Inking

The Inking workspace is built for deliberate line work or inky chaos. It is the stage where drawing stops being exploratory and starts becoming committed: controlled strokes, clear edge definition, and marks that need to hold their shape with confidence. Or just let loose with expressive splattering, looping lines, dry nib scratches, and wild sumi strokes.

Below are some of the tools and modes that make that possible.

Sumi Preset

The sumi brush is not entirely tamed. Instead of behaving like a single brush tip, it is built from many independent brush heads or bristle bundles working together as a dynamic formation. The result can shift from wet drags to broken dry streaks, tangled fibres, or explosive textured edges depending on pressure, speed, spacing, and gesture.

There is a wide range of control over how the formation behaves, and combining it with dynamics, textures, and stamp variation can produce an enormous range of marks.

Calligraphic Preset

Calligraphic mode turns the Brush tool into a continuous chisel-pen stroke rather than a row of stamped dabs. The bundled calligraphic preset also uses the tilt angle of the stylus as an extra axis of control, so the stroke can respond not just to pressure but to how the pen is being held. It is useful for firm, shaped marks that need to read as a single ribbon of ink, even when angle and pressure are changing.

Zig-zag Preset

The Zig-zag preset sharpens corners when the stroke changes direction quickly, producing crisp, angular turns with a snap that smooth curves can’t achieve. Useful for energetic, graphic linework and hatching.

Sable Preset

The classic comic brush line. Fluid, variable-weight strokes with a confident thick-to-thin rhythm; the kind of line Watterson or Uderzo would recognise.

Nib Preset

Inspired by the Waverly nib, the preset tolerates fast movement and directional changes while still producing sharp, expressive ink lines. Because the ink load depletes as you work, strokes can begin dark and saturated, then break into scratchier, starved marks as the nib empties.

Tip Preset

The dead line of a technical drawing pen. Consistent width, clean edges, and little to no stroke variation. Useful for construction lines, diagrams, lettering, and controlled graphic work where uniformity matters more than expression. Some of our favorate animations use this line.

Flick Preset

Designed for flicking gestures and scattered directional sprays. Depending on speed, pressure, and spacing, strokes can range from subtle and light scatter to heavier thrown droplets. Useful for textural work, and expressive finishing touches.