Drawing Tool

How to use the drawing tool

1. Optionally choose an image to draw over, or set a blank canvas size.
2. Pick a colour and brush width, then draw with the mouse, pen or finger.
3. Undo anything you regret, then download the PNG.

About this tool

A quick circle round the thing you are pointing at, an arrow, a crossing-out: annotating a screenshot is a small job that usually means opening something large. This is a canvas with a brush, a colour and an undo, which is most of what that job needs.

Strokes are kept as lists of points and the whole picture is redrawn from them on every change. That is what makes undo possible at all — a canvas has no memory of what was painted on it, so anything drawn straight to the pixels cannot be taken back. It also means the drawing stays crisp at the image's own resolution rather than at the size of the preview on screen.

The eraser paints white rather than clearing to transparency, and the tool says so plainly. Once a brush stroke has been drawn over a photograph, erasing cannot recover the photograph underneath — the pixels are gone. Undo is the honest way back, and the eraser is for tidying edges on a light background.

Brush width scales with the canvas, so the same setting produces a proportionate line on a phone screenshot and on a large render. Everything is drawn in this tab and exported as a PNG; nothing is uploaded, which matters for the screenshots people most often want to annotate.

Common uses

• Circling the part of a screenshot you are asking about.
• Sketching a rough diagram without opening a design tool.
• Marking up a photograph before sending it to someone.

Frequently asked questions

Can I undo a stroke?

Yes. Strokes are stored as points and the image is redrawn from them, which is the only way undo can work — pixels painted straight onto a canvas cannot be taken back.

Why does the eraser paint white instead of clearing?

Because on a photograph there is nothing to clear back to. The original pixels are gone once drawn over, so undo is the honest way back and the eraser is for a light background.

Does it work with a stylus or a touchscreen?

Yes. It uses pointer events, so a pen, a finger and a mouse are all handled the same way.