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11 Canvas View

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grymmjack edited this page May 3, 2026 · 4 revisions

Ch. 11 🖥️ Canvas & View Controls

What you'll learn: How to navigate any canvas — zoom, pan, the floating Preview Window, pattern-tile preview, reference images, fill / clear shortcuts, and canvas resize / crop.

Zoom, Pan & Navigation

🎯 Goal: Navigate canvases of any size efficiently.

Zoom

Action Shortcut
Zoom in/out continuously Ctrl+Mouse wheel
Zoom in / out 1 step Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-
Reset to 100% Ctrl+0
Zoom tool Z (zoom)
Zoom to dragged region Z then drag
Zoom out (Zoom tool) Alt+Click

Zoom snaps to canonical levels: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 200%, 300%, 400%, 600%, 800%.

Pan

You can pan with any tool active, no need to switch:

  • Middle-mouse-drag.
  • Spacebar+drag.
  • Double-middle-click — instantly resets pan and zoom to fit the canvas.

Scrollbars appear automatically for canvases larger than the viewport. The canvas border (#) outlines the edge of the canvas at any zoom.

Preview Window, Tile Mode & View Options

🎯 Goal: Use preview and tiling for workflow efficiency.

Preview Window

F4 toggles the Preview Window, a floating, resizable, repositionable secondary view. It runs in one of three modes:

  1. Follow — a magnifier that tracks the cursor.
  2. Floating Image — a static reference display (e.g., the source you're tracing).
  3. Bin Quick Look — hover any drawer slot to see its content full-size in the preview.

Independent zoom and pan inside the preview, plus Alt+Click to color-pick without switching tools. The preview also remembers up to 10 recent images for quick swaps.

Preview Window

Pattern Tile Mode

View → Pattern Tile Mode (or the tile-mode button in the Advanced Bar) toggles a 3×3 tiled preview (up to 512×512 source). Seams in seamless textures jump out instantly because they appear nine times.

Chapter 11 - Tile Mode

Other view options

  • Grayscale Preview — Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G. Inspect value structure without color distraction.
  • Reference Image — Ctrl+R. See [Chapter 15](15 - Reference Import).

Canvas fill & clear

  • Delete — clear (Edit → Clear). Removes the active selection's pixels (or the whole layer if no selection). No prompt.
  • Backspace — fill with FG color. Instant, no prompt.
  • Shift+Backspace — fill with BG color. Instant.

Canvas crop & resize

  • Crop tool (crop) — interactive with handles; commit with Enter.
  • Image → Canvas Resize… — dialog with anchor selection and pixel/percent toggle.

➡️ Next: [Chapter 12 — UI Customization & Settings](12 - Settings)

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