Paint

Paint is the third tool on the Color tab. It opens a 2D canvas laid out from the selected faces.

Select faces by tapping them or with Brush on the Select bar . A Cube side of 2 or more blocks is split into 2 or 4 faces, and a tap selects one. To paint a whole side, tap every face on it, then Paint. Opening Paint with nothing selected places every visible face on the canvas.

The header

The title shows Paint · N faces, beside two dropdowns:

• Standard ▾ (resolution): Sets the number of pixels per block. Options are Chunky (4 pixels per grid unit), Standard (8), Fine (16), and Ultra fine (64). The most it goes to is 256x256 pixels. Changing it redraws the whole drawing at the new resolution, with a note: Detail is Chunky now. Undo restores the old drawing. Going back to the old resolution before any new edits restores the pixels exactly. Ultra fine keeps the full detail of patterns and pictures when they load; the other settings lower it. A fig made from a picture starts on Ultra fine. See Photos become pixel art .
• Paint ▾ (layer): Sets the layer you paint on. Shows Effects ▾ when effects are armed. See Layers .

↩ (Undo), ↪ (Redo), and Done are in the header. Undo undoes the last stroke on every face it touched. Resolution changes and Seams presses can be undone too. Redo restores it if you haven’t made a new edit. Done keeps your painting and closes the canvas.

In the main editor, Undo undoes the whole visit to Paint, resolution changes too, as one step. Paint that was there before (e.g., solid fills) stays.

Paint · 48 faces Done

Standard ▾Paint ▾

SeamsPhotoTextHelp

Seams, Photo, Text, and Help are below the title row. Selected faces unfold into one connected flat piece, so strokes can cross from face to face. The first face is square on the canvas, its edges along the pixel rows, even on a turned part, so a straight line along it stays straight on the fig. A face painted at a slant before moves its paint onto the square layout at its first new stroke (undone with that stroke). Seams unfolds the faces a different way, keeping different edges joined. Selecting it again steps through three ways to unfold without harming the drawing: the paint on every layer stays on its faces. An hourglass shows while a press works, and each press is one step on ↩ and ↪. Photo opens the photo tool. Text opens the photo tool set to text. Typed text works like a picture. See Photos . Help has Tap for hints, Report a bug…, and About Ünflat…. See Getting around .

The canvas

One finger uses the tool. Two fingers pan, zoom, and rotate. Select ⌖ Recenter to reset the view. Once zoomed in, a small map of the whole canvas replaces the 3D preview in the corner. Drag the map to pan the canvas.

Long-press a spot on the canvas to use its color. This works with Pen, Eraser, and Dither, but not with Pen and Eraser when Above finger is on.

The paint toolbar

The toolbar has: Pen, Fill, Eraser, Shapes, Dither, Lasso, the Color swatch, and Effects, plus a separate Pattern control. Select a tool to arm it. Pen and Eraser show their settings the first time you select them; selecting again closes them. Other tools show their settings when you select them a second time. The 3D preview is hidden while a tool’s settings or the colors are open.

Settings open in a small window over the tool. Its title bar shows the tool and its current setting (e.g., Pen · Blur, Shapes · Circle, Fill · Whole face, Eraser · Soft · Transparent, or Dither · Lines with a small picture of the pattern), with × to close it. Each setting is one labelled row. A window taller than the room above the toolbar stops under the menu row; its title bar stays and the rows scroll. While the Pen is set to a mode other than Draw, its button shows that mode’s name (e.g., Smudge).

Pen

Fill

Eraser

Shapes

Dither

Lasso

Color

Effects

Pattern

Size sets brush width (1, 2, or 3 pixels) for Pen, Eraser, and Dither. Size 1 is 1 pixel. These tools share a Smoothing setting (Off, Light, Normal, Heavy) that steadies your stroke.

• Pen: A normal pixel brush. Settings: Size; Strength (Full 100%, Soft 50%, Faint 25%; shown for Draw and Spray); Smoothing; Mode (Draw, Smudge, Spray, Jumble, Blur; see Smudge brush ). The last two are Above finger (draws a little above your finger, On by default on mobile); and Mirror (mirrors Draw strokes across the middle of each face; Shapes follow it too).
• Fill: Fills connected pixels. Settings: Shape (fills the same exact color) or Whole face (fills up to the face’s edge). The fill stops at face edges. If effects are armed, it continues across face edges where the color matches.
• Eraser: Erases pixels. Settings: Size; Smoothing; Strength (Full erases 100%, Soft fades pixels); Erase to (Color goes back to the fill color, Transparent makes it see-through); and Mirror.
• Shapes: Draws shapes. Settings: Shape (Line, Box, Circle, Fade); Size; Box + Circle (Outline or Filled). Shows handles so you can adjust the shape before it turns into pixels. Tap outside it to finish.
• Dither: Paints a pattern in the chosen color. Settings: Under (Keep paints only the pattern, Paper fills behind it with the paper color); the patterns in four rows (Classic, Lines, Shapes, Bricks); Size; Smoothing.
• Lasso: Selects pixels to move or change. See below.
• Color: Opens the color card. See below.
• Effects: Arms effects. The tools then paint effects instead of color. Selecting an effect changes the button and turns the swatch to Color off. Select it again to stop. See Effects .
• Pattern: Selects a pattern to stamp. The pattern goes on the photo table under the sheet, with the Photo card . Drag with one finger to slide the sheet over it, and use the card’s The photo buttons to move, size, rotate, or flip the pattern. Tap a face to stamp it. Its window has a Recent row, a dropdown (Your patterns for your patterns and ground textures, Your photo textures, Classics, or a themed pack; the first two show while you have some), and three patterns at a time. All patterns ▸ opens the full Patterns window. See Patterns .

The lasso

Draw around the pixels you want. Drag them across the canvas. Tap outside the outline to place them. The spot they came from is cleared to the paint under it (or see-through), and they blend over the pixels where you place them.

Select Lasso again for its settings:

• Selection: Move lifts the pixels, ready to drag (dragging the loop does the same). Copy copies them and leaves them where they are. Paste places the copied pixels, ready to drag into place; it is dim until pixels are copied. Let go places the pixels where they are and clears the loop.
• Change: Flip ↔, Flip ↕, Turn (90°), and Clear (erase the selection).
• Size: Bigger and Smaller change the size by about a tenth a press, keeping pixels crisp. Each press works from the pixels as first selected, so Smaller after Bigger gives them back as they were.
• Clear to: Sets the fill for the emptied spot: Color (the fill color) or Transparent. Like the Eraser’s Erase to.

A copy lasts while the app is open, so you can paste it on other faces, in another fig, or in the Pattern studio , even after you leave Paint. On the canvas it was copied from, with the original in view, a paste is placed a little down and to the right of it; anywhere else it is placed in the middle of the canvas on screen. A tap outside, Let go, or Done places it. Pixels of a paste that are off the face aren’t pasted.

Selections work on Ultra fine too. A selection that’s too big shows a warning to make it smaller. Each change to a selection (a Change or Size press, or a move or paste placed) is one Undo step: Undo undoes it and restores the selection as it was. Before a paste is placed, Undo removes the paste.

Colors and the blend ramp

The Color swatch opens the color card:

• Grab a color: Arms the color picker for one tap on the canvas. Select it again to cancel.
• Recent: Colors you’ve used.
• Blend ramp: Select From or To to make a 5-step blend between two colors.
• Colors: 28 swatches from the current palette. See Palettes .

The Transparent square comes before the colors. Selecting it sets every tool to paint see-through. Selecting any color swatch goes back to painting color.

Selecting any tool but the Lasso in use closes any open picture overlay.