How to play

Start with a line. Follow your curiosity.

Start with a line

Choose Draw and make a mark with your finger, a compatible stylus, or your mouse or trackpad on Mac. Apple Pencil works on supported iPads. Your drawing stays in place while you draw; lift to release it. Turn on Gravity to make it fall. On phones and tablets with motion sensors, gently tilt the device to change the direction. On Mac, gravity pulls toward the bottom of the page.

Common questions

Why is my drawing floating?

Gravity starts off. Turn on the downward-arrow control to make ink fall. If the page is paused, use Resume physics. With gravity off, you can still move ink using the Forces tool.

How do I cut or join ink?

Open Crossing behavior and choose one of three options. Cut old ink lets your new stroke slice through existing objects. Cut new ink leaves gaps where your drawing crosses existing ink. Merge joins intersecting ink into one object. Ordinary collisions do not join objects. Undo restores the last gesture.

How do I fill a shape?

Turn on Fill closed shapes, then draw a closed loop or place a shape. On iPhone and iPad, Fill is in the bottom controls between Pen thickness and Colors. A visible gap stays open. Fill applies when you create a shape; it does not fill everything already on the page. Filled ink can still be cut.

How do I make a stamp bigger?

Choose Shapes and select a silhouette. Tap the page to stamp it, hold to grow it, and drag to position it before lifting. Your color, thickness, fill and crossing choices are used for the stamp.

How do I reuse my own shapes?

Draw a closed shape, then open Shapes and choose the clock-arrow Recent shapes category. Select your drawing and stamp it on the page. The bank keeps up to 40 recent closed drawings locally; stamping one brings it to the front. Older entries can leave the recent bank when new ones are added, while your saved canvases remain separate. A stroke must enclose a space in its visible ink to enter the bank; open lines that enclose no space are not added.

Opening Shapes activates your remembered shape. Opening Forces activates your remembered force. You can choose another item in the bank or return to the page and use the remembered choice.

What do the forces do?

Push follows your finger and shoves the ink it meets. Hold Tornado to draw nearby pieces into a growing swirl. Hold Explosion to charge, then lift to release the blast. Hold Blender to spin and slice nearby ink. Hold Fireworks for scattered bursts. On Mac, click and drag to place and move a force. A force gesture can be undone.

Where are my earlier pages?

Open Canvas gallery. The app automatically saves your work locally, and Fresh page keeps the previous canvas in the gallery. Tap a saved canvas to continue playing with it. Pages do not automatically sync between devices.

How do I save a picture on iPhone or iPad?

Tap Save and allow the app to add images when asked. Saving first preserves the current editable canvas in the local gallery, then exports a picture to Photos. The saved picture includes the paper and ink. It is an image, not an editable physics canvas. Photos may sync that picture to your other devices if you use iCloud Photos. The success checkmark is brief, and the normal save control returns after a moment. Tap again whenever you want to save another picture.

Touch and hold the Save control to open the system share sheet, then choose a destination or action. You can also use the control's Share picture accessibility action. Opening this sheet does not require granting the app permission to add pictures to Photos. The shared picture includes the paper and ink; it is not an editable canvas or a copy of your whole gallery. The receiving app or service handles the picture under its own policies.

I declined Photos permission on iPhone or iPad. Can I change it?

Open the device's Settings, find Scribble Around, and allow the app to add photos. Return to the app and save again. Drawing and the local gallery work without Photos access. If saving still fails, check that the device has storage available.

Why is there no sound?

Sound starts off. Use the Sound control to turn it on, then check the device volume and silent setting. On iPhone and iPad, Sound is at the upper left beside Gravity and Pause. Sound pauses when the app is inactive or audio is interrupted. The app does not record through the microphone.

Why does the paper stay still when I rotate my device?

On iPhone, iPad and Android, the page stays fixed during play so turning the device does not rearrange your drawing. The tool symbols rotate in place to stay readable. With Gravity enabled, the ink follows the direction of tilt.

What do the two small counts mean?

Creations counts the drawing and stamping gestures committed to that canvas. Pieces counts the separate objects currently on it, so cutting can increase pieces without adding creations. Older canvases may have an unknown earlier creation count.

Does it work offline? Are there accounts or subscriptions?

Drawing, shapes, forces and the local gallery work offline. There are no in-app accounts, subscriptions, advertisements or in-app purchases.

Does Apple Pencil change the thickness?

Apple Pencil and finger drawing are supported. Choose Fine, Medium or Bold in Pen thickness. Pencil pressure does not change stroke width.

Can I recover artwork after deleting the app?

The developer does not have a copy of your canvases. A device backup may contain app data, depending on your settings and when it was made. Save important pictures to Photos before deleting the app. Offloading keeps local documents and data; deleting removes them. Starting Fresh page does not delete your gallery.

The page has become crowded or a limit message appeared. What should I do?

The app limits the amount of material on a page to keep play manageable. Undo the last gesture or start a fresh page. Your earlier canvas remains in the gallery. A long stroke may stop accepting more ink when the page reaches its point limit.

Mac

How do I play on Mac?

Use your mouse or trackpad to draw: click, drag, then release. Click to stamp a shape; keep holding to grow it and drag to position it. The same Cut, Merge, Fill and force tools are available. Gravity always pulls toward the bottom of the page; moving your Mac does not change it.

What does the Mac app need?

Scribble Around requires macOS 15 or later. Its canvas is a resizable window. Saved pages remain in the local gallery on that Mac; the app does not synchronize them with your phone or tablet.

Android

Tap Save to add a PNG to Pictures/Scribble Around in the device's image storage. You do not need to grant broad photo-library access. Hold Save to choose a destination in the system share chooser. The exported file is a picture of the paper and ink, not an editable canvas.

What is kept on my Android device?

The app keeps canvases, thumbnails, drawing settings and a bank of up to 40 recent closed drawings in local app storage. Stamping a recent drawing brings it to the front of the bank. Older recent shapes can leave the bank as new ones are added; your saved gallery canvases are separate.

Android's backup and device-transfer services may include your saved canvases, history and settings, depending on your device settings. The app does not continuously sync galleries between devices. Clearing app storage or uninstalling removes the local app records; exported images remain in shared picture storage. Do not clear storage as a troubleshooting step if you want to keep your local canvases.

What does the Android app need?

The Android build requires a 64-bit device running Android 10 or later. Drawing works with touch and compatible stylus input. A motion sensor lets tilt control gravity; sensor availability varies by device. Sound is optional and starts off. The app does not need an account or an internet connection for its drawing tools and local gallery.

Get help

Privacy and Support are also available at the bottom of Canvas gallery. They open this website.

Email Dan at danbretl@gmail.com for help with Scribble Around. You can ask a question by email without a GitHub account.

Open a support issue to contact the developer. Posting requires a GitHub account. Reports and attachments are public, so do not include personal details, private drawings or a child's information. A parent or guardian should handle support on a child's behalf. You can read existing reports without posting.

Include the device model, iOS, iPadOS, macOS or Android version, app version, what you expected and what happened. A short list of steps is useful. Attach a nonprivate picture only if it helps explain the issue. Do not delete the app as a troubleshooting step if you want to keep its local canvases.

See the Privacy Policy for app storage, website hosting and support-data details.