How can we help?

1. Download zkDraw, unzip the archive and run zkdraw.exe.
2. On first launch, open Help › Account and licence… then Sign in: a zkdraw.com page opens with a code. Check it is the same and confirm.
3. The free 14-day trial starts when you confirm your email address, with no credit card.
4. On the home screen, choose New comic (an album, its pages and panels) or New drawing (whole sheets at the size you want).
5. In the album, click a panel: it opens in the studio. Going back to the album saves it.

Each project is a .zkd file on your disk. The Help menu (F1 key) also opens this help inside the app.

• Brushes: 81 brushes in families (ink, pencil, paint, tools). Size, opacity and stabilizer are remembered for each brush.
• The puck: drag up or down for the size, sideways for the opacity. A tap opens the settings or the colour. On the keyboard: [ and ] for the size, 1 to 9 for the opacity.
• Stabilizer: it smooths out a shaky hand; the stroke follows with a slight delay.
• Colour (C): wheel, shades, HSL or RGB sliders, swatches. The eyedropper (I) picks a colour from the drawing.
• Layers (L): pencils, inks, tones and colours kept apart, with opacity, blend modes and locks. The blue pencil layer is left out of exports.
• Selection: rectangle (M) or lasso (V), then move, resize, rotate, copy.
• Symmetry (S), shapes (U), focus and speed line effects (Y), perspective templates.
• Quick menu: right click, stylus button or long press on the sheet.
• Moving around: Ctrl + wheel to zoom, hold Space to move the sheet, 0 to fit it to the screen.
• Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Y redoes, Ctrl+S saves.

• When you create it: format (Franco-Belgian album, A4, A5, B5 manga, US comics, square or custom), orientation, number of pages and a layout among nine.
• The page editor lets you move a border, cut a panel diagonally or draw a panel by hand.
• Cover, bleed, page numbers and reading direction (left to right or manga).
• In the studio, the page preview (K) shows the whole page while you draw, and onion skin (J) shows the previous panel see-through.
• Balloons, text and fonts are coming in a future version: for now, lettering is drawn by hand.

1. Open File › Export… (Ctrl+E).
2. Choose what to export: the panel, the page, the sheet or the whole album (and which pages).
3. Choose the format: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PSD with layers (panel or sheet), PDF or CBZ for e-readers (album).
4. Set the resolution, the colours (colour, greyscale, black and white line art), a transparent background, and for the printer: panel borders, bleed and crop marks.
5. Check the preview, then Export….

Printing: zkDraw doesn't print directly. Export to PDF (or PNG for a single image), then print that file from your PDF reader. For a professional printer, keep the bleed and crop marks.

• Windows: Win+Shift+S to pick an area (the image is copied, paste it with Ctrl+V), or Print Screen for the whole screen. The Snipping Tool saves it in Pictures › Screenshots.
• macOS: Cmd+Shift+4 for an area, Cmd+Shift+3 for the whole screen, Cmd+Shift+5 for options. The file lands on the desktop.
• Linux: Print Screen, or your desktop's screenshot tool.

To show a drawing, a PNG export (Ctrl+E) gives a sharper image than a screenshot. For a problem, capture the whole zkDraw window instead, error message included.

Then write to us: describe what you were doing and mention the screenshot; we'll answer by email and you can send it in your reply.

• Signing in: in zkDraw, Help › Account and licence… then Sign in. It happens in the browser: no password is typed into the app.
• Trial: 14 free days, no credit card, one trial per computer.
• One-time purchase: paid once, it gives zkDraw version 1 and all its updates for good, on up to 3 computers. The licence is still checked online, as with a subscription.
• Offline: zkDraw works up to 30 days without internet, then asks to check the subscription online.
• Devices: up to 3 devices signed in at once. Remove one from your account, a lost computer for instance; it is signed out at its next check.
• When the trial or subscription ends: your projects still open, can be edited and exported; creating a project, a page or keeping a sketch needs an active licence. See the plans.
• Cancelling: from your account, at any time. The subscription stays active until the end of the paid period.
• For a payment or invoice question, write to us from your account's address.

• Ctrl+N new comic, Ctrl+Shift+N new drawing, Ctrl+O open
• Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+Shift+S save as, Ctrl+W close the project, Ctrl+Q quit
• Ctrl+E export, Ctrl+, settings, F11 full screen, F1 help
• Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y redo, Ctrl+X Ctrl+C Ctrl+V cut, copy, paste, Esc deselect
• B last brush, E eraser, I eyedropper, G paint bucket, M rectangle selection, V lasso
• C colour, L layers, S symmetry, U shapes, Y effects
• K page preview, J onion skin, R reference image, Tab hide the interface
• [ ] brush size, 1 to 9 opacity, 0 fit the view, hold Space to move
• With a selection: arrows to move it, Delete to erase it.

• "Check online": zkDraw hasn't been able to check the subscription for 30 days. Connect the computer to the internet, then Help › Account and licence… › Check now.
• "Clock to fix": the computer's clock went backwards. Set the date and time right (automatic setting), then check online.
• "Not valid" or "This device was removed from the account": sign zkDraw in again with Sign in.
• "As many devices as it may": remove an old device in your account, then ask for a new code.
• No code, or zkdraw.com doesn't answer: check the internet connection and that a firewall isn't blocking zkDraw.
• No confirmation email: look in your spam folder, then send it again from your account.
• The window doesn't fill the screen: click the Maximise button in the title bar, or F11 for full screen.
• Finding a project: File › Open… (Ctrl+O). New projects go to the folder chosen in Edit › Settings…. Keep a copy of your .zkd files.
• The stylus draws badly: try another stabilizer level; on a touch screen, the "Stylus: fingers don't draw" setting ignores fingers.

Still stuck? Write to us with your system, the zkDraw version and a screenshot.