Free Online Drawing Pad

Seven brushes that behave differently rather than one brush with a size slider: a pen with a crisp edge, a pencil that varies with pressure, a broad marker, a translucent highlighter that darkens where strokes cross, a soft airbrush, a hard-edged pixel brush, and an eraser that genuinely removes pixels rather than painting white.

Each brush shows only the controls it actually uses. A hardness slider on the pixel brush would do nothing, and a panel full of dead controls teaches you to ignore all of them.

Smoothing has four settings and works by damping the wobble in your hand rather than by delaying the line — the stroke always reaches your cursor. Shapes include lines, arrows, rectangles, ellipses, triangles and stars, with an optional fill.

Keyboard shortcuts: B brush, E eraser, R rectangle, O ellipse, and Ctrl/Cmd+Z to undo.

Every drawing starts with one layer and you can add as many as you need. Each has its own visibility, lock and opacity; you can reorder them, rename them, or merge one into the layer below. Merging keeps your undo history rather than flattening it away.

Insert a PNG, JPEG or WebP as its own layer and annotate it — arrows, circles, highlighter and freehand. Because it lands on its own layer, you can move or delete your annotations without touching the picture underneath.

The image is read from your device with the browser’s own file API and never uploaded.

Whiteboard mode gives you a wide white canvas with a thick marker already selected and the detailed controls out of the way — for sketching an idea quickly rather than making a finished picture. Leave whiteboard mode whenever you like and your drawing comes with you.

PNG preserves transparency, so a drawing on a transparent background exports with one. JPEG is smaller but has no transparency, so it is flattened onto white first rather than silently turning black. WebP sits between the two.

To carry on later, save the project as a .zdraw file. That keeps your layers and every stroke, and opening it restores the drawing exactly — including its undo-able operations.

Nothing you draw is uploaded, and no account exists. Your work in progress is kept in this browser’s own storage so a reload does not lose it — which also means it is not backed up anywhere and clearing your browser data will remove it. Export anything you want to keep.

Is anything I draw uploaded?

No. Every brush stroke, every layer and every export happens on your device, inside your browser. Images you open stay local too. There is no account and no server involved — which also means your work is only in this browser, so export anything you want to keep.

Does it work with a stylus?

Yes. Where your pen reports pressure, it can control the width or the opacity of the stroke depending on the brush — the pen varies its width, the airbrush varies its opacity. You can turn pressure off in the brush panel. A mouse or finger draws at full pressure, so nothing goes faint or thin.

What are layers for?

Layers let you draw parts of a picture separately — sketch on one, ink on another, colour on a third — so you can change or delete one without touching the rest. Each layer has its own visibility, lock and opacity, and you can reorder them or merge one into the one below.

How does undo work?

Each continuous stroke is one undo step, so lifting the pen and drawing again gives you two. Undo is unlimited within a session and works across layers — it always removes the most recent thing you did, not just the most recent thing on the layer you happen to have selected.

Can I draw on a photo?

Yes. Insert an image as a layer and draw over it — useful for annotating a screenshot with arrows, circles and highlighter. The image is read from your device and never leaves it.

What is whiteboard mode?

A clean, wide canvas with a thick marker ready to go and the fussier controls out of the way — for explaining something quickly rather than making a picture. You can leave whiteboard mode at any time and keep what you drew.

How do I keep my drawing?

Export it. PNG keeps transparency, JPEG makes a smaller file with a white background, and WebP is a good middle ground. To carry on later, save the project as a .zdraw file — that keeps your layers and every stroke, and you can open it again here.

• Jigsaw PuzzlesTurn a picture into a puzzle.
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