Brush tool improvements by StickmanRed · Pull Request #173 · Candlestickers/Candlestick

StickmanRed · 2026-07-14T03:17:14Z

Features

Improved brush settings UI in Inspector
Brush shape options
Brush spacing and resolution sliders
Randomized brush offset and rotation options

…ponent

InternetAstronaut

LGTM

BaronAWC

First of all I wanna say this is awesome, thanks for putting in all this effort. It works well but I wanna see if we can improve the experience. It's a long and scary list but I think these are all important to address.

Clarity

"Reso" (resolution) doesn't really make sense as a name from the user's perspective. As devs we know why it's resolution, but it would be nice if resolution was renamed to something that everyone can understand. My suggestion would be "quality".
Spread should not have a button to toggle a slider between 0.01 and the max, it should just be a slider between 0 and the max. Also, it's called "scatter" in one place and "spread" in another, so let's make sure that the name is standardized.
We should consider removing some of the preset shapes and/or putting them in a dropdown. While they're nice to have, it creates the illusion of so many buttons that it's overwhelming. The plus sign also makes me think that it's a button to add a new brush shape, which is not how it works. I think that, at minimum, we should remove the rough, scatter, and plus. The dropdown is so that we can hide away all the buttons when we don't really need them.
The "delete brush" button should be grayed out and non-interactive if there is only one brush.
There are a bunch of buttons that should be moved or removed.
- In the brush selector, the "add brush" and "upload brush" buttons should be related. This could mean putting them in a dropdown where all the other brushes are, or 2 large buttons where "edit brush" is now.
- Also in the brush selector, "edit brush" and "delete brush" should be similar. In my opinion it's weird that the edit button is big while the delete button is small. They should probably go together at the bottom.
- The way that "delete brush" and "delete shape" are both trash can buttons in the same location is really confusing. The previous checkbox already has my suggestion for delete brush. For delete shape, it really shouldn't be in the same row of buttons as everything else since it serves a completely different function. I don't know where exactly it should go... but not where it is now.
- When editing a brush, the pressure, relative size, and mode buttons should not be there. They are accessible when outside of the brush editor because they can change at any time without "altering the fundamental brush". Therefore, the brush editor should not show these, as it's only for the "important" settings.

Customizability

Some shapes like the thin rectangle rotate to follow the cursor as it moves, but other brushes like the square don't. This makes me think that the rotation thing is defined in the brush shape, which doesn't make sense. I think there should be 3 rotation options: set offset angle (default is zero), follow mouse (with offset angle), and randomize angle.

Visual Improvements

When dragging the sliders, the preview flickers quite a bit, which is distracting. Hopefully there's a way to remove the flickering?
I found some inconsistencies in the shapes. The sparkle in the preview is in an "X" shape, but it's in a "+" shape everywhere else. The moon looks different in all 3 places: on the canvas it's closest to a "C" shape, on the button it's not as sharp, and in the preview it's cut weirdly.
When using a big brush size, the brush path before releasing the mouse is pretty low resolution. Is it possible to increase the resolution so that it looks nicer?
The triangle shape is not equilateral... I don't know, that kinda bugs me. (If we fix this, make the centroid/center of mass the middle of the shape if that's even possible)

Safeguards

We should have preset brushes that cannot be significantly modified or deleted. For the standard brush, the only customizable settings should what we offer in the current version of Candlestick, plus maybe the resolution/smoothing.
It's a little dangerous to be able to delete some of the fundamental shapes, especially the circle. I toyed with deleting stuff and I had to clear my cookies to bring back the default shapes. I'd say that the default shapes should not be allowed to be deleted, or at bare minimum the circle.
There should be a cancel button to exit the brush config without saving it.

Alani25 · 2026-09-07T23:46:03Z

"Reso" (resolution) doesn't really make sense as a name from the user's perspective. As devs we know why it's resolution, but it would be nice if resolution was renamed to something that everyone can understand. My suggestion would be "quality".

I was aiming for a shorter name to not have it cut off and reso sounded catchy lol
that said yeh quality is definitely more descriptive

Spread should not have a button to toggle a slider between 0.01 and the max

It started as a button, later turned to a slider, then I increased lower limit to 0.01 because having it at 0 bugged something— that said it makes a lot more sense to have it be just a slider correct yeh and I'll just turn it off if it's 0.

Also, it's called "scatter" in one place and "spread" in another

You're right! Idk how I missed that ahh few weeks back I called it scatter later in the code I just decided to call it spread when I made the slider 😓

We should consider removing some of the preset shapes and/or putting them in a dropdown.

A dropdown is possible but an easier option I was actually considering is horizontal scroll 🤔

When editing a brush, the pressure, relative size, and mode buttons should not be there. They are accessible when outside of the brush editor because they can change at any time without "altering the fundamental brush". Therefore, the brush editor should not show these, as it's only for the "important" settings.

Good point here this I can do
Also, in regards to all the points with the trash can button… might be a good idea to have a mini "x" that appears when hovering over the brush presets/ shape options…

3 rotation options: set offset angle (default is zero), follow mouse (with offset angle), and randomize angle.

Agree with you there

When dragging the sliders, the preview flickers quite a bit, which is distracting
I noticed… kinda a given since we're updating an image element and re-rendering. I've thought of that and a way to stop it— was just too lazy to work on it but should be doable

When using a big brush size, the brush path before releasing the mouse is pretty low resolution. Is it possible to increase the resolution so that it looks nicer?
I'll say "no" to that for now… but will see what i can do there

We should have preset brushes that cannot be significantly modified or deleted
I can agree with that that said we'd need to have some indicator there or just Idk— that said an "adobe brush" has been demanded and would be great to have as a preset option

There should be a cancel button to exit the brush config without saving it.
Perhaps adding a "<-" button up there next to the name parameter, then replacing the save brush button with a "reset settings" 🤔

…iting mode

Alani25 · 2026-09-13T04:37:46Z

Note to self: Allow drag and dropping .cbrush files to import brush assets

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T04:39:45Z

brush is a normal circle brush brushSize+1 is removed, since that is a remnant of the old wick brush default brush rotation is "fixed" brush rotation dropdown reordered to "fixed", "path", "random" to follow the natural order from no-rotation to all-rotation "new brush" tooltip renamed to "create"

BaronAWC

Code-related comments:

Main comments here are about moving code out of Inspector.jsx and into either Brush.js or a new file(s).

Additionally, in the code itself, we should standardize terms like spread/scatter, resolution/quality, etc.

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T05:41:40Z

+// Default brushes — structured like a parsed .cbrush JSON for easy migration later.
+// Each field matches the keys stored/loaded by saveBrush / applyBrush.
+// FIXME: these "default" values are in 3 places (search for this same comment)
+const DEFAULT_BRUSHES = [


I feel like this default brush doesn't have to be in Inspector.jsx, it makes more sense either in Brush.js or possibly somewhere else

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T05:45:09Z

+  },
+];
+
+const BRUSH_SHAPES = [


I would imagine this is redundant, since the brush shapes exist somewhere else. When creating a new brush shape, the editor also knows how to create the preview, so I'd imagine it's doable for these default shapes too.

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T05:45:47Z

+    svg: <><circle cx="14" cy="14" r="4"/><circle cx="7" cy="8" r="3"/><circle cx="21" cy="8" r="2.5"/><circle cx="7" cy="20" r="3"/><circle cx="21" cy="20" r="2.5"/></> },
+];
+
+const ROTATION_MODE_OPTIONS = [


These only seem to be used once, so I wonder if it makes more sense to hardcode

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T05:48:42Z

+  }
+
+  // BRUSH PREVIEW— we're literally drawing a brush stroke here -H.A.
+  drawBrushPreview = () => {


Could the brush preview go to a separate file? It's not really suitable in the inspector file

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T05:53:19Z

+    if (this.brushFileInputRef.current) this.brushFileInputRef.current.click();
+  }
+
+  handleBrushFileImport = (e) => {


Import/export could probably go into a different file - doesn't make sense in inspector

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T05:57:37Z

@@ -70,10 +70,6 @@ class ToolSettings extends Component {
    return (
      <div className='settings-input-container'>
        {this.renderBrushSize()}


we may not even need brush size here, since it's in the inspector now

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T06:01:51Z

    )
  }

+  renderBrushResolution = () => {


this is unused?

BaronAWC · 2026-09-13T07:29:26Z

+        }
+
+        // Crescent needs compositing — handle separately
+        if (shape === 'crescent') {


Can the brush shapes go into a separate file?

BaronAWC · 2026-09-18T21:24:27Z

I quickly fixed the default brush settings in one final place, which should make it consistent with the other 3 places. (Speaking of which, we should try to only have it in one place)

Also, I'm not sure how to reproduce this, but sometimes the fill color of the brush preview will disappear entirely, leaving just the outline. Has anyone else encountered this?

StickmanRed · 2026-09-19T04:26:59Z

I quickly fixed the default brush settings in one final place, which should make it consistent with the other 3 places. (Speaking of which, we should try to only have it in one place)

I think we should try to move all the brush shape-drawing logic into an engine file, maybe tools/BrushUtils.js. The logic is replicated several times, just with different color, position, or rotation, but relative to those factors, the shape-drawing commands should be the same. This could be a function Wick.Brush.Utils.drawBrushShape(ctx, size, shape, args) that can be used for the cursor image, brush tip, and brush preview, saving duplicated logic and ensuring a consistent brush shape.

StickmanRed added 8 commits July 7, 2026 20:33

Add functioning brush resolution

bc2bc02

Add brush smoothness slider to inspector

7adf7ff

Fix brush stroke getting cut off and offset from browser zoom

5a4d4bc

Add some test sliders for paper.js tolerance and smoothness factor ex…

28491c7

…ponent

normalized inspector smoothness slider

f2847ec

Make brush resolution a setting

2d66e13

Remove unused smoothness property

a288b2c

Modify easing of brush resolution setting

0c599e4

StickmanRed linked an issue Jul 14, 2026 that may be closed by this pull request

[BUG] brush precision decreases with smaller brushes #64

Open

StickmanRed marked this pull request as ready for review July 23, 2026 20:27

Alani25 and others added 11 commits July 31, 2026 20:48

Merge branch 'development' into StickmanRed-brush-resolution-setting

2e572be

scale croquis canvas by canvas scale factor (bug fix)

59cf8cb

moved brush ui to inspector

a568862

added brush UI to inspector

9b9445c

added brush spacing and potrace detail brush sliders

d82eff4

brush settings - added labels and reset slider buttons

e84e967

fixed fmmpeg issue by fixing file path

3630600

ffmpeg-core issue fix

7030386

brush shape and inspector setting fixes

ea36d79

fixed brush spread bug

8661632

random rotation

6233098

StickmanRed changed the title ~~Brush resolution setting~~ Brush tool improvements Aug 20, 2026

StickmanRed added the enhancement New feature or request label Aug 20, 2026

StickmanRed linked an issue Aug 20, 2026 that may be closed by this pull request

New Brushes #18

Open

Alani25 added 6 commits September 6, 2026 16:12

fixed ffmpeg build

6a29294

custom brush preview

bf3c986

increased spread lower range limit to 1e-2 to avoid bug

1a20b52

custom brush preview

1a68b9e

update brush preview more frequently

66dd3cb

reso default set to 0.75

77a2306

Alani25 added 5 commits September 7, 2026 13:04

added brush preset and shape delete buttons

314ef5b

disabled deleting shapes being used by other presets

51b02dc

brush preset name parameter

5af52ee

brush sets inspector title

403a37a

adjusted brush preview to be more accurate

f7c6f0d

Alani25 requested a review from BaronAWC September 7, 2026 21:23

InternetAstronaut approved these changes Sep 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

BaronAWC requested changes Sep 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

Alani25 added 11 commits September 12, 2026 16:14

removed spread for slider, removed brush usage settings from brush ed…

14c9b3b

…iting mode

replaced trash with x over buttons for more compact UI

9b05e83

renamed reso to quality as per baron's request

c246475

added rotation options and dropdown

a77b9b2

added cancel icon & button for brush editing

d0bb395

adjusted rotation angle param & slider reset

c36a21a

combined new brush and import brush buttons with popover

14cd67c

frame overlay preview to prevent 'flickering'

b41ad26

changed default shapes & spread default to 0

c31ba89

adjusted preview rotation

bb3c526

brush cursor matches brush shape

cacb0b8

Alani25 requested a review from BaronAWC September 13, 2026 03:48

BaronAWC added 3 commits September 12, 2026 21:58

hide size and lead when editing brush

6397e2b

update warning to stylistically match other warnings

746eafc

BaronAWC requested changes Sep 13, 2026

View reviewed changes

update default brush values again

416595d

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StickmanRed commented Jul 14, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Clarity

Customizability

Visual Improvements

Safeguards

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Alani25 commented Sep 7, 2026

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Alani25 commented Sep 13, 2026

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BaronAWC commented Sep 13, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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BaronAWC commented Sep 18, 2026

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StickmanRed commented Sep 19, 2026

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StickmanRed commented Jul 14, 2026 •

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BaronAWC commented Sep 13, 2026 •

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