DRAW by Rick Christy grymmjack@gmail.com

REQUIRES QB64PE-v4.x+

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DRAW is a pixel art editor written in QB64PE that can export images as sourcecode

Current release: v0.29.0

Features

Drawing Tools

• Brush - Continuous freehand painting with adjustable size (1-50px) and shape (circle/square)
• Dot - Single-pixel stamp tool (click to place, no drag painting)
• Line - Draw straight lines with brush size/shape, real-time thick preview, angle snapping
• Rectangle - Draw outlined or filled rectangles with brush size/shape; filled mode supports custom brush tiled fill and drawer paint modes with interactive Fill Adjustment (F8)
• Ellipse - Draw outlined or filled ellipses/circles with brush size/shape; filled mode supports custom brush tiled fill and drawer paint modes with interactive Fill Adjustment (F8)
• Polygon - Draw outlined or filled multi-point polygons with brush size/shape, angle snapping; filled mode supports custom brush tiled fill and drawer paint modes with interactive Fill Adjustment (F8)
• Fill - Flood fill tool; hold Shift to sample from merged visible canvas while painting onto the current layer; supports custom brush tiled fills and drawer paint mode fills with interactive Fill Adjustment overlay (F8)
• Spray - Spray paint with brush-shaped nozzle tips, radius doubles per brush size level, custom brush stamp support, SHIFT axis constraint, circle preview
• Picker - Color sampling/eyedropper with a cursor-adjacent loupe overlay that shows RGB and hex values; hold ALT with any tool for temporary picker; ALT+left picks FG, ALT+right picks BG
• Marquee - Selection tools: Rectangle, Freehand, Polygon, Ellipse — each with a distinct crosshair cursor
• Magic Wand - Select contiguous same-color pixels with dedicated crosshair cursor; Hold F+click to flood fill contiguous pixels with FG color; Hold E+click to flood erase to transparent; Hold W+click to select from merged (all visible layers)
• Move - Transform and position selected content with arrow keys, undo support, and ALT+drag clone stamping
• Transform - Universal flip H/V, rotate 90° CW/CCW, scale ±50% — works on layers, selections, or floating moves from any tool; Edit → TRANSFORM... opens an interactive on-canvas bounding-box overlay with five modes: Scale (Shift=lock aspect), Rotate (Shift=15° snap), Shear, Distort, and Perspective (Shift=wall projection); overlay frame and handle colours are fully themeable; previous tool is restored on apply/cancel
• Pan - Dedicated canvas panning tool (hand)
• Zoom - Click to zoom in, Alt+click to zoom out, drag to zoom region
• Clipboard - Copy/Cut/Paste selections (Ctrl+C/X/V), Merged copy (Ctrl+Shift+C), Clear selection (Ctrl+E); mask-aware operations for magic wand and non-rectangular selections
• Text - Text entry tool with text layers, font properties bar (VGA/Tiny5/custom TTF/OTF/bitmap), rich per-character formatting (bold/italic/underline/strikethrough/outline/shadow), per-character FG/BG colors, cursor navigation, selection (including double/triple/quad-click for word/line/all), clipboard, auto-wrap, and sound feedback; text-local undo/redo (Ctrl+Z/Y within text mode, up to 128 states); style presets (save/load/update/delete named text styles); text layers persist in DRW files with full undo/redo support; click existing text layers to re-edit; Character Mode for ANSI/ASCII art with PabloDraw-style virtual cursor navigation, F1-F12 block character shortcuts, and font stickiness
• Character Map - Dockable 16×16 glyph panel (Ctrl+M) showing all 256 font characters with hover/select/flash states; supports bitmap font rendering (Fontaption, PSF, BDF formats); click glyphs to insert or stamp as custom brush; Alt+U picks FG/BG colors from character under cursor; character grid overlay with snap-to-grid for precise text art alignment
• Eraser - Dedicated eraser tool that paints transparent; shares brush size preview and custom brush support. Smart Erase (hold Shift while erasing) erases on every visible non-opacity-locked layer simultaneously
• Stroke Selection - Apply a configurable stroke (inside/outside/center, adjustable width) around the active selection boundary via Edit → Stroke Selection
• Custom Brush - Capture selection as reusable brush with flip/scale transforms, non-rectangular shapes via alpha channel, dynamic outline expansion
• Reference Image - Load a high-res image behind the canvas at adjustable opacity for tracing (Ctrl+R toggle, Ctrl+Shift+Wheel opacity, reposition via View menu); state persisted in .draw project files
• Image Import - Load images with interactive placement, rotation (90° CW/CCW), horizontal/vertical flip, zoom, pan, and resize — with live preview of all transformations
• Aseprite Import - Open .ase / .aseprite sprite files (File → Open Aseprite)
• PSD Import - Open Adobe Photoshop .psd files (File → Open PSD)
• Crop - Interactive canvas crop using marquee selection with dark overlay, resize handles, and size label; also supports canvas resize dialog
• Canvas Resize - Resize canvas to arbitrary dimensions via dialog (Canvas menu), preserving layer content at origin
• New from Template - Start fresh from bundled .draw/image templates or a remembered template folder
• QB64 Export - Generate QB64 source output from artwork/history, with improved raster fallback for operations that cannot be reproduced parametrically
• Angle Snap - Two modes: degree-based (configurable 15°/30°/45°/90° increments) and pixel-art (11 integer-ratio angles for clean pixel lines). Hold Ctrl+Shift to snap + bypass grid. Applies to Line, Polygon, and Brush/Dot connecting lines
• Image Adjustments - Non-destructive per-layer adjustments via the Image menu: Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Levels, Color Balance, Blur, Sharpen, Invert, Desaturate, Posterize, Pixelate — all with live preview and mouse wheel slider support; Posterize also supports multiple dithering algorithms; alpha channel preserved throughout
• Flip Canvas - Flip the entire canvas horizontally or vertically across all layers (Image menu)
• Extract Images - Extract individual sprites or components from sprite sheets or multi-layer artwork as separate PNG files (File → Extract Images); supports transparent/FG color/BG color background modes, connected-component flood fill for single-layer sheets, per-layer or merged extraction for multi-layer files, configurable output naming and dimensions; extraction settings persisted in .draw project files
• Export As - Export artwork to multiple image formats via File → Export As: PNG (native with alpha), PNG (plain), GIF, JPEG, TGA, BMP, HDR, ICO, QOI
• Pixel Art Analyzer - Interactive analysis dialog (Tools menu) that evaluates artwork for common pixel art issues: orphan pixels, jagged lines, banding, pillow shading, and doubles; includes a precompute engine for fast analysis

Grid System

• Adjustable grid overlay (2-50px spacing)
• Toggle grid visibility with ' (apostrophe)
• Pixel grid for precise work at 400%+ zoom (Shift+')
• Snap-to-grid mode with ; (semicolon)
• 4 grid geometry modes: Square, Diagonal (45°), Isometric (2:1 pixel art, 26.565°), Hexagonal — cycle with Ctrl+'
• Ctrl+Shift bypasses grid snap for freehand placement when snap-to-grid is enabled
• Grid alignment modes: Corner (snap to intersections) or Center (snap to cell centers) — toggle via View menu
• Grid cell fill mode: Fill tool fills individual grid cells (squares, diamonds, triangles, or hexagons) instead of flood fill — toggle via View menu
• Dynamic grid sizing with . (increase) and , (decrease)
• Both grids can be shown simultaneously at high zoom
• Configurable grid/pixel grid/crosshair color, opacity, and angle via DRAW.cfg
• Crosshair assistant lines with configurable outline stroke (color, opacity, width) for improved visibility against any background
• Configurable transparency checkerboard colors and size
• Status bar indicator shows grid size, mode, and snap state

Color System

• Dynamic Palette System - Load palettes from .GPL files (GIMP Palette format)
• Palette Strip - Shows current palette colors with scroll arrows for large palettes
• Palette Dropdown - Click palette name to switch between available palettes
• Palette Workflows - Load downloadable palettes from Lospec, create palettes from images, remap artwork to the active palette, and optionally include downloaded/user-created palettes in the picker
• Palette Ops Mode - Toggle via organizer button to manage palette directly on the strip: double-click to change color (replaces on canvas), right-click to mark, middle-click to delete (remaps to nearest neighbor), shift+middle to insert, drag to rearrange, single-click for magic wand select
• [DOCUMENT] Palette - Auto-created when palette ops modifies colors; embedded in DRW files; switch back via palette dropdown
• Palette Import/Export - Import and export palettes as GIMP Palette (.gpl) files via the Palette menu
• Left-click swatch - Select foreground color
• Right-click swatch - Select background color
• Mouse wheel on strip - Scroll through palette colors
• SHIFT + wheel - Fast scroll (32 colors at a time)
• Custom color picker with true RGB support
• Click status bar FG/BG swatches to open color picker
• Keyboard shortcuts 0-9, !, @, #, $, %, ^, & for quick color access

Canvas & View

• Configurable canvas size (up to 4096x4096)
• Clear canvas: Delete (with prompt) or Backspace (instant)
• Infinite zoom levels (mouse wheel or Ctrl +/-)
• Pan with middle mouse button or spacebar + drag
• Scrollbars for canvases larger than the viewport
• Keyboard panning with arrow keys
• Reset view with Ctrl+0 or double-click middle mouse
• Preview Window - Floating preview with two modes: Follow (magnifier) and Floating Image (load a reference image); Bin Quick Look previews drawer slot contents on hover; Color Picking with Alt+Click; Recent Preview Images submenu; independent zoom/pan, move/resize controls, and persistent state (F4)
• Pattern Tile Mode - 3×3 tiled canvas preview for seamless work on canvases up to 512×512 (Shift+Tab)
• Grayscale Preview - Toggle a grayscale view of the canvas to check values and contrast without modifying the artwork (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G)
• Toggle UI elements (toolbar, status bar, menu bar, layer panel, preview window, edit bar)

Brush System

• Size adjustment: [ decrease, ] increase (1-50px)
• Shape toggle: \ or | (circle/square)
• Preview mode: ` or ~ (shows outline + color preview)
• Pixel perfect mode: F6 (removes L-corners for cleaner strokes)
• 4 brush size presets via the organizer widget and command palette
• Visual cursor feedback with current color

Layer System

• Up to 64 layers with per-layer opacity, visibility, and blend mode
• 19 blend modes: Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Add, Subtract, Difference, Darken, Lighten, Color Dodge, Color Burn, Hard Light, Soft Light, Exclusion, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, Color, Luminosity
• Solo layer (Alt+click eye icon) and visibility swipe (drag across eye icons)
• Drag-and-drop layer reordering with visual feedback
• Opacity lock prevents drawing on transparent pixels (enforced by all drawing tools including shape tools)
• Select from current layer: Ctrl+Click a layer row to create a selection mask from its non-transparent pixels
• Merge down, merge visible, merge selected (composites all multi-selected layers into one), duplicate layers
• Multi-layer select: Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click layer rows to add/remove layers from the selection; Edit menu operations (clear, fill FG/BG, flip H/V, scale ±50%, rotate CW/CCW) apply to all selected layers simultaneously
• Select → From Current Layer: creates a marquee selection mask from all non-transparent pixels on the current layer
• Select → From Selected Layers: creates a union selection mask from all non-transparent pixels across every selected layer (requires 2+ selected)
• Recent Files - File menu tracks up to 10 recently opened projects with submenu navigation and Alt+1–Alt+0 keyboard shortcuts
• DRW project format: PNG with embedded drAw chunk — preserves layers, blend modes, opacity, palette, tool states, grid state, reference image configuration, and extract images settings while remaining viewable in any image viewer

Sound System

• 21 categorized sound slots covering menus, tools, selections, fill, clipboard, layers, text, sliders, drag-drop, point placement, and organizer interactions
• All sounds loaded from ASSETS/THEMES/DEFAULT/SOUNDS/ — fully replaceable per theme via THEME.CFG
• Per-operation sound triggers: SND_POINT on every click/vertex, SND_DRAG_DROP on shape commit, SND_SELECTION looped during selection drags, SND_SLIDER on opacity wheel/release, SND_ORGANIZER on organizer widget click/wheel
• SOUND_loop / SOUND_stop for collision-free per-frame looping sounds (selection drag)
• SFX enable/disable, volume (0–100%), and mute configurable independently in DRAW.cfg

Music System

• Background music — plays random tracker files (.mod, .xm, .it, .s3m, .rad) from ASSETS/THEMES/DEFAULT/MUSIC/
• Auto-shuffle — picks a new random track when the current one ends; avoids repeating the last track
• Dedicated AUDIO root menu (rightmost in the menu bar) — separate controls for SFX and music: toggle, volume up/down (±10%), mute toggle, Explore Music Folder, and live NOW PLAYING status
• Music volume and mute are independent of SFX volume and mute
• All audio state persisted in DRAW.cfg (SOUNDS_ENABLED, SOUNDS_VOLUME, SOUNDS_MUTED, MUSIC_ENABLED, MUSIC_VOLUME, MUSIC_MUTED)

User Interface

• Drawer panel - A 30-slot drawer beneath the organizer for brush, gradient, and pattern sets (including 1-bit patterns with opaque background support); F1/F2/F3 switch modes, left-click selects, Shift+Left Click stores, right-click opens a context menu, middle-click cycles modes, Shift+Middle Click clears a slot, Shift+Right Click imports into a slot, and drag-and-drop to reorder bins
• Character map panel - Dockable left/right 16×16 glyph grid with dynamic cell count (4-16 per row), mouse wheel scrolling, configurable theme colors, and bitmap font rendering
• Preview window - A floating preview panel with two modes: Follow (canvas magnifier following the pointer) and Floating Image (display a loaded reference image); supports Bin Quick Look (hover drawer slots to preview brush/pattern/gradient), Color Picking (Alt+Click to sample colors from preview), and Recent Preview Images (up to 10 recently loaded images); pan/zoom, minimize/close buttons, and work-area clamping
• Edit bar - A dockable vertical strip of edit-action icons on the left or right side of the workspace (F5)
• Advanced bar - A dockable vertical strip of quick-access toggle buttons for char map, char grid, char snap, preview, edit bar, tile preview, grid cell fill, grid show, fill adjust, brush edges, angle snap, grayscale preview, reference image controls, distribute layers, crosshair, and more (Shift+F5)
• Layout docking - Toolbox, layer panel, and edit bar can each be docked to the left or right side of the workspace via View → Layout menu or Ctrl+Shift+Click on the panel
• System cursors - Automatically uses OS native cursors for UI areas (arrow in toolbar/panels), canvas work (crosshair for drawing tools, I-beam for text, resize arrows for handles) and move tool (move pointer); falls back to custom PNG cursors for tools that need them (brush, fill, picker loupe, spray, marquee); configurable via SYSTEM_CURSORS in DRAW.cfg
• Themeable PNG icon toolbar (28 buttons in 4×7 grid)
• PNG cursors with theme-configurable hotspots and alpha transparency
• Fully themeable layer panel — all colors, header height, and button bar height configurable via ASSETS/THEMES/DEFAULT/THEME.CFG (no recompile needed)
• Menu bar with File, Edit, View, Select, Tools, Brush, Layer, Palette, Image, Help, and Audio menus plus full keyboard navigation
• Submenus auto-position within menu bar bounds (no toolbar/panel overlap)
• Auto-hiding toolbar and status bar during active drawing
• Manual UI toggle with Tab, F10, F11 — toggling panels does not shift the canvas
• Status bar shows: tool, coordinates, zoom, grid state, colors
• Smooth zoom and pan
• Help button opens searchable command palette
• Tooltips - Hover hints for toolbar buttons, organizer widgets, and drawer mini palette; toggleable via Help menu → Show Tooltips
• Settings Dialog - GIMP-style tabbed settings interface for configuring application preferences
• About Screen - Animated splash screen with version info and clickable GitHub link
• Custom GUI Dialogs - Built-in color picker, message box, and file dialogs (QB64_GJ_LIB based)

Quick Start

Essential Controls

Tools: B (Brush), D (Dot/Stamp), F (Fill), I (Picker), K (Spray), L (Line), R (Rectangle), C (Ellipse), E (Eraser), Z (Zoom)
Drawing: Left-click draws with FG color, Right-click draws with BG color (all drawing tools)
Colors: Left-click palette swatch for FG, Right-click for BG, hold ALT for temporary eyedropper, Ctrl+D (reset defaults), Shift+Delete (BG transparent)
Palette: Click palette name dropdown to switch palettes, SHIFT+wheel for fast scroll
Grid: ' (toggle), Shift+' (pixel grid), ; (snap), Ctrl+' (cycle mode), . (bigger), , (smaller)
Brush Size: [ (smaller), ] (bigger), F6 (pixel perfect)
Panels: F4 (preview), F5 (edit bar), Tab/F10/F11 (UI), Shift+Tab (pattern tile)
Canvas: Delete (clear with prompt), Backspace (clear instant)
View: Mouse wheel (zoom), Middle click (pan), Ctrl+0 (reset)
Clipboard: Ctrl+C (copy), Ctrl+X (cut), Ctrl+V (paste at cursor), Ctrl+E (clear)
Files: Ctrl+N (new), Alt+O (open .draw), Ctrl+S (save), Ctrl+Shift+S (save as), Alt+X (exit)
Reference: Ctrl+R (toggle), Ctrl+Shift+Wheel (opacity)
Undo/Redo: Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y

See CHEATSHEET.md for complete controls reference.

Command Line

DRAW can be launched with a file argument to automatically load an image or project:

# Load a DRAW project file
./DRAW.run myproject.draw

# Load an image file (PNG, BMP, JPG, GIF)
./DRAW.run image.png

# File paths with spaces need quotes
./DRAW.run "path/to/my image.png"

Supported formats:

• .draw - DRAW project files (preserves layers, blend modes, palette, tool states)
• .png, .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif - Image files (loads into current layer)

Command Line Options

Argument	Description
--config <file> / -c <file>	Load a specific config file instead of the default
--config-upgrade	Reconcile existing config with latest defaults (adds missing keys)

# Use a specific config file
./DRAW.run --config DRAW.macOS.cfg

# Short form
./DRAW.run -c DRAW.linux.cfg

# Upgrade an existing config with new default settings
./DRAW.run --config-upgrade

# Upgrade a specific config file
./DRAW.run -c DRAW.macOS.cfg --config-upgrade

# Combine with a project file
./DRAW.run -c DRAW.macOS.cfg myproject.draw

OS-Specific Configuration

DRAW automatically detects the operating system and looks for a platform-specific config file before falling back to DRAW.cfg:

OS	Config File	Fallback
macOS	DRAW.macOS.cfg	DRAW.cfg
Linux	DRAW.linux.cfg	DRAW.cfg
Windows	DRAW.windows.cfg	DRAW.cfg

Priority order: --config argument > OS-specific config > DRAW.cfg

This allows you to maintain separate configurations per platform (e.g., different display scales, toolbar sizes) while sharing the same project directory across platforms.

Auto-Detection

On first launch (or when no config file exists), DRAW auto-detects optimal settings:

• Display scale — Targets 90% of desktop, picks highest integer scale up to 4x where the viewport fits (manual override via DISPLAY_SCALE supports up to 8x)
• Toolbar scale — Calculated from viewport height (>=800px=4x, >=600px=3x, >=400px=2x, else 1x)
• Screen dimensions — Viewport = 90% of desktop ÷ scale, rounded to even pixels
• All auto-detected values are saved to the config file for consistent subsequent launches

Building

qb64pe -w -x -o DRAW.run DRAW.BAS

Installation

Install scripts are in the INSTALL/ directory. Each platform has an installer that registers .draw file associations, installs app icons, and creates launcher entries.

Linux

chmod +x INSTALL/install-linux.sh
INSTALL/install-linux.sh

Installs a .desktop launcher, registers the application/x-draw-project MIME type for .draw files, and installs icons into the hicolor theme. To uninstall:

INSTALL/install-linux.sh --uninstall

Windows

Right-click INSTALL\install-windows.cmd and select Run as administrator (or run from an elevated command prompt). Registers the .draw file association in the registry with the DRAW icon and adds a Start Menu shortcut. To uninstall:

INSTALL\install-windows.cmd /uninstall

macOS

Download DRAW-osx-x64.tar.gz from Releases, then run the install script (or double-click it in Finder):

chmod +x INSTALL/install-mac.command
INSTALL/install-mac.command

This downloads the latest release archive from GitHub and extracts it to ~/Applications/DRAW/. To uninstall:

INSTALL/install-mac.command --uninstall

macOS users: See INSTALL/MAC-USERS-README.md for platform-specific notes on quarantine, Ctrl+Click behavior, and Parallels compatibility.

License

See LICENSE file for details.