{"id":1040,"date":"2026-08-20T09:29:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/?post_type=knowledgebase&p=1040"},"modified":"2026-08-20T10:55:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:55:48","slug":"the-drawing-engine","status":"publish","type":"knowledgebase","link":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/db\/shapes-drawing\/the-drawing-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Drawing Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Drawing Engine<\/span><\/h2>\n

Open Publisher includes a built-in freehand drawing engine for annotating documents, sketching layouts, or drawing directly over images. All finished drawings are automatically exported as transparent, print-safe PNGs and placed directly onto your document page.<\/p>\n

Accessing the Drawing Tools<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Accessing<\/h3>\n

To open the drawing tools:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Go to the Insert<\/strong> ribbon tab.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Locate the Drawing<\/strong> group at the far right of the ribbon.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Select a tool from the group to begin drawing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Four drawing tools are available:<\/p>\n

    \"available<\/h3>\n
      \n
    • \n

      Pencil –<\/strong> Classic, aliased pixel-perfect strokes for sharp, solid lines.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Brush –<\/strong> Anti-aliased paintbrush with rounded caps for smooth, organic strokes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Spray Paint –<\/strong> Authentically scatters dots within a radius around your cursor for texture and shading effects. Radius and density scale with the brush size slider.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Eraser –<\/strong> Wipes away pixels from your drawing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Brush Size & Colour
      \n\"Brush<\/span><\/h3>\n

      A Brush Size<\/strong> slider spanning the Drawing group controls brush size dynamically from 1px to 50px. This also mathematically scales the Spray Paint dot radius and density.<\/p>\n

      Use the Colour<\/strong> button in the Drawing group to set the active drawing colour before or during your drawing session.<\/p>\n

      Undo
      \n\"Undo\"<\/span><\/h3>\n

      Press Ctrl+Z \/ Cmd+Z<\/span> while drawing, or click the Undo<\/strong> button in the ribbon, to instantly erase your last stroke.<\/p>\n


      \nFinishing a Drawing
      \n\"Finishing<\/span><\/h3>\n

      Click anywhere outside the drawing canvas to exit drawing mode.<\/p>\n

      OpenPublisher will then automatically:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n

        Scans the entire canvas and calculates the exact bounding box of your artwork.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      2. \n

        Crops away all empty transparent space.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      3. \n

        Exports a transparent, print-safe PNG and places it directly onto your document page.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Editing a Drawing
        \n\"Editing<\/span><\/h3>\n

        Double-click any finished drawing on the canvas to restore it to the full-screen drawing canvas with all raw layer data intact, allowing seamless re-editing without any pixel degradation.<\/p>\n

        Drawing Over Images<\/span><\/h3>\n

        \"DrawingSelect any image on the canvas and click Edit<\/strong> in the Picture Tools<\/strong> ribbon. The drawing engine overlays the canvas at the image’s exact coordinates, letting you annotate, spray-paint, or sketch directly on top of any photo or clipart in your document.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The Drawing Engine Open Publisher includes a built-in freehand drawing engine for annotating documents, sketching layouts, or drawing directly over images. All finished drawings are automatically exported as transparent, print-safe PNGs and placed directly onto your document page. Accessing the Drawing Tools To open the drawing tools: Go to the Insert ribbon tab. Locate the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","knowledgebase_cat":[14],"class_list":["post-1040","knowledgebase","type-knowledgebase","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","knowledgebase_cat-shapes-drawing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledgebase\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledgebase"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/knowledgebase"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledgebase\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1082,"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledgebase\/1040\/revisions\/1082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"knowledgebase_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acr.floydcraft.co.uk\/openpublisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledgebase_cat?post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}