Drawing

The Drawing Tools
1. Eraser
2. Rectangle. Click again to toggle between filled/non-filled mode. (This goes for all shape tools).
3. Fill
4. Spray. Fills a round area with small random dots.
5. Pen. Opaque brush strokes.
6. Clear. Clears the drawing area completely. Hold down SHIFT to fill with the current color instead of white.
7. Circle
8. Zoom. Double-click to zoom out fully.
9. Line
10. Brush. Semi-transparent brush strokes.

The Color Palette
Clicking on the color preview on the right toggles between the simple and the advanced palette.
Clicking on the up/down arrow will lighten/darken the selected color.
Docking your palettes
Drag the palettes to your preferred location on the game window, making sure they do not touch any part of the drawing board. These positions will be saved for when you rejoin iSketch.

Rotating your palettes
Double click on the palette to rotate horizontally or vertically.
The Stroke Width Selector
Drag the blue button to desired width in pixels, as displayed on the right bottom. Preview is shown on the left.




HINT and SKIP buttons
Click on "Give HINT" to deliver hints.
Click on "SKIP" to pass on your turn.
As soon as one player has guessed correctly,
"Give HINT" turns grey (inactive), and "SKIP" changes to the "DONE" button.

Keyboard shortcuts

S Square Press again to toggle between filled / non-filled.
C Circle
B Brush
P Pen
Y Spray
E Eraser
L Line
Z Zoom
+ Zoom in Increases the zoom magnification 2x
- Zoom out Decreases the zoom magnification 2x
Space Drag mode Hold to temporarily switch to drag mode while zoomed in.
Space+alt Zoom (in) Hold to temporarily switch to zoom in tool.
Space+command Zoom (out) Hold to temporarily switch to zoom out tool.
D Default colors Toggles between black / white.
Alt Color picker Hold to temporarily switch to the color picker.
Up Brightness Up Makes the current color brighter.
Down Brightness Down Makes the current color darker.
Left Brush Down Decreases the brush size one step.
Right Brush Up Increases the brush size one step.
1 - 0 Set brush size Sets the brush size. (1-8 = corresponding size, 9 = 16 pixels, 0 = 32 pixels)
Tab Change window Toggle between the chat and game window.

Sketching tips

You don't have to be a skilled artist to do well on the game. The most effective sketches rely on best methods used by players. As you play more, you will pick up techniques for rendering even the seemingly "undrawable" words. In iSketch, "creativity" takes on a whole new meaning!
  • Take your time, don't rush! Allow as much detail as possible in the allotted time. Drawing too fast will just make the sketch incomprehensible.
  • Use colors! By selecting an appropriate color you can maximize chances of getting your clues understood. A black circle with lines around it could be a spider. If it is yellow- it's a sun, if it's green- a frog and so on. Color can effectively get a message across.
  • "Chop" the word up. For instance, if the word is "understand", draw a box with an arrow below it (under), then draw a person standing (stand).
  • Show the opposite to clarify what aspect you're after. If the word is "tall", you could draw a very tall figure and a much shorter one. Then cross out the shorter figure.
  • Draw something that sounds like the word. To indicate a rhyme, draw an ear. Then draw the rhyming word. For instance, if your word is "take" draw a cake and the ear symbol.
  • Create your own "special effects". For example, when drawing the word "space", fill the board with black using the filled circle tool and then put some white dots over it with the pen tool to represent stars.