Plain Paint Support
Plain Paint is a simple drawing app for iPad. It opens straight to a blank canvas, with no layers and no setup.
Requirements
- iPadOS 17.0 or later
- iPad only
- Apple Pencil supported (drawing with a finger also works)
Gestures
- Two-finger tap
- Undo
- Three-finger tap
- Redo
- Two-finger pinch
- Zoom the canvas
- Two-finger rotate
- Rotate the canvas
- Two-finger drag
- Move the canvas
- Touch and hold
- Eyedropper
Saving
Your drawing is saved automatically. There is no unsaved state to worry about. The checkmark in the top bar shows where you stand:
- Orange
- There are changes not yet saved. Tap it to save now.
- Grey
- Everything is saved.
Your drawing is saved when:
- you tap the checkmark
- you open the gallery
- you switch away from the app
- you stop drawing for 15 seconds
Backing up your drawings
Your drawings live inside Plain Paint. If you delete the app, they are deleted with it. There is no cloud sync. To keep a drawing, tap the export icon at the top right to save it to Photos.
Questions
Where are my drawings?
Tap the grid icon at the top left to open the gallery. All your drawings are kept there.
How do I send a drawing to Photos?
Tap the download icon at the top right.
The app opens blank every time
That's intended. Plain Paint always starts on a fresh sheet, so you never have to decide whether to keep or clear the last one. Your previous drawings are in the gallery.
My hand touches the screen and draws while I'm using the Pencil
Turn off Draw with Finger in Settings (the gear icon in the top bar). Gestures and touch-and-hold to pick up a color still work with your finger when it's off.
Saving to Photos doesn't work
Plain Paint needs permission to add images to your photo library. If you tapped Don't Allow the first time, iPadOS won't ask again. Open Settings › Plain Paint and turn on adding to Photos.