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How graint.net works
Every tool with a real screenshot, the shortcuts, and what is special here.
Getting started
Open the editor and you get a sample image to play with. The window has four floating panels: Tools on the left, History and Layers on the right, Colors bottom left. Drag them anywhere; F6 to F8 show and hide History, Layers and Colors.
The bar above the image shows the options of the current tool. Everything you do lands in the History panel; click any step to jump back, Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Y redoes.
Files and saving
Open
Ctrl+O opens PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF and BMP, the layered .graint format, and .pdn files. Dropping a file on the window adds it as a new layer.
Save
Ctrl+Shift+S asks for name and format. In Chrome and Edge, Ctrl+S then saves straight back into the same file. Other browsers download a copy.
Which format?
| .graint | Keeps layers, blend modes, opacity and live text. A plain ZIP with one PNG per layer, so any tool can unpack it. |
| PNG | Lossless, keeps transparency. Layers are merged. |
| JPEG | Small files for photos. No transparency; layers are merged. |
| WebP | Smaller than PNG and JPEG, keeps transparency. Layers are merged. |
| .pdn | Open only. Layers, names, visibility, opacity and most blend modes come across. Reflect, Glow and Negation are shown as Normal. |
Autosave
Unsaved images are stored in your browser every few seconds. If the tab crashes or you close it by mistake, graint.net offers to recover them on the next start. Nothing leaves your computer.
Tools
Press the key shown next to each tool. Keys shared by several tools (S, M, O) cycle through them. Click a screenshot to enlarge it.
Layers
Each image is a stack of layers. Upper layers cover lower ones, except where they are transparent. The panel shows the stack from top to bottom; the highlighted layer is the one you paint on.
- Drag a layer to reorder it. The tick box hides and shows it.
- Double-click a layer for its properties: name, opacity and blend mode.
- “Merge Layer Down” joins a layer with the one below; “Flatten” joins all of them.
- Text layers (marked T) stay editable until you rasterize them.
Adjustments, effects, plugins
Adjustments change colors and tones, Effects change structure (blur, noise, distort, render). Both work on the current layer, or only inside the selection if there is one. Every dialog shows a live preview; Cancel leaves the image untouched.
Ctrl+F repeats the last effect with the same settings. Large images are processed in the background, so the window stays responsive.
The Plugins menu holds 18 built-in plugins in six groups: Object, Transparency, Color, Frames and Grids, Distort and Advanced. They work like effects. Script Lab under Advanced lets you write your own effect in JavaScript.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Ctrl+Z / Y | Undo / redo |
| Ctrl+A / D | Select all / deselect |
| Ctrl+I | Invert selection |
| Ctrl+C / V | Copy / paste |
| Enter | Finish the current action |
| Ctrl+F | Repeat last effect |
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Space / Ctrl+drag | Pan the view |
| Ctrl++ / − | Zoom in / out |
| Ctrl+B / 0 | Fit to window / actual size |
| X | Swap primary and secondary color |
| [ ] | Brush width |
| F6 – F8 | Show or hide History, Layers, Colors |
| Arrow keys | Nudge selection or pixels (Shift: 10 px) |
On a Mac use ⌘ instead of Ctrl. Some combinations like Ctrl+N and Ctrl+W belong to the browser and may never reach graint.net. Use the menus for those.
What’s special
graint.net works the way a classic image editor does. These are the places where it deliberately does something extra.
| Live text | Every text gets its own layer and stays editable. Switch to Classic in the Text toolbar to get pixels right away. |
| Smart magic wand | Besides color tolerance, the wand can select whole objects along their edges. Classic works as you know it. |
| Rotate handle | Selections and moved pixels have a round handle above the frame for rotating. Right-dragging still works. |
| Ctrl+drag pans | Hold Ctrl and drag to move the view with any tool, as an alternative to Space. |
| Plugins built in | The most used plugins are rebuilt and already installed. Nothing to download. |
| Script Lab | Own effects are written in JavaScript instead of C#. |
| Object Eraser | Removes spots and objects and fills the gap from the surroundings, on your device. Click, paint over, or select first. |
| New Tools menu | Enhance & Upscale for old or pixelated images, Extend Canvas with target formats like 1:1, 4:5 or 9:16, and Edit with Prompt for color and mood (“warm sunset light”, “sharper”). Everything runs on your device, no account needed. |
| Browser | F5 reloads the page as usual; graint.net warns first if something is unsaved. |