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Basic Usage

After the Draw On Gnome extension is installed and enabled, press Super + Alt +D to start using it.

You should briefly see a message on the bottom of the screen that shows that you have entered "Drawing Mode".

intro-message

The shortcut Super + Alt + D toggles the program on and off.

You will also note that the keyboard shortcurt Ctrl + F1 will reveal all shortcuts. Use it to get past the learning curve of the plethora of shortcuts available to you!

Note

Click here for the link to the shortcuts page.

Drawing Mode

By default, you are placed in standard "drawing mode" where you can write on the screen with a stylus/tablet or with your mouse. If you ever need to return to this mode, press Ctrl + P. Think "P" like "pen" or "pencil".

  • To increase line width: Ctrl +
  • To decrease line width: Ctrl -

Or, use Ctrl+MouseWheel, or right-click for the popup menu and use the slider. You'll find plenty of other great options in that menu.

Colors

Press Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9 to change the color of your drawing.

This applies to using the pen, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, text, and other tools.

Press Ctrl+0 to use the Color Picker. (More information here.)

Shapes

Press Ctrl+R to draw a rectangle.

Press Ctrl+E to draw an ellipse.

Press Ctrl+L to draw a straight line.

Press Ctrl+A to draw a straight line with arrow head.

Text

Press Ctrl+T to type text.

When you do so, you can click and drag to specify the size and location of the initial text.

Tip

Changing the color while in text mode will change all of the text you just typed.

To type separate pieces of text in different colors, press the Esc key between typed sections.

When you finish with the text tool and you want to use another tool, press the shortcut key for that tool. In some cases you might need to press the Esc key first.

Moving and Resizing

You can move or resize any of the previous objects mentioned.

To move and object, press Ctrl + M and hover on the object. Click and drag to move it where you wish. You must hover the cursor directly on the line, the perimeter of the shape, or the actual text that you want to move. When you do so, the cursor will change from a standard pointer to a 4-way directional cursor.

To resize and object, press Ctrl + X and hover on the object. Click and drag to make the object bigger or smaller. Again, you must hover the cursor directly on the line, the perimeter of the shape, or the actual text that you want to resize.

Background and Grid

Press Ctrl+B to initiate the background option.

Press Ctrl+G to overlay a grid. This works best with the background feature.

Note

The background and grid options have set colors but you can modify those in Extensions > Draw On Gnome Settings > Drawing Page.

The Right-Click Menu

While working in Draw On Gnome, right-click the screen and you will be presented with the pop-up menu as shown below. From here you can manually select any of the options mentioned on this page. You can also:

  • Hide the panel and dash in Linux
  • Create a "Square" drawing area
  • Save or open drawings
  • and more!

Play around with it a little bit to learn what options are available to you!

right-click-menu

Saving and Opening Files

Press Ctrl+S to save your file with an automatically generated name. You can also go to the pop-up menu and save your file there with a name of your choice.

Press Ctrl+O to open the latest drawing. Use Ctrl+O or Ctrl+Shift+O to cycle through the history of drawings. You can also select from a list of drawings in the pop-up menu.

Opening the Preferences Page

The Preferences page is where you can go to configure global settings and set keyboard shortcuts.

The preferences page functions outside of the extension. However, you can access it from the CLI, the GNOME shell (GUI) or from within the extension itself:

CLI

gnome-extensions prefs draw-on-gnome@daveprowse.github.io

GUI

  1. Open gnome-extensions-app

    Tip

    🙋‍♂️ You can install the Gnome Extensions App package within your Linux distribution:

    • in most Linux: sudo dnf install gnome-extensions-app
    • otherwise: sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions-prefs

  2. Click the three vertical dots next to Draw-On-Gnome.

  3. Click Settings.

Then click

From within Draw-On-Gnome

Right-click for the pop-up menu, then click the 2nd icon from the right on the bottom of the window. That will disable Draw On Gnome and open the Preferences page.

Access the Drawing Page Too!

The window that contains the "Preferences" tab also has the Drawing Page where you can work with Palettes, Area, and Tools. You will also see an informational "About" tab.

REMEMBER! USE SHORTCUTS!

Keyboard shortcuts are the key to using this tool effectively with a drawing tablet.

Access the list with Ctrl+F1.