and work on a layer or on a whole group.
Lock keeps the tools off a layer.
Clip to below draws a layer only where the layer under it draws: a highlight that stays inside the body it is on.
Merge down (Ctrl+E) moves the upper layer's elements into the one below, each still what it was, with the opacity and blend folded in. Where that would change the picture (a transform, an outline, a hidden layer, two blend modes) it is refused and the reason is said.
Layer properties (in the row's menu) gives a layer a colour tag that stripes its row, and notes kept with it.
Reference layer shows a layer on the canvas but leaves it out of every export and out of the outline round the whole figure: a sketch to draw over.

Groups #

Select several layers with Ctrl+click and press Ctrl+G to group them. A group composites its layers into one picture and then blends that, which is not the same as blending each, and is what a group is for. Drop a layer on a group's row to put it in; Ctrl+drop on a layer groups the two; Ctrl+Shift+G dissolves a group in place.

Elements #

One layer holds several elements: one per colour its pixels are painted in, plus any shapes, text, fills and gradients drawn onto it. The Elements panel lists them, topmost first. Select one to change it in Properties: what it is, its controls, then the layer's shadow and outline (each folding away).

A layer is a stack: removing the top element brings back what was under it, exactly. Painting over a colour does not cut away the old one; erasing is recorded as what was erased from which element, so it never touches anything drawn later.

Layers across frames #

In an animation, a layer runs through every frame: add, delete, move, rename, hide, group or tag one in any frame and it is so in all of them, each frame keeping its own pixels of it. See Animation. Older files whose frames had separate layers keep them until Sprite > Same layers in every frame joins them by name, losing nothing.

Undo #

Every operation is one undo step, and Edit > History... lists them: click one to go back to it. The undo depth is set in Preferences.

This is the guide that ships inside the program (F1).