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Stencils Panel

Stencils are tools used to place a particular pattern, shape or lines on the canvas. A stencil works like a thin sheet of card or plastic with a pattern or letters cut out of it used to produce the cut design on the surface below by applying paint through the cuts.

Close & reopen the Stencils panel from the Window menu or by tapping the F10 shortcut.

Stencil Library - Open the Stencil Library to access all your stencils and pick the specific stencils for your current project.

Click on the stencil in the Stencil Library to open it in the Stencils panel for the current project. This will automatically add the stencil to the canvas.

Moving an item from the Library to the current project creates a copy, ensuring that any changes made to the copy don't affect the original item in the Library.

Small | Large Icons - Switch to small or large icons of the stencils in the Stencil Library.

Import Stencil - Import a custom stencil to the Stencil Library.

Add Stencil - Add the currently selected stencil from the Stencils panel to the Stencil Library.

Remove Stencil - Remove the selected stencil from the Stencil Library.

In the Library, right-click the stencil and choose to rename or remove it. You can re-arrange the list by dragging a selected stencil to the desired position.

Right-click in the Stencil Library panel to add a new group or delete the selected group of stencils. Rename the group by double-clicking its name, enter the new name of the stencil group and hit Enter. Hide the stencil group using one left mouse button click.

In the Stencils panel, right-click the stencil and choose to rename or remove it.

Show | Hide Stencils - Show or hide all active stencils on/from the canvas. (shortcut Alt + Shift + N)

Import a new Stencil - Create a stencil from an imported image file. After selecting the file, the stencil is automatically created and added to the Stencils panel.

Remove Stencil - Remove the selected stencil from the Stencils panel.

Stencils Panel Menu:

  • Create Stencil from Image File - Create a stencil from an image file. After selecting the file, the stencil is automatically created and added to the Stencils panel.
  • Create Stencil from Layer (alpha) - Create a stencil from the current layer's alpha pixels.
  • Create Stencil from Layer (image) - Create a stencil from the current layer's image.
  • Create Stencil from Selection - Create a stencil from the current selection.
  • Keep Stencils Active When Hidden - Stencils added to the canvas will be active even when hidden.
  • Close - Close the panel. You can re-open the panel from the Window menu.

Tip

You can drag & drop stencils to the Stencils panel either from your disk or directly from the web browser.

How to work with Stencils

To add a stencil to the canvas, select it from the Stencil Library or Stencils panel by clicking on it.

When a stencil is placed on canvas a Stencil Menu appears at the top:

Move stencil - Move the stencil by clicking the center button and dragging it on the canvas. You can select and move the stencil also by right mouse button or by holding Spacebar + LMB. On tablets with touch screens select and move the stencil with one finger touch.

Rotate stencil - Rotate the stencil by clicking the rotate button and dragging it on the canvas. On tablets with a touch display rotate the stencil using two fingers.

Scale stencil - Scale the stencil by clicking the scale button and dragging on the canvas. On tablets with touch display scale stencil using two fingers.

Hide stencil - Hide the stencil from the canvas. (shortcut Backspace)

Stencil menu:

  • Invert - Invert stencil to reverse the active area where paint can be applied.

  • Flip Horizontally - Flip the stencil horizontally.

  • Flip Vertically - Flip the stencil vertically.

  • Reset - Reset the position and size of the stencil to default.

  • Border - Create a border around the stencil to prevent from painting on the outer canvas.

  • Tile - Tile the stencil on canvas and create an infinite stencil.

  • Lock Aspect Ratio - Preserve the relative width and height when you resize the stencil.

  • Lock - Lock to prevent the stencil from unwanted changes in size, rotation or position.

Tip

Not only the paint is prevented from the place where the stencil is placed but also water and wet painting take stencils into consideration. For example, if you wet a layer where the stencil is placed the whole layer will get wet except the area covered by the stencil. This works the other way around too - if a stencil is placed on the wet layer and you hit the 'Dry the layer' button all is dry except the stencil area.