Layers in Storyboarder

Starting in version 0.3.0, Storyboarder has three named layers: Main, Reference, and Notes.

Each drawing tool in Storyboarder is assigned to a named layer:

Tool	Layer
Light Pencil	Reference
Pencil	Main
Pen	Main
Brush	Main
Note Pen	Notes
Eraser	(all layers)

To activate a layer, select a tool that is assigned to that layer.

The Eraser tool operates on all layers at the same time.

Layer Commands

To erase on only the active layer, hold ALT and draw. Your brush will temporarily change to an eraser.

The Clear command will clear all layers. To clear only the active layer, press ALT + DELETE, or hold ALT and press the Clear icon in the toolbar.

The Fill command operates on the active layer.

Copy and Paste

To copy one or more boards and their data, select the board(s) you want and press COMMAND + C. The board data will be copied, along with all layer image data. You can then paste the board(s) in Storyboarder.

Your clipboard will also have a composited ("flattened") image representing all layers. This can be pasted into image editors like Photoshop.

Pasting board data will create new boards with the copied layers.

If you copy an image from an image editor like Photoshop and paste it into Storyboarder, it will arrive as a new board with the image data pasted into the reference layer.

Layer Files

Each board has one or more PNG files representing its used layers, e.g.:

board-1-64C9R.png                 Main Layer (always created)
board-1-64C9R-reference.png       Reference Layer
board-1-64C9R-notes.png           Note Pen Layer

When a non-main layer is used (e.g. drawn on at least once in the app), we add it to the .storyboarder data in the layers key:

{
  "version": "0.3.0",
  "boards": [{
    "url": "board-1-64C9R.png"
    "layers": {
      "reference": {
        "url": "board-1-64C9R-reference.png",
        "opacity": 0.75
      },
      "notes": {
        "url": "board-1-64C9R-notes.png"
      }
    }
  }]
}

The layers key is not guaranteed to exist. For example it does not exist in older projects created prior to 0.3.0.

opacity was added later.