Tip
Brush Settings ▸ Tip — the dab itself: its size, opacity, edge, grain, how far apart stamps fall, and its cross-section.
Reference
- Tool
- Draw
- Panel
- Brush Settings
- Section
- Tip
The Tip section describes one stamp. Everything here answers a single question — what does the brush put down each time it touches, and how often does it touch. The rest of the panel modulates these values; this is what they modulate.
Controls
The base dab diameter. The scale is logarithmic. The dab's actual radius is
size ÷ 2 multiplied by the size dynamics and the taper, and is floored at 0.5pt, so a
stroke never resolves to nothing.
This slider routes by tool: it sets the brush width for Draw, Shape and Vector Pen, and the eraser, sculpt and blend widths for those tools. The values are independent and are swapped when the tool changes.
The per-dab alpha ceiling, displayed as a percentage. Each dab resolves to
Opacity × the opacity dynamics, clamped to 0…1. Because dabs accumulate, a low
Opacity does not make a faint stroke so much as a stroke that builds — overlapping stamps
within one pass still stack toward opaque.
The floor is 2% rather than 0: a brush set to zero is a tool that silently does nothing.
Edge falloff, displayed as a percentage. 0 is a soft cloud with no defined rim; 1 is a crisp edge.
Hardness applies to the procedural dab only. A brush that stamps a tip image — a tip
set, an imported shape, or a tip from an imported .abr pack — takes its edge from the
image, and this slider has nothing to act on.
Procedural paper tooth broken into the dab, displayed as a percentage. It is what separates a pencil from a pen at the same hardness.
Grain is forced to 0 whenever a tip set or a paint texture is applied to the brush, because those carry their own texture and doubling up muddies both. The slider stays live and can raise it again deliberately.
The distance between consecutive stamps, as a fraction of the dab diameter, displayed
as a percentage — so the slider runs 1% to 1000%. The engine advances
radius × Spacing × 2 along the path per step, with a floor of 0.5pt.
The panel states the consequence directly: "Under 100% the stamps merge into a line; over 100% they separate." Sketching and inking brushes sit at 3–6%. A stipple or a petal trail sits at or above 90%, where the individual stamps are the point.
The dab's footprint. The picker is drawn as icons with no text labels; the four cases are listed below.
The panel states its double duty: "The dab's footprint in 2D — and the tube's cross-section in 3D." The same choice that makes a chisel nib flat on the page makes a volumetric stroke a flat ribbon of tube rather than a round one.
The number of sides of the regular polygon. Shown only when the cross-section is set to
the polygon case. The stepper's label reads the current count, for example Sides: 6.
Cross-section shapes
A circle. The default, and the shape every brush uses unless it states otherwise.
A square footprint.
An elongated flat nib. This is the calligraphic shape: paired with Tip follows tilt on the Stroke section it produces the thick-to-thin transition of a broad-edge pen. Flat Nib, Flat Wash, Charcoal, Chisel Marker and Highlighter all ship on it.
A regular n-gon, with the side count set by Sides.
Which controls appear
The Tip section adapts to the tool holding it.
- For Draw, Shape and Vector Pen — the paint tools — every control above is shown.
- For any other tool with a size or strength knob, Size and Opacity are shown if that tool has them, and everything below is hidden. There is no brush tip to describe.
- For a tool with neither, the section shows one line: "This tool has no brush tip — its settings are in Tool Options."
Three tools carry a specific note in place of the tip controls:
| Tool | Note shown |
|---|---|
| Eraser | "Drag over ink to erase it. More eraser options are in Tool Options." |
| Sculpt Stroke / Sculpt 3D | "Brush and falloff are in Tool Options." |
| Blend | "Rub to mix the colours already on the canvas. Pick Blend, Blur or Fingertip in Sub Tool." |