Book › Symmetry

Symmetry key y

Repeat every stroke with symmetry. Tile repeats your marks across a lattice; Radial mirrors them around a centre - a kaleidoscope; Mirror reflects across a line; Concentric scales copies into nested rings; and Spiral winds them around the centre. It works with any brush.

What it is

Symmetry is a tool, not a brush - it lives in its own box (open it from the navbar Windows menu or press y). Pick a mode and draw: whatever you draw is copied to every mirrored position at once. It mirrors everything - the painted marks and your drawing's memory - so the connecting web threads across the whole pattern, not just within one copy. Guide lines on the canvas show where the copies fall.

One mode at a time: None, Tile, Radial, Mirror, Concentric or Spiral. Whatever brush you have selected (Web, Shapes, Marker…) is the one that gets repeated, so the symmetry is yours to combine with any look.

Tile

Tiles your strokes across a regular lattice. Draw a small motif and it copies to each junction within Reach of where you started, fading toward the edge. Because the memory is mirrored too, the connecting web links the whole tiling into one connected fabric - lovely for wallpaper, weaves and repeating textures.

X spacing / Y spacing: Distance between junctions across and down - the pattern's pitch.
Reach: How far the motif tiles out from the anchor junction.
Falloff: How sharply copies fade toward the reach edge. 0 = flat (every copy full strength); higher = a soft vignette.
Fill canvas: Repeat the motif across the whole canvas at full strength instead of a faded patch around your stroke - Reach and Falloff grey out (they no longer apply). Works best with a small motif: it lands in every tile, edge to edge.

Try this Draw one small flourish near the top-left and watch it bloom into a whole repeating field. Tighten the spacing for dense wallpaper, widen it for an airy lattice; lower the Falloff for an even tile, raise it to feather the edges. Or switch on Fill canvas to flood the whole page with the motif.

Radial

Mirrors your strokes radially around the canvas centre - the classic kaleidoscope. A single off-centre gesture becomes a symmetric bloom; the guide spokes show the wedges. With the memory mirrored, the web reaches across the wedges, so the rings connect into lace-like rosettes.

A single off-centre gesture under Radial symmetry, with a Rainbow web - one stroke blooms into a full mandala.
Captured in the app with Record GIF: press r (or pick it from the canvas menu), draw to start, then preview, set the speed, trim the ends and save.

Segments: How many wedges the circle is divided into (more = finer symmetry).
Mirror: Reflect each wedge as well as rotating it (a true kaleidoscope). Off = pure rotation.

Try this Set 6 segments with Mirror on and sketch a few strokes between the centre and the edge - you'll grow a snowflake. Draw nearer the centre for a tight rosette, nearer the rim for an open wreath. Pair it with the Sketchy or Shaded style for soft, webbed petals.

Mirror

Reflects your strokes across a single line through the centre - a one-line Radial. Use the quick buttons - Vertical mirrors left↔right, Horizontal top↔bottom - or set any Angle for a diagonal mirror. Draw on one side and it appears flipped on the other - perfect for faces, butterflies, vases and anything bilaterally symmetric.

Vertical / Horizontal: Quick presets for the two common mirror lines.
Angle: Tilt the mirror line to any angle (90 = vertical, 0 = horizontal) for a diagonal reflection.

Try this Set a Vertical mirror and sketch half a face down one side of the centre line; the other half mirrors as you go. Switch the connecting web on for a soft, symmetric portrait.

Concentric

Stamps your stroke as a set of copies scaled around the centre - nested rings, like a mandala. Each ring is a smaller (or larger) copy of the one before. The memory is mirrored too, so the connecting web threads between the rings.

Rings: How many copies radiate from the centre, including the original.
Scale %: Size of each ring vs the previous. Under 100 shrinks inward; over 100 grows outward.
Twist: Rotate each ring a little for a spiral mandala. 0 = pure concentric rings.

Try this Draw a small motif off-centre with 6 rings at about 75% scale - it nests into a mandala. Add a little Twist to set the rings spinning inward.

Spiral

Winds copies around the centre, each one rotated a step further and scaled a little - a log spiral. Add arms to repeat the whole spiral evenly around the centre, for pinwheels and galaxies.

Copies: How many copies march around the spiral (per arm).
Arms: Repeat the whole spiral this many times around the centre.
Angle step: Degrees of rotation between copies. Copies × Angle step = the total sweep.
Scale %: Size of each copy vs the previous. Under 100 spirals inward; 100 = a flat rotational fan.

Try this Try 20 copies, an angle step of about 20° and 92% scale for a tight inward spiral; bump Arms to 3 for a pinwheel, or set Scale to 100 for a flat rotational fan.

Moving the centre

Radial, Mirror, Concentric and Spiral all pivot around a centre point. By default that is the middle of the canvas, but the Centre sliders (X / Y, as a percent of the canvas) move it anywhere - off-centre mandalas, a mirror line down one side, a spiral flung into a corner. The Recentre button snaps it back to the middle, and a small crosshair on the canvas marks where the centre is.

Works with any brush

Symmetry repeats whatever brush is active. Web gives webbed mandalas; Shapes builds faceted, crystalline patterns; Marker lays bold kaleidoscope ribbons; the Seed brush seeds a mirrored scaffold of dots for a later connecting pass.