Phone Layout

Phone Layout

PhotoCraft's interface was built for desktop screens. On a phone, the phone layout rearranges it so the canvas keeps the screen.

Turning it on

Window › Layout:

• Automatic (Phone or Tablet) (the default): the phone layout is used when the screen's smallest side is under 600 dp, which is Android's own line between phones and tablets. A phone stays a phone when you turn it sideways, and the layout switches on its own when you rotate, open a foldable or use split screen.
• Phone: always the phone layout (try it on a tablet).
• Tablet: never.

What changes

Panels slide out

The right-hand panels shrink to a slim icon rail: Properties, Navigator, Color & Swatches, Layers, History and Brushes.

• Tap an icon and that panel slides out over the canvas. The canvas doesn't move or shrink.
• Tap another icon to switch panels.
• Tap the same icon again (or press Esc, or close or collapse the panel from its tab strip) to put it away.

A smaller interface

With Preferences › Interface › UI Scale on Auto, the interface is drawn at 75% of the phone's own scale, so more fits on screen. Choose a fixed size there (100%, 125%…) if you prefer; a fixed size is always used as chosen.

Dialogs fit the screen

Dialogs (New Document, Image Size, Preferences and the rest) take the screen's width and stay centred. A dialog taller than the screen scrolls, so OK, Cancel and Apply can always be reached. In Preferences, the section list becomes a menu at the top and each label sits above its setting.

Previews stay in view

Dialogs you judge on the canvas (Layer Style, adjustments such as Curves or Levels, and filters) sit at the bottom of the screen, at most 40% of its height, instead of covering the middle. While one is open:

• the image moves up into the space above the dialog (and goes back when you close it, unless you zoomed or panned meanwhile);
• an open panel (Layers, say) steps aside, and comes back afterwards;
• only the middle of the dialog scrolls, so its title and OK / Cancel stay on screen.

New Document fits a phone held upright: the categories wrap, the presets take the full width with Preset Details below them, and the keyboard doesn't pop up until you tap the name.

A swipeable top bar

When the options bar (the tool's settings along the top) is wider than the screen, swipe it sideways to see the rest.

Room for the front camera

On phones with a punch-hole camera or a notch, the menu bar and the options bar split around the camera, so no menu or control sits under it. When you swipe either bar, the gap moves with it, and a control that slides under the camera comes back out as you keep swiping. Moving the Shortcut Pad to the other side, or hiding it, splits the bars again where they are now. Turned sideways, only these two bars split; the camera may sit beside the tool bar or the Shortcut Pad.

Rounded corners

On phones with rounded screen corners (Android 12 or later), a control that would sit in a corner's curve moves in from it, and the Shortcut Pad's top and bottom keys move away from the corners. Only what's in a corner moves; the edges of the screen are still used. At the far end of the menu bar and the options bar there's a little extra room to swipe the last item out of the corner (new in 0.16.0-5).

A menu bar that scrolls

On a phone the menu bar keeps its normal spacing. When the menus don't all fit, swipe the menu bar sideways to reach the rest, as with the options bar. A tap still opens a menu (new in 0.16.0-5).

A slimmer Shortcut Pad

The Shortcut Pad is 56 points wide instead of 72.

Tips for phones

• Use the full screen key for more room while drawing: its first step keeps the tool bar and options bar.
• Set Window › Touch Input to Finger Moves Canvas if you draw with a pen and want one finger to move around.
• Hold a finger still to right-click.
• Small buttons hard to hit with a finger? Try the trackpad cursor.