What is Doodleback?

A lot of drawing apps let you construct a circle but usually in only one way. They let you copy an object but in only one way or erase but in only one way. But what if you wanted to erase with a star or copy something by rotation? Doodleback’s philosophy is that how you’re able to construct things is almost as important as what you can construct. Being able to precisely place objects at the moment of their creation simplifies many drawings that would otherwise be difficult or almost impossible. You can get it here on Google Play.

Overview

Doodleback is a collection of tools for the creation and manipulation of graphical objects called Paths. Everything you draw in Doodleback is an independent Path. It can be moved, rotated, scaled, flipped, bound to other paths, and warped. Its color can be changed. It can be elevated above other paths or pushed beneath them. It can be copied by rotation, flipping, scaling, or simple conventional translation (that is, moving without changing size, shape, or orientation). [Read More]

Paths

Paths are the building blocks of Doodleback. Everything that you create is a Path. Lines, Circles, Rectangles, Triangles, Grids, etc. are all Paths. Paths can be manipulated. Their colors can be changed. Their sides can be warped. Their vertices can be moved. They can be rotated or flip and manipulated in many other ways, but everything begins as a Path. Here are some examples. Each of these is a Path–even the single Point in the middle of the screen. [Read More]

Tools

Doodleback uses tools for creation and manipulation of Paths. Only one tool is active at a time. The currently selected tool will be displayed in the Tools tab. For instance, this shows the Kaleidoscope tool selected. The tools are divided by category. The example above shows the Icons, Lines, Measurements, and Points categories. Swipe left and right in the tool tab to scroll through them all: [Read More]

Paint

Paint is much more than color. It has many attributes (Cap Style, Join Style, Fill Style, etc), and up to three layers can be stacked on top of one another to create various effects such as outlines. Color and Color Sets In the Paint Tab, the currently selected Color Set is shown. A Color Set is a group of one to three Paints that will be used for the current drawing action. [Read More]

Erasing

Unlike other apps, Doodleback does not have an eraser tool. The reason is that anything in Doodleback can be an eraser simply by enabling erasing on the Paint Layers. If you press the Option button on a individual Paint layer, one of the options presented is Enable Erasing. If you press the Option button on rectangular Paint Set card at the top of the page, you can enable erasing on all layers at once. [Read More]

Paint Attributes

Paint has many attributes besides color. There’s Stroke Width which determines how thick a line with be. There’s Join Style which controls how corners are drawn where two lines in a Path meet. There’s the Cap Style which controls the rendering of the end of a line. Drawing Style determines if a Path is drawn only in outline, in outline with its interior filled, or if only its interior is rendered. [Read More]

Text Attributes

This is the Text Attributes tab which is available in the Paint selection screen. Text Attributes are actually part of Paint Attributes, that is, every Paint layer has associated with it a font and font attributes. The drop down box at the top lets you select a font. The horizontal slider controls the text size which you can see in the preview window. The checkboxes allow you to control certain characteristics of the font. [Read More]

Path Effects

The Path Effect tab of the Paint Attributes screen allows you to turn on/off and configure three different effects for your paths: Dashed Line Rounded Corners Blur Dashed Line Effect This effect is turned on or off with the checkbox. It will cause objects to be rendered with a dashed line. The first horizontal slider controls the length of the dashes. The second horizontal slider controls the space between the dashes. [Read More]

Paper and Table

Doodleback uses the concept of a piece of Paper lying on a Table. The canvas that you draw on is the Paper. The Paper is sitting on the Table. If the Paper is opaque (no transparency at all) then the color of the Table doesn’t matter since the Table color can’t show through the Paper. If the Paper is completely transparent, then the Table color will show through it completely. [Read More]

Drawing Mode

The main drawing canvas (the Paper) can be in one of two modes: Drawing Mode Zoom Mode This article discusses Drawing Mode. Zoom Mode is discussed in the next article. In Drawing mode, any touch to the screen with attempt to use the currently selected tool. The tab will display Undo/Redo arrows and the name of the current tool will be displayed in the upper right hand corner. Here’s an example: [Read More]