The picture below only shows the Oekaki tools you will see from Shi-Chan's oekaki shi-painter. It is the version I prefer to use and can be found at http://www.kenshin.net. It also does not show the draw area and the tools are arranged so that all of them can be seen. Usually only the toolbar and some options are visible. They are explained beneath the picture.

Upload: Use this command to upload the picture you're working on. It is recommended to use the prtscrn button to copy your picture (screen save, the key is located above the insert key on most keyboards.) before you upload since your session might have timed out and the picture lost. Left click on the mouse to use this button.

Float: Use this key to make the entire window including workspace, your current picture and the tools open up in a separate standalone browser. Gives you a bit more space, but some of the palette options are missing.

Redo: Use this command to redo an action you undid with the undo button.

Undo: Use this to undo an action. It allows fairly many but be aware that once you undo it won't appear in the end animation.

Fill: Fills the clicked area with a single colour, but the area must be enclosed or it will automatically fill more. This command is useful for big areas of colour that doesn't require finesse.

Oekaki Painter Version: I use this version because I'm most familiar with it and the pen tool makes life easier with drawing smoother lines.

Note: All the tools in the following group are reachable by clicking the left mouse button on the little rectangle it's contained in, it'll automatically move to the next tool. Which also means that by clicking it too many times you'll need to wait till the one you want revoles around again.

Pencil: The pencil tool is a very sharp line, it uses tiny squares to draw out what you do with your tablet pen or mouse. It looks like a line that is not anti-aliased.

Water: This is the watercolor tool, it automatically draws a thicker line (You can set this, the tool for it is in group 12). The line looks like a watercolour brush stroke and the transparency is usually fairly low (Also modifiable, one of the tools in group 11).

AirBrush: This tool is similar to the watercolour tool except that the line is a lot more spray-like. It is automatically a bit smaller than the watercolour tool brush.

Pen: Pen: This is a new tool in the Oekaki system, it allows for anti-aliased (smooth) lines as you draw, same as pencil but considered superior for its smooth lines.

EPen: Basically a textured brush.

Mosaic: If you have two layers it erases the top and watermarks the bottom. (Email me if you know what else it does.)

Dodge: Used to lighten areas of the image, the Dodge tool and the Burn tools are based on a traditional photographer's technique for regulating exposure on specific areas of a print. Photographers hold back light to lighten an area on the print (dodging).

Burn: Used to darken areas of the image, the Dodge tool and the Burn tools are based on a traditional photographer's technique for regulating exposure on specific areas of a print. Photographers increase the exposure to darken areas on a print (burning).

Soft: Works like the Blur filter/effect in Adobe, basically it makes the picture look 'softer'.

Text: Used to type text into a specified area. Be sure to test out the alignment of the text box.

Combine: Combines two layers that specific space. Click and drag to make the rectangle.

Copy: Click and drag to make the rectangle area to be copied, it copies the area automatically, just drag the copied result to a desired space on the workpage.

Flip X: Flip the picture horizontally (Left to right).

Flip Y: Flip the picture vertically (Top to bottom).

Rotate: Rotate the picture (90 degrees. CW).

Erase: Works like a pencil but it erases instead. The size can be changed with the same tool as the one used for the brushes.

ESmooth: The smooth Eraser, the erased area is smooth, like an Adobe brush with hardness 0%.

EraseRect: Click and drag to erase that rectangular area.

EraseAll: It erases everything on the page, click yes only if you're absolutely sure.

Solid: This is the normal brush type, a solid line. Applies to erasers also.

HalfTone: This gives the brush an effect of 'tones', lines of dots. Applies to erasers also.

Texture: This is a texturizer.

Freehand: Draw any kind of line you want.

Line: Draws a straight line, just click, drag and drop where you wish the line to end.

Bezier: Draws a curved line.

Solid Rect: Draws a rectangle filled in with the desired colour (Selected colour in the palette).

Rect: Draws a non-filled rectangle with a border of the desired colour.

Solid Oval: Draws an oval filled in with the desired colour (Selected colour in the palette).

Oval: Draws a non-filled oval with a border of the desired colour.

Fill: Fills the clicked area with a single colour, but the area must be enclosed or it will automatically fill more. This command is useful for big areas of colour that doesn't require finesse.

Normal: The mode under which most oekaki is drawn.

Mask: A mask layer is drawn over the current, whatever shape is drawn in the mask layer becomes hidden whilst the original layer remains intact.

ReverseMask: Instead of hiding the shape under the mask layer it hides everything but.

Colour Palette: By clicking on the colours you can choose what colour to use, more on this in gruop 15.

Hint: If you want to reproduce a colour easily just right mouse click the portion of picture where the colour is, oekaki will do it automatically.

R#: Stands for red, shows a bar of how much a certain colour has of red.

G#: Stands for green, shows a bar of how much a certain colour has of green.

B#: Stands for blue, shows a bar of how much a certain colour has of blue.

A#: A number that represents the opacity of the brush. The higher the more opaque/solid.

These tools use a sliding bar theory.

Brush Size Bar: Use the arrows to make the brush bigger or smaller. Or just drag the line in the larger box to do the same thing faster.

Layers: Click on this button to select which layer you wish to work with.

Layers Box: Mouse click the layers button above and a layers menu will show. You can just pick which later to work with. Use the sliding bar (Blue) to dictate layer transparency or click the circle on the right to make the layer visible/invisible.

If you click on a layer and hold your mouse, drag it up or down another box appears with 'Merge' or 'Shift'. Merge merges the layer immediately being moved over with the layer you're moving. Shift simply changes which layer is on top.

Layers Menu: If you click on the 'Menu' button in the Layers Box you'll see four options. 'Add Layer' adds a new layer, 'Delete Layer' deletes the selected layer. 'Visible Layers Merge' merges any layers that are visible. Ticking or unticking the 'Use Preview' option means anything drawn in the layers can be previewed as a thumbnail ot not.

Gradation: This sets the current palette (Group 10) into colours graduating from the first number to the second. Tick the box next to OK, then click OK once you're ready.

Palette List: The list is the available default palettes starting with Default on the far left, the palettes (Group 10) are two columns each and correspond from the top down in the list.

New: Makes a new custom palette in the list.

Change: Edits an existing palette.

Delete: Deletes one of the palettes.

+10/-10: Ups/lowers the overall brightness of a palette.

Invert: Inverts all the colours, works a lot like a solarize effect in Adobe.

Matrix: This is a command that allows you to transfer palettes to other boards, this is only available in Japanese and you will need the text support for it. I've never found it essential but you're welcome to email me (Katsuyuki) if you need help.