Help

Video Tutorial

▶️ Kleki - Introduction Tutorial (2022)
This video gives you an overview and teaches you how to use Kleki's main features, including: paint bucket, import, saving as PSD, coloring an imported drawing, shortcuts, text tool, and more.

Shortcuts

Eyedropper

Right Mouse Button, or Alt + Mouse
Hand Tool

Middle Mouse Button, or Space + Mouse
Hand Tool

Arrow keys
Zoom

Scroll, or hold Z + drag horizontally
Zoom

+ in, - out
Rotate View

Hold R and drag (+ Shift for snapping)
Rotate View

Hold R and press ← or →
Reset Rotation

R + Up-Arrow
Fit Into View

Double click while using Hand Tool, or Home
Reset View

End
Undo

Ctrl + Z or ⌘ + Z
Redo

Ctrl + Y or ⌘ + Y
HUD Color Picker

Ctrl + Alt or ⌘ + Alt
Line Tool

Hold Shift while drawing
Change Brushsize

[ decrease, ] increase
Save Image

Ctrl + S or ⌘ + S
Save to Browser Storage

Ctrl + Shift + S
or ⌘ + Shift + S
Copy to Clipboard

Ctrl + C or ⌘ + C
Paste from Clipboard

Ctrl + V or ⌘ + V
Swap color

X
Paint Bucket

G
Gradient

G
Text Tool

T
Shape Tool

U
Last Brush

B
Eraser

E
Toggle Eraser (Chemy/Pixel brush)

Shift + E
Clear Layer

Delete or Backspace
Fill Layer

Enter
Relative Sliding

Drag with Right Mouse Button
Relative Sliding

Scroll-Wheel
Manual Slider Input

Double tap/click on slider
Finegrained Sliding

Pull pointer away vertically

Touch

Hand Tool

Drag/pinch/twist with 2 fingers
Fit Into View

Double tap with 1 finger
Undo

Tap with 2 fingers
Redo

Tap with 3 fingers

Show All Shortcuts

Video: Shortcuts

More Tools

Click on the arrow next to the paint brush to reveal more tools. These include: paint bucket, text tool, shape tool.

Video: Accessing more tools

Saving Your Image

Click on File then Save. Your image will be saved on your device usually under Downloads.

Keeping All Layers

Save as PSD to save your image including its layers by clicking the dropdown underneath the Save button and selecting "Save PSD". Layers will be restored when you open a PSD file. You can also open these files in other software (e.g. Krita, Clip Studio).

Video: Save as PSD

Save As:

PNG - lossless image without layers
PSD - image including layer information (Photoshop format)
Layers - each layer saved as a separate PNG

Importing Images

Import images from your Desktop by dragging them onto the canvas. You can then use them as a new layer or start a new image with them. Alternatively use File > Import.

Supported Filetypes:
JPEG, PNG, PSD (with limitations), (SVG, WEBP, BMP, GIF)

Video: Importing images

Paint Bucket

To cleanly fill your drawing with colors (without white pixelated edges) do the following:

Draw your lines on a new layer.
Select the layer below.
Select the Paint Bucket and set "Grow" to a value greater than 0.
Fill.

Grow makes the filled area grow by the specified amount. Choose the right Grow amount depending on how thin or thick your lines are. You find the Grow dropdown at the bottom right of the Bucket Tool.

If areas get filled which you did not intend to fill, lower the Tolerance slider. If that doesn't help, check your lineart for small gaps. A 1 pixel gap is enough for paint to escape its enclosure.

Video: Paint Bucket

Browser Storage

Stores a snapshot of your image including layers locally in your browser. Reopening Kleki will restore the image.

Important:
- The browser may delete your image unprompted if you clear your cache or run out of disk space.
- No autosaving
- Stores 1 image at a time across all tabs

Use Save for permanent storage.

Video: Browser Storage

Kleki keeps refreshing when switching tabs

If you're on a weaker computer, Chrome activates the memory saver mode, which kills tabs when you switch between them, and then triggers a refresh. This is bad for Kleki because you will lose your progress.

To avoid Chrome refreshing Kleki all the time you can either deactivate Memory Saver altogether, or add Kleki to a list of sites that don't get refreshed.

Go into Chrome settings (chrome://settings) and search for "memory saver". Then either toggle memory saver, or in the bottom right press "Add" and add "https://kleki.com". We recommend to add Kleki to the list, instead of turning off memory saver.

Pressure Sensitivity

If you use a stylus (Wacom tablet, Apple Pencil, ...) and your browser supports it, then Kleki offers pressure sensitivity. You can toggle it next to the brush sliders. That way your pen pressure can affect brush size and opacity.

Video: Pressure sensitivity

Input Devices

It is recommended to use a pen/stylus for drawing because it is by far the most fun, fast, and expressive tool for drawing. Touchpads/trackpads are not suited for drawing lines.

Use zoom and the stabilizer to increase the precision of your linework with any input device.

Stabilizer

Stabilization makes it easier to control your lines by lagging behind and averaging your drawing motion. This is mostly used to create clean final lineart. It can also help making drawing easier in general when you only have a mouse.

The responsiveness of no stabilization is desirable for fast sketching or for large brush sizes where jitter is less visible.

Video: Stabilizer

Failed to Initialize

If Kleki fails to initialize, one of these things might fix it:

Close the tab, clear your cache for Kleki.com, and reopen the page
Update your browser
Visit Kleki again later

If none of that works, please contact me.