Keyboard shortcuts

Every shortcut Hexcalibur ships with, grouped by activity.

Tools

Key	Tool
V	Move (translate whole layer)
M	Marquee (selection)
L	Lasso (selection)
W	Magic wand (selection)
B	Brush
E	Eraser
I	Eyedropper
F	Fill
S	Tile stamp
Y	Line
R	Rectangle
C	Circle
P	Polygon
U	Star
T	Text
X	Color replace

While drawing with a paint tool, hold Alt to override the current tool with the eyedropper for a single click - useful for sampling a color without leaving the brush. With a selection tool active, Alt means “subtract from selection” instead (see Selection).

Selection

The Marquee (M), Lasso (L), and Magic wand (W) define a region on the canvas; paint tools below clip their strokes to the active marquee. The marching ants visualize the boundary.

Marquee commands

Key	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + A	Select all
Cmd/Ctrl + D	Deselect
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + I	Invert the selection
Enter	Confirm the selection (deselect)
Esc	Deselect (when no float is active)

A selection drag can start on the empty space around the canvas - sweep across from outside to grab a corner or the whole canvas without aiming at the exact edge pixel.

Modifier combines (during a marquee, lasso, or wand gesture)

Modifier	Effect
(none)	Replace the selection
Shift + drag/click	Add to the selection
Alt + drag/click	Subtract from the selection
Shift + Alt + drag/click	Intersect with the selection

The mode locks at pointerdown; releasing the modifier mid-drag doesn’t flip the combine.

Transform handles (drag-to-resize)

While a selection is active and the rect-marquee or lasso tool is selected, eight small white squares appear on the marquee’s bounding box (four corners + four edge midpoints). Hover any handle and the cursor swaps to the matching resize glyph.

Action	Effect
Shift + T	Arm transform handles on the whole active layer
Click + drag a handle	Lift pixels, scale to the new bounds (nearest-neighbor)
Release the mouse	The transform stays open - re-grab any handle to keep resizing
Drag inside the box	Move the whole transform box
Enter	Apply the transform and clear the selection
Click outside the box	Apply the transform
Esc	Cancel the transform (revert to pre-resize state; the selection stays)
Ctrl/Cmd + Z	Cancel the transform (press again to undo earlier work)

The transform can extend past the canvas edge - the box and handles stay visible and grabbable outside it, and you can pull the content back before applying. Anything still outside the canvas when you apply is cropped. While the transform is open, every resize samples the original pixels, so scaling down and back up doesn’t degrade the art.

Lasso selections preserve their irregular shape under scale - not just the bounding rect. Switching tools / assets / frames applies the in-progress transform.

Floating selection (drag-to-move)

Click inside an active marquee (not on a handle) with the Rect or Lasso tool to lift the selected pixels into a float. Drag to reposition.

Key	Action
Drag inside marquee	Lift pixels into a float, or continue dragging an active float
Arrow keys	Nudge the selection by 1 px (lifts a float on first press)
Shift + Arrow	Nudge the selection by 10 px
Enter	Commit the float (bake pixels at the new offset)
Esc	Cancel the float (revert to original position)
Click outside marquee	Commit the float and start a new gesture

Switching tools, switching assets, or switching frames also commits any active float automatically.

Clipboard

Key	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + C	Copy the selection’s pixels
Cmd/Ctrl + X	Cut (copy + clear pixels on the active layer)
Cmd/Ctrl + V	Paste as a float (auto-offsets 2 px if it would overlap identical pixels)
Delete or Backspace	Clear the pixels under the selection (selection mask stays)
Cmd/Ctrl + J	Layer via Copy - put a copy of the selection on its own new layer (the original stays put)
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + J	Layer via Cut - move the selection onto its own new layer (clearing it from the current one)

The marquee clipboard is independent of the layer / asset clipboards. It lasts for the current session - reload clears it. Pasting into a different asset only works when the canvas sizes match exactly on both axes.

Layer via Copy / Cut also live in the Layer menu and the canvas right-click menu when a selection is active and a selection tool (or Move) is selected - with a paint tool active, right-click paints with the background color instead. The new layer lands directly above the one you took the pixels from.

Painting and history

Key	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + Z	Undo (paint, layer-structural, batch)
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z or Cmd/Ctrl + Y	Redo
[ / ]	Decrease / increase brush, eraser, or line size

Undo covers everything: strokes, layer add/delete/reorder, property changes, palette mutations.

Canvas and viewport

Key	Action
Click + drag	Paint with the foreground color
Right-click + drag	Paint with the background color
Space (held) + drag	Pan the canvas
Scroll	Zoom (cursor-anchored)
Two-finger drag	Pan and pinch-zoom on a touchscreen
'	Toggle the pixel-grid overlay
Shift + '	Toggle tiled mode (repeat view)
Shift + [	Collapse or show the asset panel
Shift + ]	Collapse or show the Studio panel
Shift + F	Toggle fullscreen

The pixel grid and isometric guidelines both toggle from View → Canvas guides. The pixel grid also has the ' shortcut above; the isometric guide has no default shortcut (bind one via your OS if you reach for it often).

Layers and assets

Key	Action
Click	Single-select a layer or asset row
Cmd/Ctrl + Click	Toggle the row in/out of the multi-selection
Shift + Click	Range-select from the active row to the clicked row
Cmd/Ctrl + J	Duplicate the active layer (or the multi-selection) - or, with a selection active, copy it onto a new layer (see Clipboard)
Delete (with cursor over the panel)	Delete selected layers or assets
Drag	Reorder rows; multi-selected rows move as one block

Delete is hover-routed: pressing it with the cursor over the layers panel deletes layers, with the cursor over the asset switcher deletes assets, and anywhere else does nothing - so a stray press while painting can’t lose work.

Animation timeline

Key	Action
N	Add a new frame (also opens the timeline on a single-frame asset)
Space (cursor over timeline)	Play / pause the animation
, / .	Step to the previous / next frame
Shift + , / Shift + .	Jump to the previous / next tag’s start frame
Shift + L	Toggle the layer-cel grid
Delete (cursor over timeline)	Delete the active frame

Space is hover-routed the same way as Delete: over the timeline it plays / pauses; on the canvas it stays the pan-hold modifier so painting workflows are unaffected.

The animation tour (Help → Show animation tour, or the ? button in the timeline) walks through every interaction in context. See Animation timeline for the full panel reference.

Files and export

Key	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + N	New pack
Cmd/Ctrl + I	Import as new asset
Cmd/Ctrl + E	Open the Export dialog
Cmd/Ctrl + P	Open Preferences

Modals and rename

Key	Action
Esc	Dismiss any modal, cancel an inline rename, or skip the welcome tour
Double-click a name	Start an inline rename
Enter (in an inline rename)	Commit
Esc (in an inline rename)	Cancel

Save

There’s no save shortcut. Hexcalibur autosaves every stroke commit. The save status pill in the editor footer shows the current state.