Customizing your UI

Jump to Mobile or Windows 10

Each version of SketchBook Pro has tools for customizing the interface and/or tools. See the section below for the version you're using.

Customizing your UI in SketchBook Pro Desktop

The icons in the lagoon and tools found in the marking menus can be customized, along with the brushes in the Brush Palette. Move the tools you use the most to where you can get to them in a flick. If you spend a lot of time in SketchBook Pro, a few customizations can go a long way toward improving your productivity.

Don't forget, there are hotkeys to access tools quickly, as well. You can customize those, as well.

Customizing your desktop

In the Lagoon, the first icon at the top ( Interface Controls icon houses the Interface Controls. Use these to change your layout and set what interface elements are visible.

Interface Controls found in the SketchBook Pro lagoon

Full UI icon Full UI – Displays the toolbar and lagoon and flips it to the left corner of the canvas.

Title Bar Off icon Title Bar Off – Hide the standard Windows/Mac UI bar and SketchBook Pro menu bar. Select Full UI icon to get them back.

Lagoon Right icon Lagoon Right – Display the toolbar and lagoon and flips the lagoon to the right corner of the canvas.

UI Off icon UI Off – Hide the toolbar and lagoon.

Title Bar Only icon Title Bar Only – Display all the UI, with the exception of the lagoon. Select Full UI icon to get the lagoon back.

I can't find my Layer Editor, Color Editor, or other UI elements

If you either can't find an editor or other UI element or they are on one monitor, while your canvas is on the other, here is a quick fix:

  1. In the menu bar, select Window > Default Layout. This will centralize things.
  2. Next, either open the editors you need through the toolbar or by selecting them from the Window menu.

Where's my menu bar

If your menu bar is not visible, select Interface Controls icon, then Full UI icon.

I want to hide my UI

If you want to hide your interface to have your entire canvas to work on, select Interface Controls icon, then UI Off icon.

To turn everything back on, select Interface Controls icon, then Full UI icon.

Customizing your lagoon

The Lagoon (the round UI element) by default is found in the bottom left corner of the canvas. This where you can find lots of useful tools. It is gesture driven, like the Layer Editor.

Lagoon marking menus with their tool sets from the desktop version of SketchBook

Do one of the following:

Preferences - Lagoon icon customization

Change or rearrange the icons displayed in the lagoon, using the top section of the Lagoon Preferences. Use the existing icons or select new ones from the Custom Icons – Hotkey Assignments list to the right.

Customizing marking menus

Do one of the following:

Customize the marking menu for an icon in the lagoon, using the lower section of the Lagoon Preferences to add tools you commonly use.

Preferences - Lagoon customization

By default, the top marking menu icon is selected. In this case, it’s Zoom/Rotate/Move Canvas. In the Default SketchBook Pro Tools list to the right, you’ll see that Zoom/Rotate/Move Canvas is selected. To change the tool assigned to this location in the marking menu, scroll through the list to find a new tool and click it. You can always revert back to default settings by tapping Reset in the bottom left corner.

Changing Lagoon icons

You can manually swap out or rearrange the existing icons with any of the choices to the right. Simply click the icon you want to change. Once highlighted, select an icon from the list to the right. It will update the lagoon in this tab.

Do one of the following:

Lag-k-results

Once done, you can use hotkeys (1-6) or right-click to access these custom marking menus without visiting the lagoon. If you have made any custom changes to the lagoon marking menus, the hotkey assignment will have changed (based on your customization of the lagoon). The new custom marking menus will always be pinned to those hotkeys. The only way to reset them is to tap Reset to set them.

Lagoon position Mouse Stylus
Interface Controls icon First press 1, then right-click Press-hold 1 and pen-down (left click)
Tools icon First press 2, then right-click Press-hold 2 and pen-down (left click)
Brushes icon First press 3, then right-click Press-hold 3 and pen-down (left click)
Colors icon First press 4, then right-click Press-hold 4 and pen-down (left click
Edit icon First press 5, then right-click Press-hold 5 and pen-down (left click)
File icon First press 6, then right-click Press-hold 6 and pen-down (left click)

Naming custom brushes

When creating custom brushes, there are a few reasons it is important to assign names. The first is lagoon customization. Without names, you will have a hard time identifying your custom brushes from a list of Do-It-Yourself-Brushes and Do-It-Yourself-Brush copies. Once you've learned this the hard way and had to back-track to name these brushes in the Brushes marking menu, you'll see just how important this is. For instructions on how to do this, see How to rename brushes and brush sets.

Lag-k-defaultoptions Lag-k-doitur

Change the brush cursor

  1. Do one of the following:

    • For Windows users, select Edit > Preferences, then tap the Brush tab.
    • For Mac users, select SketchBook > Preferences, then tap the Brush tab.
  2. In the Brush Cross-hair section, select one of the following options to set your brush cursor appearance:

    • To hide the cursor, select Do not display cross-hair.
    • To display your cursor, select Display cross-hair.

Remove the brush outline

By default, a brush outline appears for the sharpen, blur, and smear brushes, eraser, and other low-opacity brushes such as the airbrush. This outline lets you see the brush size before you start drawing.

  1. Do one of the following:

    • For Windows users, select Edit > Preferences, then tap the Brush tab.
    • For Mac users, select SketchBook > Preferences, then tap the Brush tab.
  2. In the Brush Outline section, select the option you want. To remove the outline, select Off.

Changing the language displayed in the UI

If you want to change the language that is used for the UI, you can do this through the Preferences.

  1. In the second menu, Edit, select the last option, Preferences.

    Japanese UI UI for finding the Preferences in SketchBook

  2. In the first tab (General) of the window, select the Language option. It's the option with the dropdown menu.

    How to the change the UI language that's displayed in SketchBook How to the change the UI language that's displayed in SketchBook

  3. Select the language you want.

  4. Tap OK.

  5. Close SketchBook, then relaunch it. The language changes will now be visible.

Here are some other articles you might be interested in:

Customizing your UI in SketchBook Pro Mobile

You can customize your Corner Shortcuts and 3-finger Swipe tools, along with the brushes in the Brush Palette. If you spend a lot of time in SketchBook, a few customizations can go a long way toward improving your productivity.

Customizing the corner tools

Change your corner tools to ones you use all the time.

  1. Tap File icon in the SketchBook Pro Mobile version and select Preferences icon in the SketchBook Pro Mobile versionPreferences.

  2. Scroll down to the Corner Shortcuts section. Tap a corner tool to display a list of all available tools.

  3. Select a new tool from the list. This new tools will replace the previous one.

    Tap a corner tool to customize and change it in Autodesk SketchBook Pro Mobile

Customizing the 3-finger swipe menu

Change the tools accessed when you 3-finger swipe.

  1. Tap File icon in the SketchBook Pro Mobile version and select Preferences icon in the SketchBook Pro Mobile version Preferences.

  2. In the 3-finger Swipe Menu section, tap a tool you want to change to display a list of available tools.

  3. Select a new tool from the list. This new tools will replace the previous one.

    Customizing the 3-finger swipe tools

How to hide your UI

If you like to sketch without the visual clutter of the UI, tap Hide UI in the SketchBook Pro Mobile version to hide it.

For iPad users For accessing tools, you will be in Rapid UI mode and can access the Palette Sliders and Trigger. See Rapid UI mode for all the details.

For handheld device users When you need a tool, you can access the Corner tools or tools found in the marking menu. For any tools not in either of those, you will need to tap Hide UI in the SketchBook Pro Mobile version again to display the UI.

Changing the language displayed in the UI on Mobile

If you would like to change the language displayed in the app to something else, you can do this through the settings of your device.

iOS

Language settings on iPad Language settings for selecting the language on iOS

  1. On your device, open your Settings > General and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look for and tap Language & Region.
  2. Tap iPad Language and select the language you want from there.
  3. Tap Done. A message appears asking if you would like the language settings changed.
  4. Tap Continue to change the displayed language.

Android

Language & input settings on Android The Language settings on Android Add language setting on Android

On your device, open your Settings > General Management and select Language and input, then Language. You might need to press Add language to load the one you want.

Customizing your UI in SketchBook Pro Windows 10

SketchBook Pro Windows 10 doesn't currently have tools for customizing your UI. However, you can move the UI around as you like.

Using Fullscreen mode

Are there times when you want to hide the UI, work in full screen mode, and just sketch? Are there windows you want displayed and others you don’t? Go between fullscreen mode with no UI and regular view, which displays the UI.

In the toolbar, at the far right end, tap Full Screen icon (Toggle Fullscreen On/Off) to enter Fullscreen mode.

To exit this mode, tap Exit Fullscreen mode in SketchBook Pro Windows Tablet (Toggle Fullscreen On/Off).

Full UI

Change your UI display using Fullscreen mode in SketchBook

Showing/hiding some UI

To select individual UI elements, use UI Toggle in SketchBook Pro Windows tablet UI Toggle. The following options from the UI Toggle menu show or hide the selected UI:

This is particularly handy for using multiple monitors. If you move the canvas to a different monitor and the UI still appears on the other monitor, select UI Toggle in SketchBook Pro Windows tablet Default Layout to move it all to the new location with the canvas.

Changing the language displayed in SketchBook Pro

In SketchBook Pro Windows 10, there are no language settings within the app. This doesn’t mean you can’t change the language the app displays, it just means there is another way to do this. SketchBook Pro takes its cues for the language it displays from your operating system (OS).

Check out this video on how to change your language settings on Windows 10.