Sumopaint Documentation
Getting Started
Interface

- Tools. Here are all your tools for editing your image.
- Tool settings. Here you can modify the settings of the tool you're currently using.
- The Navbar. Here you have a quick access to all the items mentioned later on this page.
- Info. Here you can see your image info, and even change the resolution by clicking it.
- Layers. Here you can control all of your layers.
- Undo/Redo. Here you can easily undo / redo your actions. Access to library, zoom and your personal profile.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Undo (Ctrl + Z)
- Redo (Ctrl + Y)
- Cut (Ctrl + X)
- Copy (Ctrl + C)
- Paste (Ctrl + V)
- New Image (Ctrl + N)
- Open from My Computer (Ctrl + O)
- Open from Sumo File (Ctrl + Shift + O)
- Save Project to Cloud (Ctrl + Shift + S)
- Save to My Computer (Ctrl + S)
- Close (Ctrl + W)
- Select All (Ctrl + A)
- Deselect (Ctrl + D)
- Zoom In (Ctrl + +)
- Zoom Out (Ctrl + -)
- Hide Controls (Tab)
- Fit on Screen (Ctrl + 0)
- Actual Pixels (Ctrl + Alt + 0)
Open files
You can open files in Sumopaint from your computer. Image files and .sumo files are supported.
Save files
You can save the project to your computer as .sumo file which only works inside Sumopaint, save it to your Sumo account cloud with a pro or edu subscription, or save the image as .png, .jpg and .gif.
Undo/Redo
You can undo and redo your recent actions with the buttons on the top right, but also with keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Y.
Discovering Tools
Selection Tools
Rectangular/Circular selection tool
You can select parts of the layer with the Rectangular/Circular selection tool, and dragging your mouse over the part you want to select.
Move tool
You can move layers with the move tool by dragging with your mouse over the layer.
Magic wand tool
With the Magic Wand tool, you can automatically select objects in a layer. If you click on the outside, it will select the pixels outside the object. You can change the tolerance to get better results.
Lasso tool
With the lasso tool you can select parts of a layer by dragging your mouse. The selection will automatically create a line from the end of the dragged line to the start.
Drawing tools
Ink tool
The Ink tool works like a ink pen. If you draw slowly, the ink will be bigger in diameter, and as you draw faster, it will go smaller. Good for autographs.
Brush tool
The Brush tool has many great features to play with. You can change the color, opacity, flow, diameter, brush and even make a symmetric drawing with 2-18 lines. You can choose from 67 unique brushes.
Eraser tool
With the Eraser tool you can remove parts of a layer or a selection. You can also erase with all the different brushes. Basically a brush tool, but instead of drawing, it erases.
Pencil tool
With the Pencil tool you can draw lines in round, narrow or square brush. You can also change the line joint style from round to bevel and milter.
Fill tools
Gradient tool
With the Gradient tool, you can create seven types of gradients with any colors you want. Gradients can be used as backgrounds, overlays, and basically anything you can think of.
Paint bucket tool
The Paint bucket tool works a bit like magic wand, but instead of selecting anything, it will find the borders of the area and paint over it. Change the opacity for better results.
Clone tool
The Clone tool is really handy when you need to remove parts of the image, but you don't want it to look like it's been removed. With the ALT key, you can select the spot you want to clone, and with your mouse you can draw from that spot into another.
Text tool
With the Text tool you can easily add texts into your image. Make sure you create a new layer for each text, so you can use the layer effects to modify it.
Shape tools
Square/Rounded square/Circle
With these shape tools you can easily create perfect squares, rounded squares and circles.
Pie tool
With the pie tool you can create a pie shaped object into your image.
Polygon/Star tool
With the Polygon tool, you can create a polygon, but you can also change the amount of sides, so might as well be a triangle or a hexagon. With the star tool you can make star shapes, also with as many sides as you want, up to 100.
Custom shape tool
With the Custom shape tool you can make a shape with your mouse that will snap into its starting point when you let go of the mouse.
Symmetry tool
With the Symmetry tool you can make symmetric patterns with round, narrow or square brush and up to 100 symmetry points.
Line tools
Line tool
With the Line tool you can draw straight lines.
Curve tool
With the Curve tool you can first draw a straight line to choose the start and the end, and then drag it to make a curved line.
Focus tool
Blur tool
With the Blur tool you can blur parts of an image, and create great depth effects. Also easy to correct small errors in your image.
Smudge tool
The Smudge tool allows you to mix or blend the content in an area of your image.
Free transform tool
The Free transform tool lets you move and scale layers.
Crop tool
The Crop tool is used to crop the image to a smaller size.
Layers
Layers User Interface
The user interface is made very simple to make it easier for you to keep track of your layers and edit them separately.
Layers basics
Add layer
The + button in the Layer UI will make a new layer.
Re-order layers
The up and down arrows in the Layer UI will move the selected layer to be on top or bottom of the next layer in that direction.
Duplicate layer
You can duplicate a layer by right clicking the layer and choosing Duplicate Layer. You can also do it from the top menu under Layer.
Add effects
You can quickly add layer effects from the star button in the bottom of the Layer UI.
Layer Effects
Drop Shadow
Drop Shadow adds a nice looking shadow outside the layer. You can modify the opacity, strength, distance, angle and shadow color.
Inner Shadow
Inner Shadow adds a nice looking shadow outside the layer. You can modify the opacity, strength, distance, angle and shadow color.
Outer Glow
Outer Glow makes a nice glowing effect on the outside border of the layer. You can modify the opacity, strength, distance, angle and glow color.
Inner Glow
Outer Glow makes a nice glowing effect on the inside border of the layer. You can modify the opacity, strength, distance, angle and glow color.
Bevel
Bevel makes a lifted effect on the layer.
Color Overlay
Color Overlay fills the layer contents with color. You can change the opacity of the overlay.
Stroke
Stroke generates lines on the edge of the layer contents. You can change the size, opacity and color of the stroke.
Gradient Bevel
Gradient Bevel makes a smooth lifted gradient effect to the layer contents, and you can change the strength, distance and angle of the effect.
Gradient Glow
Makes a Gradient effect to the layer, and you can change the strength, distance and angle of the effect.
Using Adjustments
Brightness / Contrast
Brightness / Contrast is for controlling exactly what the name suggests. You can see a tutorial for it below.
Color Balance
Color Balance is for setting red, green and blue offsets.
Color Temperature
Color Temperature is for adjusting the coldness and warmth of the colors in your image.
Hue / Saturation
With Hue you can change the color of the layer, and with saturation you can control how rich the colors are.
Vibrance
With Vibrance you can control the strength of bright colors of the layer.
Auto Levels
Auto Levels will automatically add layer exposure and contrast.
Desaturate
Desaturate makes your layer black and white.
Equalize colors
Equalize colors is pretty much the opposite of auto levels. It takes down the contrast and brightness of the layer.
Negative
Negative flips the colors completely.
Sepia
Sepia converts the layer to sepia tone.
Vignette
Vignette adds a black border around the layer. Great for bringing your subject more to focus.
Using Filters
Blur filters
Blur
Adds blur to the layer.
Gaussian Blur
You can choose the amount of gaussian blur you want to use.
Radial Blur
With Radial Blur you can select the amount of the blue, and the starting poing with y and x. The effect creates sharp line blur around the x and y of your choosing.
Tilt Shift
Tilt Shift blur is for blurring a part of the layer, but leaving a line unblurred.
Distort
Pinch
Pinch is for making a part of the layer zoomed in or out into the center point. You can control the effect strength and radius.
Twirl
With Twirl distortion you can create a kind of a spin effect, where you can control the effect angle and the radius.
Perspective
With Perspective you can take the layer from all corners and just skew it around, good for in example fitting an image into a certain part of another image.
Noise filters
Clouds
Fills the layer with clouds. Recommended to create a new layer for these, and setting the layer mode to screen.
Noise
Adds a bit of a grain, which looks a bit like sharpening.
Denoise
Denoise will try to eliminate noise and grain from the layer, blurring it quite a bit.
Pixelate filters
Pixelate
Pixelate will convert the layer into square shaped pixels packing the amount of pixels you choose.
Hexagonal pixelate
Hexagonal pixelate converts the layer into hexagons of pixels.
Ink
Ink makes the layer look like a drawing.
Edge work
Edge work finds the edges of a layer and makes a black and white version of it.
Dot Screen
Dot Screen creates a screen of dots onto the layer, making it also black and white. You can in example create a duplicate, and use dot screen to that layer, and set the layer mode to screen.
Color Halftone
Dot screen with colors.
Sharpen filters
Sharpen
Makes the layer sharper.
Unsharp mask
Unsharp mask makes a blurred effect with sharp edges.
Posterize
This effect reduces the number of colors in photo to a specified number of levels
Threshold
Threshhold effect takes the image into black and white and finds edges, you can specify the threshold level for the effect you want.
Canvas Options
Image size
You can change the image size by setting new height and width in pixels.
Canvas size
You can change the canvas size by setting new height and width in pixels.