Gestures & Apple Pencil
Touch defaults#
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| One finger drag | Draw with the current tool |
| Two fingers drag | Pan the canvas |
| Two fingers pinch | Zoom |
| Two-finger tap | Undo |
| Three-finger tap | Redo |
| Four-finger tap | Toggle focus mode (full-screen) |
| Long-press | Eyedropper (configurable) |
| One-finger double-tap | Off by default (configurable) |
| Hold Space (keyboard) | Temporary pan |
The moment an Apple Pencil touches the screen, the Pencil takes over drawing and your finger reverts to navigation. If you never use a Pencil, one finger keeps drawing.
Make one finger navigate instead of draw#
Open Settings ▸ Gestures ▸ One-finger drag and choose Pan / scroll the canvas (or Pick a colour, Scrub the timeline, Off — Apple Pencil only). This is the setting to change if the canvas feels like it "fights" scrolling.
Long-press and double-tap#
- **Settings ▸ Gestures ▸ Long-press*— eyedropper, bucket, pick layer, radial menu, or off. The eyedropper long-press works even during a stroke: hold still, sample a colour, lift and keep drawing.
- **Settings ▸ Gestures ▸ One-finger double-tap*— undo, eyedropper, or zoom to fit.
- **Settings ▸ Gestures ▸ Three-finger drag*— pan or scrub frames.
Apple Pencil#
Ambersprite reads pressure and tilt. Configure them under Settings ▸ Apple Pencil:
- **Pressure controls brush size*— harder press = bigger brush. Off by default so a 1‑px brush stays 1 px.
- **Pressure curve*— linear, ease-in or ease-out response.
- **Double-tap*(Pencil 2 / Pro) and **Squeeze*(Pencil Pro) — assign to eraser, eyedropper, previous tool, bucket, swap colours, radial menu, undo, and more.
Pressure→opacity and velocity→size dynamics are set per brush in the Tool rail ▸ Pencil section — see Brush size, ink & dynamics.
Palm rejection#
On an iPad with no Pencil, a firm fingertip is treated as a real touch. Once a Pencil has been used in a session, Ambersprite rejects large contact patches (a resting palm) automatically.