The drawing menu holds the tools you draw your cross stitch pattern with: the freehand pencil, the line, the box, the ellipse, the area fill, the two outlining tools, the background fill and the loose-stitch cleanup, plus the switch that decides whether shapes come out solid or as an outline only.
You open it from the menu bar on the main screen. You pick a tool, the menu closes and you are back on the canvas: from there you draw with the active colour of the palette and with the stitch type set in the stitches menu. The chosen tool stays selected until you change it, so you can repeat the same stroke as many times as you need without opening the menu again.
Every tool respects undo, so you can try lines, fills or outlines without fear: if something does not look right, step back and adjust the area. And you do not need to leave the drawing to change colour — the eyedropper, a few sections below, picks up the colour of any stitch already on the canvas.
The tools, one by one
Fill option
This switch changes how the box and the ellipse behave: on, it draws solid shapes; off, it draws the outline only.
- Outline: Shapes are drawn with their border only and the inside is left as it was.
- Fill: Shapes are drawn solid, with the inside in the active colour.
Freehand (key P)
The usual way to stitch cross stitch by hand, cell by cell. Tap a cell to paint it, or drag to draw continuously. Tapping a stitch of the same colour again erases it.
Line (key L)
Drag from the starting stitch to the end stitch and release. Puntotek draws the whole line with the active stitch. When it finishes it returns to freehand automatically so you can carry on touching up.
Ellipse (key E)
Works like the box, but it builds a curved shape inside the rectangle you drag. It also follows the fill option to switch between outline and solid shape.
- Outlined ellipse: With the fill option off, it draws only the edge of the oval.
- Filled ellipse: With the fill option on, the oval comes out solid.
Box (key R)
Drag the diagonal of the rectangle and release. With the fill option on, a solid area is drawn; with it off, only the outline.
- Outlined box: With the fill option off, it draws the frame only.
- Filled box: With the fill option on, the rectangle comes out solid.
Fill (key F)
Tap a closed area and it is filled with the current colour. If the colour leaks out there is usually a gap in the outline: undo, close the area and fill again.
Global outlining
Draws a backstitch outline around every area of the colour you tap, across the whole work. Use it when you want to outline all the patches of one colour in a single go.
Object outlining
Surrounds only the particular patch you tap, leaving other areas of the same colour alone. This is the one for outlining a single figure without touching the rest of the design.
Fill the background
Fills every empty cell at once with the active palette colour, and gives each half stitch the half it is missing; anything already stitched is left alone. It asks first, telling you which colour it will use, and when it finishes it reports how many stitches it added. The whole fill undoes in a single tap.
Merge loose stitches
Cleans up the noise left by imported images. Any stitch surrounded by six or more matching neighbours takes that value, and one surrounded by empty cells is removed. It is deliberately cautious: a lone stitch in an eye or a highlight is usually there on purpose, and this threshold leaves it be. When it finishes it reports how many it fixed, and it undoes as a whole too.
Close / Help
Closes the drawing menu and goes back to the canvas. The help button opens this chapter of the manual.
- Close the menu: Goes back to the canvas keeping the tool you chose. It also closes with the Esc (Escape) key, without touching the button.
- Open help: Opens the explanation for the current screen.
The eyedropper
Press W and tap any stitch on the canvas: its colour becomes the active colour and you return to freehand. It is the quickest way to touch up with the colours already in the work. The eyedropper is also available from the colour chart.
Undo and redo
CTRL+Z undoes and CTRL+Y redoes, with the matching buttons on screen. Every stroke, line, shape, fill or paste is stored as a step. How many steps are kept is set in Settings.
Zoom and panning
Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel or a two-finger pinch. To travel across a large work, drag with two fingers or use panning mode. The numbered rulers help you get back to the exact area.
Keyboard shortcuts
P freehand · L line · R box · E ellipse · F fill · W eyedropper · CTRL+Z/Y undo/redo · CTRL+C/X/V copy/cut/paste · ALT+S save. In computer mode the buttons themselves remind you of their shortcut as you use them.
A working tip
To work comfortably on a cross stitch pattern, draw the big shapes first, then adjust the details with freehand, and leave fills, backstitch and outlining for when the silhouette is clear. Correcting is much easier that way.