The toolbox holds every tool Impasto ships with, divided into sections by priority. This page is the index: what each tool does, the key that selects it, and where its options appear. The four pages that follow cover the groups in detail.
Every tool
| Tool | Key | What it does | Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move Selected Pixels | M | Drags the pixels of the current layer, or of the selected object. | — |
| Move Selection | M | Moves the selection outline without moving the pixels inside it. | — |
| Zoom | Z | Click or drag a rectangle to zoom in; right click to zoom out. | — |
| Pan | H | Drags the view around. | — |
| Rectangle Select | S | Selects a rectangular area. | Selection mode, antialiasing |
| Ellipse Select | S | Selects an elliptical area; hold Shift for a circle. | Selection mode, antialiasing |
| Lasso Select | S | Freehand or polygon selection outline. | Selection mode, lasso mode, antialiasing |
| Magic Wand Select | S | Selects a region of similar color. Hold Shift to flood globally. | Selection mode, tolerance, fill mode |
| Paintbrush | B | Freehand painting with the primary or secondary color. | Brush width, brush type, blending, antialiasing |
| Pencil | P | Draws freehand one-pixel-wide lines. | Blending |
| Eraser | E | Erases to transparent, or to the secondary color. | Brush width, eraser type |
| Paint Bucket | F | Flood-fills an area with color. | Tolerance, fill mode, blending, antialiasing |
| Gradient | G | Draws a gradient from the primary to the secondary color. | Gradient type, color mode |
| Color Picker | K | Picks a color from the image into the primary or secondary slot. | Sample size, sampling source, what to do afterwards |
| Text | T | Places editable text. | Font, size, style, alignment, fill, outline, mode |
| Line/Curve | O | Draws editable lines and curves. | Type (Line/Curve), outline width, arrowheads, curved segments, mode |
| Rectangle | O | Draws an editable rectangle. | Fill style, outline width, mode |
| Rounded Rectangle | O | Draws an editable rectangle with rounded corners. | Fill style, outline width, corner radius, mode |
| Ellipse | O | Draws an editable ellipse. | Fill style, outline width, mode |
| Triangle | O | Draws an editable triangle. | Fill style, outline width, mode |
| Freeform Shape | O | Draws an editable closed shape with a freehand outline. | Fill style, outline width, mode |
| Clone Stamp | L | Paints a copy of one part of the image somewhere else. | Brush width, blending, antialiasing |
| Recolor | R | Replaces one color with another, within a tolerance. | Tolerance, brush width |
Not every tool has options of its own: the Move tools, Zoom, and Pan have none. Every tool that paints also has an Alpha Blending dropdown — Normal Blending composites with what is already there, Overwrite replaces it, including the alpha — and most have Antialiasing On/Off. Both normally sit at the right-hand end of the tool options bar.
How tools are grouped
The toolbox divides into sections by separator, and the same grouping drives the tool dropdown you can use instead of the toolbox:
| Section | Tools |
|---|---|
| Move | Move Selected Pixels, Move Selection |
| View | Zoom, Pan |
| Select | Rectangle, Ellipse, Lasso, Magic Wand |
| Paint | Paintbrush, Pencil, Eraser, Paint Bucket, Gradient, Color Picker, Text |
| Shapes | Line/Curve, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Triangle, Freeform Shape |
| Retouch | Clone Stamp, Recolor |
| Pinned | Any tool you have dragged out of a group |
| Add-ins | Every tool an installed add-in contributes |
Sections that hold nothing are omitted, so the Add-ins section only appears once you install an add-in that adds a tool.
Stacks, pinning, and the dropdown
The tools that share a key share a slot in the toolbox: the Shape tools and the Select tools each occupy one button with a small corner marker. Press and hold the button, or click the marker, to open the flyout and pick another tool from that group. Drag a tool from the flyout onto the toolbox to pin it, so it gets a button of its own; drag a pinned tool back to unpin it. Buttons can be reordered by dragging.
If you would rather not have the column at all, turn on Edit > Settings… > UI > Pick tools from a dropdown instead of the tool box. The tool name shown above the canvas becomes a dropdown listing every tool, and the toolbox is hidden. You can still show the toolbox again afterwards from View > Show/Hide > Tool Box; the setting only switches the view at the moment you change it.
Options are remembered
Each tool’s settings are stored when you change them, so the brush width, tolerance, and font you set last time are still there when you come back - including after restarting Impasto. To restore everything, use Edit > Settings… > Backup > Export Settings… to keep a copy first, then delete the settings folder listed under The interface.
Tool-specific keys
Tools respond to keys on the canvas beyond the one that selects them: [ and ] change brush width, arrow keys nudge a selection or a shape control point, Enter finishes a shape or lasso outline, and Backspace removes the last lasso point. The full list is in Keyboard shortcuts.