Getting started

Pick a brush, size, opacity and color in the dock at the bottom, then draw. Your drawing saves itself a couple of seconds after each stroke.

• Brushes: Pencil, Ink, Marker, Airbrush, Pixel, Eraser and Stamp. Pressing harder makes most brushes thicker or darker.
• Fill: the bucket at the start of the dock (F). Tap an area to fill it with the current color. It sees all visible layers, so keep line art on its own layer and fill on a layer below. With Fill picked, the Size slider becomes Tolerance: higher fills across more similar colors.
• Colors: tap a swatch, or the rainbow square for any color.
• Top bar: gallery, undo and redo, layers, Brush Workshop, fit to screen, View menu, pen readout, export and clear.

Pen and touch

The pen always draws. Fingers draw too, until you use a pen; after that, fingers are for moving around.

Layers

Open the Layers panel with the stacked-layers button (L). Tap a layer to draw on it; the top of the list is the top of the picture.

• + adds a layer. Eye hides it, lock protects it.
• Opacity and blend modes: Multiply darkens (great for shading and line art), Screen lightens, Overlay adds contrast.
• Alpha lock keeps painting inside what's already on the layer: perfect for shading a filled shape without going over its edges.
• Up / Down, Duplicate, Merge down, Rename, Clear, Delete work on the selected layer. Undo covers them all, except hide, lock and rename.
• How many layers you can have depends on the canvas size, so big drawings stay within the iPad's memory.

Brushes and the Brush Workshop

The Brush Workshop (sliders button, W) is where brushes are tuned and made. Drag a setting and the test pad redraws instantly; draw on the pad to try it.

• Duplicate a brush before changing it a lot. Reset puts a built-in brush back to normal.
• Custom tip: Import image… takes an SVG, a PNG or WebP with a transparent background, or a black-on-white picture.
• Stamps: turn on Stamp mode for one stamp per tap. Press harder for bigger, or press and drag to size and turn it. The Stamp brush starts with Pixel's paw print.
• Brush files: Export saves a brush as .pipbrush; Export all saves a .pipbrushes pack; Import adds them back.

Gallery and files

The gallery (grid button by the logo, G) holds all your drawings. Tap one to open it.

• New drawing: pick a size (or Custom) and a paper: white, cream or transparent.
• Export on a drawing saves a .pipstudio file with all its layers. Import adds one back as a new drawing.
• Export in the top bar saves a PNG picture of the open drawing.

Works offline: once you've opened the studio online, it opens without internet too, from the browser or the home screen.

Back up your work. Drawings and brushes are stored in this browser on this device only. Clearing Safari's website data, or not opening the studio for a while, can remove them. Export drawings and brush packs now and then, and keep them in Files, iCloud or Google Drive.

View

The View menu (sun/moon button) changes how the studio looks. None of it changes your artwork.

• Theme: Workbench (dark) or Sketchbook (light). Press T to switch.
• Table: a wooden desk, or Plain, which is best for judging colors.
• Grid: Square graph paper, Isometric, or Pixel iso, with size, strong lines, visibility and color. Saved with each drawing; # turns it on and off. It never shows up in exports.

Keyboard shortcuts

Tips

• Pressure feels off? Open the pen readout and move Pressure feel toward light touch or heavy hand.
• Lines lag behind the pen? Lower the brush's Smoothing in the Brush Workshop.
• Shading starts too early or late? Change the Pencil's Tilt shading settings; the pen readout shows your pen's angle.
• Can't draw? Check that the selected layer isn't hidden or locked, or alpha-locked on an empty area.
• Fill leaks out? Close any gaps in the line art, or lower Tolerance.
• Want every detail? The Pip's Studio Settings Reference describes every setting, brush value and shortcut.