A tour of the Preferences window in Paint

Edit > Preferences, or Ctrl+K, is where Paint by Zaweba keeps the settings that shape how the whole app behaves. It is worth a slow tour soon after you install, because a few of these choices make a real difference to comfort, safety and speed.

The pages

Preferences is split into pages. Between them they cover the theme, units, the painting cursor, history steps and memory, non-linear history, auto-recovery, the scratch folder, the scripts folder, the checkerboard, guides and grid, and pages named Interface, Workspace, Tools, History Log, Performance, Cursors, Plug-ins, Pen, and Files and Recovery.

That looks like a lot, but you do not need to visit them all at once. Here are the ones to look at first.

The theme and the Interface page set how the app looks: the colour scheme, and the interface size along with the recent-files list. Set these so you can read everything comfortably.

Units decide how sizes are shown in rulers and dialogs. Pick pixels for screen work or a print unit if most of what you make is printed.

The painting cursor and Cursors pages control what you see under the pen or mouse. For painting, a cursor that shows the brush outline helps you judge size against the picture. For precise work, a cross hair is easier to place. Try both and keep whichever you work better with.

History and memory

History steps and memory decide how far back you can undo, and how much memory history may use. More steps give you more room to back out of mistakes; fewer leave more memory for large documents. Non-linear history is also set here, for people who like to branch off an earlier state and keep the later one.

Safety: recovery and the scratch folder

Auto-recovery and the Files and Recovery page decide how often changed documents are saved to a recovery folder, and whether open documents come back at start-up. Set the interval to suit how much work you can bear to lose. On a fast drive, a short interval costs little.

The scratch folder is where the app keeps working data. If your system drive is small or nearly full, point it at a roomier, fast drive.

Tools, pen and performance

The Tools page holds settings such as the hold time for spring-loaded tool keys. The Pen page has pressure curves for tablets, so a light hand or a heavy one can get a natural range. Performance is the page to visit if large documents feel slow.

Every tool in Paint by Zaweba is a plugin, and the Plug-ins page is where plugins are managed. The scripts folder setting says where your scripts live, which matters if you automate work.

The checkerboard page sets how transparency looks, which is worth adjusting if the default squares are hard to tell from your artwork. Guides and grid set colours and styles for the layout helpers. Workspace relates to the way panel layouts behave.

A first visit, in order

Set the theme and interface size. Choose units. Pick a cursor. Check history steps against how much memory your computer has. Set auto-recovery and the scratch folder. If you use a tablet, visit Pen. Then close Preferences and work for a while before changing anything else.

When something feels wrong

Many puzzling behaviours trace back to a setting here. A cursor that has turned into a cross hair, history that runs out sooner than expected, or a slow start-up can all be adjusted in Preferences. Ctrl+K is the place to look first.