Support manual
Photo Express
A complete guide to editing photos, managing layers, creating frame animation and using every keyboard shortcut.
Photo editor
Open, view and save
Open
Choose one or more image files. The first image sets the document size; every image opens on its own layer.
Drag and drop
Drop image files anywhere over the editor to open them as layers.
Paste an image
Paste an image copied from another app. It appears centered on a new movable layer.
Zoom
Use the − and + buttons, choose 100%, or hold Ctrl/Cmd while scrolling. Zoom ranges from 5% to 800%.
PNG
Exports the visible result as photo-express.png and preserves transparency.
JPG
Exports the visible result as photo-express.jpg with a white background.
Status
The bottom-left readout shows document dimensions and the pointer position in pixels.
Photo editor tools
V · Move
Click visible content to pick its topmost layer, then drag to move it. Drag a square handle to resize; corners keep proportions unless Shift is held. Drag a blue corner dot to rotate; hold Shift to snap to 15° steps.
M · Rectangle Select
Drag a rectangular area for cut, copy, clearing or pasting.
L · Lasso
Click points to build a straight-edged outline. Click the first point, double-click, or press Enter to close it. Hold Alt and drag for a continuous freehand outline.
J · Lift Selection
Outline an area like Lasso. Closing the outline copies its contents to a separate movable layer and leaves the source unchanged.
C · Crop
Drag the part of the document to keep. Releasing the pointer trims the canvas to that area.
B · Brush
Paint with the foreground color. Set size, edge hardness and opacity in the bar above the canvas; the pointer ring shows the affected area.
E · Eraser
Erase pixels from the active layer. Size, hardness, opacity and the live pointer ring work like the Brush.
G · Paint Bucket
Fill a connected area on the active layer. Tolerance controls how similar neighboring colors must be.
N · Line
Drag to draw a straight line with the chosen color, size and opacity.
U · Rectangle
Drag to draw a rectangle. Turn Fill on for a solid shape or off for an outline.
O · Ellipse
Drag to draw an ellipse. Turn Fill on for a solid shape or off for an outline.
T · Text
Click the canvas, enter text in the prompt, and place it using the chosen font size, color and opacity.
I · Eyedropper
Click the visible image to make that pixel the foreground color.
Colors
Click the overlapping swatches to choose foreground and background colors. Choose swap or press X to exchange them.
Selections and clipboard
Cut
Copies the selected pixels, removes them from the active layer, and closes the selection.
Copy
Copies pixels inside the selection without changing the layer. Photo Express also tries to place the result on the system clipboard.
Paste
Creates a new layer from the latest copied selection or an image on the system clipboard. Clipboard permission may be requested.
All / Deselect
Select the whole document or remove the current marching-ants outline.
Delete selection
Backspace or Delete clears pixels inside the selection without deleting the layer.
Layers, adjustments and transforms
Layer list
Click a layer to make it active. Rename it in place, use the eye to show or hide it, and use the arrow buttons to change its stacking order.
New / Delete
Create a transparent document-sized layer or remove the active layer. The final remaining layer cannot be deleted.
Layer opacity
Fade the active layer from fully transparent to fully opaque.
Blend mode
Combine the active layer with layers below using Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay and other blend modes.
Adjustments
Preview brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, blur, grayscale, sepia and invert on the active layer. Apply commits the result; Reset returns the sliders to defaults.
Transforms
Flip the active layer horizontally or vertically, or rotate it 90° clockwise.
Undo history
Undo and redo document edits. Photo Express keeps up to 40 editor states.
Animation studio
Animation tools and editable shapes
Open Animation from the top-right of the photo editor. The studio uses its own 800 × 500 canvas and does not import photo-editor layers.
V · Select
Click a line, rectangle or ellipse to reveal its editing handles. Drag the shape to move it; click empty space or press Esc to hide the handles.
Resize / rotate
Drag a white corner square to resize an editable shape. Drag the blue dot above it to rotate; hold Shift to snap to 15° steps.
Shape styling
While a shape is selected, Color, Size and Fill shape update that object. Brush strokes and bucket fills are painted pixels and cannot be selected as objects.
B · Brush / E · Eraser
Paint or erase freehand pixels. The circular pointer follows the cursor and shows the selected size.
N · Line / U · Rectangle / O · Ellipse
Drag to create an editable object. Rectangles and ellipses can be filled or outlined.
G · Fill
Fill a connected painted area. Editable shape outlines act as walls while the fill stays on the paint layer underneath them.
Background
Choose the canvas background shown in every frame and included in the exported sprite sheet.
Delete shape
Select a shape, then use Delete shape, Backspace or Delete. Paint strokes must be erased instead.
Undo
Undo changes on the current frame. Each frame keeps up to 30 states.
Frames and playback
Timeline
Click a thumbnail to edit that frame. The readout shows the current frame, total frames and animation duration.
New frame
Inserts a blank frame immediately after the current frame.
Duplicate
Copies the current frame and its editable shapes into a new frame. Use this when the same object should continue across frames.
Delete frame
Removes the current frame. If it is the only frame, its contents are cleared instead.
Move frame
Use the left and right chevrons to reorder the current frame in the timeline.
Onion skin
While editing, shows the previous frame at low opacity to help line up motion.
FPS
Choose playback speed from 1 to 30 frames per second.
Loop
Restarts playback after the final frame. Turn it off to stop on the last frame.
Run animation
Plays or stops the timeline. Editing controls are paused during playback.
Sprite sheet
Downloads every frame side by side as one PNG named with its frame count and FPS.
Flow smoothly
Flow smoothly creates even in-between motion for one editable shape across a range of frames.
1 · Start
On the starting frame, select the shape and choose Flow smoothly. The button changes to Flow starts here · cancel.
2 · Carry it forward
Duplicate the frame so the shape keeps the same identity, then add or duplicate frames until the ending frame.
3 · Set the ending pose
On the ending frame, select that same shape and move, resize, rotate or restyle it.
4 · Stop
Choose Stop flow smoothly. Photo Express evenly fills the shape's position, size, rotation and stroke size across every frame in between.
Cancel
On the starting frame, choose Flow starts here · cancel to remove the pending start point.
Important
A newly drawn replacement is a different object and cannot complete the flow. Duplicate frames to carry the original object forward.
Keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl on Windows and Linux; Cmd on macOS. Shortcuts do not run while typing in a field.
Objects
Move, resize and rotate layers or animation shapes with visible handles.
Selections
Select, lasso, lift, cut, copy and paste image areas into new layers.
Adjustments
Preview and apply color, tone, blur and transform changes per layer.
Motion
Build frames, preview with onion skin and interpolate objects smoothly.