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Your screen is the canvas

Am_sketch is a drawing layer for Windows. Press a hotkey and draw straight over anything on your screen — slides, PDFs, the browser, a video call, a reference photo — with pressure-sensitive brushes, a highlighter, shapes, text and measuring guides.

This manual starts from nothing: installing, your first stroke, and then every tool, setting and shortcut in turn.

Install it Your first five minutes

The Am_sketch ring with every tool labelled: Brush at twelve o'clock, then clockwise Highlight, Selection, Measurement, Trace paper, Delete, Help, Close at six o'clock, Preferences, Layers, Capture, Text, Shape and Eraser, round a hue ring with a colour swatch and two sliders in the middle.

Start where you are

  • I want it running

    Run the installer, import the licence file from your email, and press one hotkey.

    Install · Licence

  • It is running — now what?

    Draw, pick a colour, undo, clear, and hand the mouse back to your other programs. Five minutes, start to finish.

    Your first five minutes

  • What is on the ring?

    Fourteen tools round a hue ring: what each slot does on a click, a right-click and a long press.

    The ring

  • Brushes and colour

    Nineteen brushes, their settings and your own presets; the hue ring, fourteen palettes and the colour library at the pen.

    Brushes · Colour

  • Measure and trace

    A ruler strokes snap to, an angle guide, a perspective guide, a proportion guide — and trace paper.

    Guides

  • Something is wrong

    A tool that will not switch, a hotkey that does nothing, text that disappeared — the usual causes and what to do.

    Troubleshooting

Every colour has a job

The promo film walks once round the hue ring. Each colour stands for something you will do with Am_sketch — and each has a page of recipes.

CorrectMark mistakes right where they are.
HighlightPoint out what matters; the text stays readable.
EncourageTicks, stars and notes that stay editable.
ExplainRulers and angles that measure while you teach.
SketchPressure, texture and perspective for real drawing.
PresentRecolour, capture and share the result.

Recipes for teaching · Recipes for drawing

At a glance
Version 1.0.0
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit
Input Mouse, or a pen with pressure and tilt through Windows Ink
Screens Every monitor, or the ones you choose
Licence A personal file with your name on it, checked offline
Your files Documents\Am_sketch — settings, brushes, licence
Start Ctrl+Shift+C draw / pass through · Ctrl+Shift+D show / hide