Pencil Tool Properties

The Pencil tool allows you to draw simple contour lines that are defined by their centerline and their thickness.

When you select the Pencil tool, the Tool Properties view displays the different Pencil modes that control how the pencil line is drawn.

NOTE To learn how to use the Pencil tool, see About the Pencil Tool.

Pencil Properties

The following properties affect the pencil's width and smoothing. Those properties can be saved into pencil presets for later use.

Property	Description
Preview Area	The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke your drawing tool will make.
Size	Defines the width of the pencil line.
Centerline Smoothing	Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.

Property

Description

Preview Area

The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke your drawing tool will make.

Preview Stroke

Size

Defines the width of the pencil line.

Centerline Smoothing

Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.

These options allow you to select, create and manage pencil presets.

Icon	Property	Description
	Presets list	Harmony provides a few pencil presets and also lets you create and save your own. It is a good idea to create and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw for efficiency and consistency. You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is a good way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project.
	New Brush Preset	Creates a new preset based on the current tool properties.
	Delete Brush Preset	Deletes the currently selected preset.
	Brush Presets Menu	Open a menu that contains the following options: New Brush Preset: Creates a new preset based on the current tool properties. Delete Brush: Deletes the currently selected preset. Rename Brush: Allows you to rename the currently selected preset. Import Brushes: Allows you to import brush presets exported from Harmony. Export Brushes: Allows you to export your brush presets into an .xml file. Small Thumbnail: Displays presets in a grid of small thumbnails with a preview of their tip. Large Thumbnail: Displays presets in a grid of big thumbnails, with their name and a preview of their tip. Stroke View: Displays presets in a list, with their name and a preview of a stroke done with each preset.

These options affect the way your drawing strokes are added to your artwork.

Icon	Property	Description
	Draw Behind	When enabled, your brush strokes will appear behind the existing artwork. NOTE Your brush stroke will temporarily appear over your artwork as you draw it, until you release the mouse cursor or tablet pen.
	Auto Fill	When enabled, drawing a closed shape will automatically fill it with the currently selected colour.
	Trim Extra Lines	When enabled, drawing a closed shape will automatically remove the outstanding lines.
	Align Handles After Trim	When the Trim Extra Lines option is enabled, enable this option to make the point where the beginning and end of the stroke meet into a smooth curve rather than a hard corner.
	Auto Flatten	By default, when drawing, each new stroke is created as a separate drawing object, which can be edited independently from other parts of the artwork. When enabled, the Auto-Flatten option automatically merges strokes into existing artwork. NOTE Using the Select tool, you can select and remove a segment of flattened pencil lines. Overlapping pencil lines drawn with the Auto-Flatten mode are essentially cut into segments by the overlap and can be treated as individual lines.