Pencil Tool:<< Back to HeliosPaint Homepage
Pencil Tool: Line Tool: Paint Brush Tool: Eraser Tool: Spray Can Tool: Highlighter Pen Tool: Copy Brush Tool: Paint Can Tool: Area Selection & Movement Tool: Text Tool: Shapes Tool: Colour & Effects Tool: (34 filters including: sharpen, blur, emboss, feather edges, adjust colours and contrast etc) Gradient Tool: Transform Tool: (rotate, skew, adjust perspective) Colour Grabber Tool: Colours and Paints Normal Colour Texture Paint Background Paper Colour Top Toolbar Top Menu Transparency Mode Zoom Controls Selected Area Controls Keyboard Shortcut Keys Supported Image File Types Saving Image Transparency Batch Create Resized Images
Pencil Tool:Colours pixels one at a time wherever you click.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to draw straight lines up, down, left, right only.
If an area of the image is selected (the 
button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Line Tool:Creates freehand, straight and curved lines with a choice of Dash pattern, line Width and Arrow end.
The Joint style affects how corners in the lines are painted.
The End style affects how the line ends are painted.
When you have finished painting a set of lines, click the [ 
Finish ] button or press Enter.
To delete a point, select it and then click the [ 
] button or press the [ Delete ] key.
For curved lines, select the [
] button to automatically curve the line as you draw it.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to draw straight or curved lines at 45 or 90 degrees.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Paint Brush Tool:Paints wherever you click using a resizable square, circle or diamond shaped brush.
If the [ 
] button is on, then the relative width and height of the brush is kept the same.
To soften the edges of the brush, use a Feather width of 1 or more.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to draw straight lines up, down, left, right only.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Note: Painting can be slow for very large sized brushes.
Eraser Tool:Removes colour wherever you click using a resizable square, circle or diamond shaped eraser.
If the [ ] button is on, then the relative width and height of the eraser is kept the same.
The amount of colour removed can be adjusted by changing the Erase strength of the eraser.
To soften the edges of the eraser, use a Feather width of 1 or more.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to draw straight lines up, down, left, right only.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be erased.
Note: Erasing can be slow for very large sized erasers.
Spray Can Tool:Sprays paint wherever you click in a resizable square, circle or diamond shape.
If the [ ] button is on, then the relative width and height of the spray is kept the same.
Use a spray Density of 
to spray lightly and 
to spray heavily.
If Global spray is ticked then everywhere is sprayed.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to paint straight lines up, down, left, right only.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be sprayed.
Highlighter Pen Tool:Highlights wherever you click using a resizable square, circle or diamond shaped brush.
Select Darken for a normal highlighter pen that darkens the image.
Select Brighten to use a highligher pen that brightens the image instead.
To soften the edges of the brush, use a Feather width of 1 or more.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to draw straight lines up, down, left, right only.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Copy Brush Tool:Copies paint from one point to another using a resizable square, circle or diamond shaped brush. This can be useful for photo retouching or 'healing'.
Click once on the canvas to first mark where you want to copy from.
Then click somewhere else to start copying paint to that location.
Press the [ Esc ] key or Start New button to begin again.
The amount of colour copied can be adjusted by changing the Copy strength slider.
To soften the edges of the brush, use a Feather width of 1 or more.
Lower the copy strength and use feathering to better blend and heal photo blemishes.
If the [ ] button is on, then the relative width and height of the brush is kept the same.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to paint straight lines up, down, left, right only.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Paint Can Tool:Flood fills the image with paint starting wherever you click.
The Fill by choice affects how pixels next to the one clicked on are chosen for flooding into.
This is either by having similar RGB colour, hue, saturation, brightness or luminance.
Paint fill lets the paint flow into pixels that are nearly the same as the one clicked on.
At 0% paint fill, paint only fills pixels with exactly the same RGB colour, hue, saturation, brightness or luminance as the one clicked on. At 100% paint fill, the paint fills everywhere.
If Repaint fill is ticked, the last paint can fill is redone immediately on changing the selected paint, the "Paint fill", the neighbour rule or the local/global choice.
Use Local replace to fill with paint until a change in RGB colour, hue, saturation, brightness or luminance is reached.
Use Global replace to fill everywhere the same RGB colour, hue, saturation, brightness or luminance is found.
The Neighbour rule lets you decide if paint will also flow into diagonally adjacent pixels (8 neighbours) or only pixels up, down, left and right (4 neighbours).
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Area Selection & Movement Tool:Allows part of the image to be selected, cut, copied and moved.
After selecting the tool, simply drag out the shape you want to cut, copy or move.
Whenever an area is selected, the button is switched on to the right of the window.
This means that all the tools can only paint inside the selected area.
There are 4 buttons for the 4 ways of selecting an area:
Scissors 
, Lasso 
, Wand 
and Compare With Earlier 
.
Scissors 
: This allows an exact selection to be made using one of the Cut shapes.
Lasso
: This allows an area to be grabbed by drawing around it and then tightening inwards.
Use the Lasso shrink strength slider to increase / decrease the tightness of the lasso (only works up until the selected area is moved).
If the 
button is hollow then the lasso works from inside out too, deselecting inner colours that are
different to the pixel clicked on as the lasso is tightened.
E.g. if the button is on and the body of a large black letter "O" is surrounded by the lasso,
then only the black body will be grabbed but not the inner white pixels.
If the 
button is filled then both the black body and inner white pixels will be selected.
Wand
: This allows an area to be automatically grabbed by expanding out from the pixel clicked on.
Use the Local select option to grab only pixels that can be reached by expanding out from the one clicked on.
Use the Global select option to grab all pixels on the paint canvas similar to the colour clicked on.
Use the Wand selection strength slider to increase / decrease the selection of neighbouring colours (only works up until the selected area is moved).
The Neighbour rule lets you decide if the wand will also grab diagonally adjacent pixels (8 neighbours) or only pixels up, down, left and right (4 neighbours).
If the button is filled then all pixels inside the borders of the area will be selected,
even if they are very different to the colour of the pixel clicked on.
E.g. if the button is on and the body of a large black letter "O" is clicked on with the wand, then the black body and the inner white pixels will be grabbed.
If the button is hollow then only the black body will be selected.
Compare 
:This allows you to compare the current image with an earlier image in the undo history, and have all the pixels that have changed selected. This is a slightly stranger selection tool but it may
be useful occasionally if you want to grab everything that's changed over one or more paint operations.
A Cut shape can be chosen before a selection is made with the Scissors or Lasso.
The cut line of the Scissors or Lasso then follows the selected shape. Note that cut shapes don't apply to the Wand because it works by clicking on a single pixel and not by making a shape.
Some of the cut shapes have unique values that can be adjusted before an area is selected.
E.g. options to rotate the shape or specify the number of polygon sides or star points.
For the Freehand shape 
, two special buttons are provided. The [ 
Back ] button undoes
the last freehand line segment. The [ 
] button completes the cut and grabs the pixels.
Using the Freehand cut shape, hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to draw straight lines at 45 or 90 degrees.
For all other cut shapes, hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to keep the shape's width and height equal.
The Select by choice affects how neighbouring pixels are grabbed by the Wand or Lasso. The options are as follows:
RGB - the standard choice for wand and lasso which finds pixels with similar colour shade, brightness and saturation.
Hue - finds pixels with similar colour shade but ignores brightness and saturation.
E.g. able to select all greens if a shade of green is clicked on with the wand.
Saturation - finds pixels with similar colour saturation (strength of colour) but ignores the brightness and actual colour shade.
Brightness - finds pixels with similar brightness but ignores colour saturation and actual colour shade.
Luminance - finds pixels with similar luminance but ignores colour saturation and actual colour shade.
Shape corner Rounding 
is available for some shapes.
The Cut, Copy and Delete radio buttons to the left do the following:
Cut - cuts out the selected area on moving it. Use the selected area Transparency Slider on the right side
to set how much is left behind.
Copy - copies the selected area on moving it.
Delete - deletes the selected area. Use the selected area Transparency Slider on the right side to set how much is deleted and how much is left behind.
Use the standard [ 
cut ] and [ 
copy ] buttons to cut or copy selected areas onto the clipboard.
Use the standard [ 
paste ] button to paste images directly from the clipboard into HeliosPaint.
Images can also be pasted into HeliosPaint by dragging and dropping an image file onto the paint canvas (e.g. from the desktop) or by using the Import Selection menu option.
When pixels in a selected area have been grabbed, the area can be moved by the mouse or arrow keys.
To move an area with the mouse, move the pointer over it until it turns into a hand, then drag the area.
Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to restrict movement to just up, down, left and right.
When an area is selected, the large Use selection as main image button on the right can be clicked.
See Selected Area controls for more information.
Text Tool:Paints text with choice of font, size, style and rotation.
To begin typing text, click on the paint canvas. To create a new line, press Enter. To cancel the text, press Escape. To move the text with the mouse, move the pointer over it until it turns into a hand, then drag the text. Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to restrict movement to just up, down, left and right.
To Rotate the text, enter a rotation in degrees or choose -90, 0, 180, 90 and click the [ 
] button.
When you have finished writing the text, click the [ Finish ] button.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Use the standard [ cut ] and [ copy ] buttons to cut or copy an image of the text onto the clipboard.
Use the standard [ paste ] button to paste text directly from the clipboard into HeliosPaint.
Tip: When you use the standard cut and paste buttons to cut the text and paste it back in as an image,
the image of the text will become the Selected Area. This means it can be worked on as a Selected Area, e.g. flipped, skewed, sprayed on, perspective transformed, filtered, etc.
To do this, first type in some text, next click the [ cut ] button, then finally click the [ paste ] button.
Shapes Tool:Paints filled or outlined shapes by dragging them out on the paint canvas.
Select Fill to draw solid shapes or Line to draw outlines of shapes.
There are various Shapes e.g. Freehand Line , Rectangle 
, Polygons 
and Stars 
.
Select a Shape, enter any values for the shape e.g. rotation, number of polygon sides or star points,
then drag out the shape on the paint canvas.
For the Freehand shape , two special buttons are provided. The [ Back ] button undoes the last freehand line segment. The [ Paint ] button completes the shape and paints the pixels.
Using the Freehand shape, hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to draw straight lines at 45 or 90 degrees.
For all other shapes, hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to keep the shape's width and height equal.
Shape corner Rounding is available for some shapes.
If Line is selected, there is a choice of line Width, Dash pattern, Joint style and End style.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only that area can be painted.
Colour & Effects Tool:Changes the main image or selected area using a range of colour & effect filters.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only the selected area will be changed.
The available filters are:
RGB - Changes the amount of Red, Green and Blue in the image.
CMY - Changes the amount of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow in the image.
HSB - Changes the colour Hue, colour Saturation and image Brightness.
Also known as HSV (hue, saturation, value) or HSI (hue, saturation, intensity).
HSL - Changes the colour Hue, colour Saturation and image Luminance.
Also known as HLS (hue, luminance, saturation). This filter's results are slightly different to the HSB filter.
Gamma - Changes image Gamma level (luminance) in red, green and/or blue.
Transparency - Changes the image Transparency.
Channel mixer - Allows red, green and blue colours in an image to be mixed.
The top two sliders move red colour into blue and green.
The middle two sliders move green colour into red and blue.
The bottom two sliders move blue colour into green and red.
Temp & Tint - Changes the colour Temperature and Tint.
Temperature is used to make the image look colder or hotter.
You can 'warm-up' or 'cool-down' the image colours by changing the temperature.
Small temperature increases (e.g. 0 to 50) can help make a photo look more sunny.
Small temperature decreases (e.g. -0 to -50) can help make a photo look less sunny.
Tint is used to add or remove green or purple colour tints in the image.
Contrast - Changes Brightness Contrast or Colour Contrast in the image.
Gain and bias - Adjusts the gain and bias of an image.
Gain is used change the contrast of an image.
Bias is used shift colours towards darker or lighter.
Threshold - Paints the image with the selected paint, where it is brighter or darker than a selected brightness.
Black and white - Turns a colour image into a black and white image.
Invert colours - Inverts red, green and / or blue colours in the image.
If all three colours are selected, then inverting gives the photographic "negative" of the image.
It is also possible to invert the transparency of all pixels using this filter.
Solarize - Solarizes an image. Causes a whole or part reversal in tone.
Gray image - Turns a colour image into a gray image.
Colour filter - Image light filtering using the currently selected colour / paint.
Sepia tone - Turns a colour or gray image into a 'time old' sepia toned image.
Sharpen image - Sharpens the edges in the image a little,
with a choice of strength from 0 (none) to 200 (highest).
Unsharp mask - Detects and adds contrast to the edges in the image, which sharpens the image.
This is a good tool for sharpening photos.
Threshold is used to find the edges to sharpen. High values should only find and sharpen strong edges.
Low values should also find and sharpen weak edges.
Amount is used to set the amount of contrast to add to the edges detected.
Radius is used to control how large the sharpened edges become.
For fine detail sharpening use a smaller radius.
Blur image - Blurs the image, with a choice of strength from 0 (none) to 50 (highest).
Block blur - Block blur (pixelate) the image, with a choice of pixel square width.
Diffuse - Diffuses pixels in an image so they bleed randomly into each other.
Dissolve - Dissolves image pixels into the background or using the selected paint.
Edge feather - Blends edges of the image into the background or with the selected paint.
By blending with the background, the image edges will appear to "fade away".
By blending with the selected paint, you can strengthen or colour the image edges.
Feathering width and transition curve can be chosen.
Edge detection - Detects and shows edges in the image.
Oil painting - Changes the image so it looks more like an oil painted picture, with a choice of
strength from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). Works best on pictures / photos rather than simple drawings.
Please note that this takes a minute or two to run with very large images.
Posterise - Posterises a photo, creating a banding effect.
Tile - Tiles the image into columns and rows of smaller image copies.
Emboss effect - Embosses the image so it's outline appears raised or depressed.
The light can be made to appear from Northwest, Northeast, Southwest or Southeast.
Works best on simple drawings rather than pictures / photos.
Chrome effect - Raised metallic chrome image effect.
Amount is used to set how dark the chrome metal appears.
Exposure is used to set the light exposure.
Height is used to set the raised height of the effect.
Softness is used to soften the edges.
Noise reduce - Reduces noise or graininess in the image by smoothing. The more you move
the Stength and Repeats sliders across, the more HeliosPaint will try to decrease image graininess.
Please note that this takes a minute or so to run with very large images.
Edge wrap - Moves an image and wraps it over the edges.
Number of pixels to wrap right and down are entered (-9999 to 9999).
Paint behind - Paints behind the image with the selected paint. Only works on transparent images.
Paint over - Paints over the image with the selected paint.
Gradient Tool:Changes colour, brightness and transparency using gradients.
Selecting the tool will open the colour gradient editing window. With this you can brighten, darken, reduce or add colour to regions of the main image or selected area using Linear, Round, Rectangular or Fit to Selection Shape gradient patterns.
The colour can be adjusted by Red, Green, Blue or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Colours can be superimposed on the image Relative to existing colours or ignoring existing colours (Absolute).
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only the selected area will be changed.
When using a selected area with the Fit to Selection Shape gradient, the colour changes will explode out to the shape of your selected area.
Transform Tool:Transforms the main image or selected area with resize, flip, rotate, skew, perspective.
To change the Size of the image or selected area, drag the highlighted corner points and then click the [ ] button. You can also type the new width and height directly into the text boxes.
If the [ ] button is on, then the relative width and height of the image is kept the same.
Use the [ 
] and [ 
] buttons to Flip the image or selected area horizontally or vertically.
To Rotate the image or selected area, enter a rotation in degrees or choose -90, 180, 90 and click the [ ]
button.
To Skew the image or selected area, enter a horzontal and/or vertical skew from -89 to 89 and click the [ ]
button.
To adjust the Perspective view of the image or selected area, drag the highlighted corner points and then
click the [ ] button. Hold down the [ Ctrl ] key to restrict movement to just up, down, left and right.
If an area of the image is selected (the button is on), then only the area the will be changed.
Colour Grabber Tool:Grabs a colour wherever you click and makes it the chosen colour.
To preview a Pixel Colour, hover the mouse pointer over the pixel on the main paint canvas.
Click anywhere on the main paint canvas to select the colour at that location.
The colour is then copied to the [ 
Colour and transparency ] button on the left panel.
The colour can then be used in another tool (e.g. pencil) or edited first by clicking on the [ Colour and transparency ] button.
You can choose to grab both colour and transparency, colour only or transparency only from the place you click on.
Select only the colour [ 
] option to grab colour with no change to transparency.
Select only the transparency [ 
] option to grab transparency with no change to colour.
Click the button on the left panel to open the Colours and Paints window.
There are two types of paint: Normal Colour and Texture Paint.
This is plain coloured paint (red, green, blue, yellow etc).
With Normal Colour selected, the tabs allow the colour to be changed by choosing from preset colour Swatches, adjusting HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) or adjusting RGB (Red, Green, Blue).
The last tab allows the level of Transparency in the paint to be changed. If a paint with some transparency is painted (e.g. by using the paint brush), then the colours underneath will 'shine through' the new paint..
This is paint created from an image you download, have on your computer or make with HeliosPaint.
The image will usually be a pattern - wood grain, metal, fire, water, grass, stone or brick for example.
Using a Texture Paint then lets you paint lines, shapes and letters in your chosen pattern.
With Texture Paint selected, the first tab allows a texture to be loaded from disk / saved to disk.
You can also Flip and Rotate your texture, paste in a texture image from the clipboard, drag and drop in a texture image from a page on the internet or copy one in from your HeliosPaint Selected Area.
The last tab allows the level of Transparency in the paint to be changed.
Under the 'Settings' menu, select Set Background Paper Colour to change the background colour.
Background colour is set by using the preset colour Swatches, adjusting HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) or adjusting RGB (Red, Green, Blue).
If you are working with transparent images or icons and want to keep the transparency, you may wish to select the No background option.
Tip: To save a transparent image without losing transparency information, use the 'png' format.
New image: Create a new blank image with a specified width and height. The current image is discarded.
Open image: Open an image from file for editing. The current image is discarded.
Save image: Save the current image to file.
Print: Print the current image.
Undo: Undo the last paint operation.
Redo: Redo the last paint operation.
Cut to clipboard: Cut out the entire image, the selected area or text box to the clipboard.
Copy to clipboard: Copy the entire image, the selected area or text box to the clipboard.
Paste from clipboard: Paste in an image or some text from the clipboard.
File - New image. Opening and saving image files. Export to PDF. Printing and print preferences.
Edit - Undo and redo. Cut, copy and paste. Select all. Import selection. Export selection.
Tools - Select colour and transparency. Set background colour. Set canvas size. Full screen view.
Settings- Use antialiasing (reduce jagged edges). Choose skin. Disable undo/redo. Line animations.
Help - User Guide. HeliosPaint website. About HeliosPaint.
Transparency Mode options are found to the right of the window. They include:
Keep the transparency of every pixel unchanged when you paint on the image.
Add colour to all pixels including transparent ones when you paint on the image.
To the right of the window there are controls for setting the zoom level. Buttons include:
Zoom to normal size (100%): Changes the zoom level to normal (1:1 or 100%).
Zoom to fit: Zooms to fit the whole image in the current window.
Show grid at zoom 200% or more: Displays a grid if the zoom level is 200% or more.
Zoom in: Zoom in on the paint canvas.
Zoom out: Zoom out of paint canvas.
When an image is pasted into HeliosPaint or the Area Selection & Movement Tool is used to select an area, the Selected Area controls to the right of the window become available.
The large Use selection as main image button makes the Selected Area image the main image.
Tick the box to the left of it first, if you want the image behind to "shine through" any transparent pixels in the area.
Note that your Selected Area will be painted on top of the current background paint colour.
If you are working with transparent images and want no background, please first open the
'Settings' --> 'Set Background Paper Colour' window and select 'No background paint colour'.
Click the 
button to deselect the Selected Area AND paint it onto the main canvas.
Click the button to stamp paint the Selected Area onto the main canvas WITHOUT removing it.
Click the 
button to deselect the Selected Area WITHOUT painting it onto the main canvas.
Click the 
button to paint the Selected Area then REVERSE it so everything not currently in it becomes selected.
Click the 
button to REVERSE the Selected Area so everything not currently in it becomes selected.
Use the Transparency Slider to change how 'see through' the Selected Area is as it floats above the main paint canvas. This can be adjusted any time.
Images can be saved/exported with transparency information by choosing the GIF or PNG file type. PNG files are the best for saving images with transparency because they support partial transparency. GIF files also save transparency but record only full or zero transparency.
Many images in a folder can be resized all at once using the Batch Resizer.
Open the batch resizer from the Tools menu. Then:
1. Enter the image resize percentage, for example 50%.
2. Browse to the source folder containing the images to resize.
3. Browse to the destination folder to put the resized images in.
4. If you wish, enter a file name prefix and/or suffix for the new file names.
5. Decide to include the subfolders of the source folder or not.
6. Click the green button to start the batch resize.
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