The Hidden Manual

Most of the Mojavge Paint features are discoverable with buttons or menu items. Some are only available by keyboard modifier or mouse gesture so you'd never know about them by exploring. It's these features I want to document here.

Mouse gestures include long press, double-click, drag, right click, mouse wheel, and sometimes even the middle button.

Keyboard modifiers include Command ⌘, Option ⌥, Shift ⇧, and Control ⌃.

Navigating the canvas

• Option + wheel to zoom
• Wheel to scroll vertically
• Shift + wheel to scroll horizontally
• Middle-drag to pan
• Hold Space + drag to pan

Document tabs

• Drag sideways to re-order
• Drag up to close
• Drag down to open in new window
• Right click for context menu
• Drag a layer onto a different tab with the move tool to spring over to that tab
• Drag pixels onto a different tab with a selection tool to spring over to that tab

Layers panel

The layers panel is a feature-dense area!

• Option + drag to duplicate
• Command with New/Duplicate layer to put below the selected layer
• Drag over the eye icons to flip multiple layers' visibility
• Option + click eye icon to view solo
• Have 2 or more layers selected when you make a folder and they go in that folder
• Enter or double-click name to rename
• Right click for context menu
• Drag a layer to the delete icon to delete it
• Drag a layer to the Add Layer or Duplicate icons to duplicate it
• Select multiple layers with Command + click or Shift + click
• Lock a layer by hovering the lock icon on the right edge and clicking

Cut/Copy/Paste (Cmd-X, Cmd-C, Cmd-V), Delete

• When a selection is present, cut and copy select those pixels, pasting goes on a new layer
• When no selection is present, cut and copy act on the selected layer(s)
• When no selection is present, delete deletes the selected layer(s), or layer mask

Thumbnails

The thumbnails aren't just here to look pretty, they have functionality.

• Command + click a layer thumbnail to select its opacity
• Command + click a layer mask thumbnail to select its luminosity
• Command + click a color channel thumbnails to select its luminosity
• Double-click a type layer thumbnail to select all that text with the type tool active

Swatches

• Drag them to the Swatches panel
• Right click them for a context menu

Interplay

The features in Mojave Paint work together in ways you might not necessarily expect.

• Selecting a channel affects all painting operations, and the move tool
• You can adjust the selection when a filter or adjustment window is open

Welcome screen

• Double-click a recent document to bypass multiselect and open immediately

Tool specific gestures

• Move tool, Option to duplicate, Shift to constrain movement vertical/horizontal, Command for autoselect, Control to disable snapping
• Magic wand, drag sideways to change tolerance
• Paint brush/pencil, Control + Option + drag sideways to change brush size. Hold backtick ` to switch to clear blend mode
• Marquee, Shift to constrain square
• Crop, Shift to constrain to original aspect ratio, mouse wheel to increase or decrease the crop area while maintaining aspect ratio
• Type, click to place unframed text, drag to place framed text, Command + enter to apply edits
• Zoom, click to zoom in, Option + click to zoom out
• Guides, Control to disable snapping. Option to change snapping from 1/2 to 1/3.
• Selection tools (no selection yet): Shift to constrain square, Option to size oval from center
• Selection tools (existing selection): Click inside select to clear it, drag inside selection to move it, Command + drag inside selection to cut and paste pixels in place, Shift to add, Option to subtract, Shift + Option to intersect