You’re halfway through a complex character design, and you realize those perfectly symmetrical boots are going to take another three hours to redraw by hand. Your hand is cramping. The stylus feels heavy. Honestly, if you had to manually replicate every single detail, you'd probably just give up and make the character wear a floor-length dress to hide the feet. This is exactly where knowing how to copy and paste on ibisPaint becomes a total lifesaver. It’s not just about saving time; it’s about maintaining your sanity when the digital canvas starts feeling like a chore.
Most people think copying is just one button. It’s not.
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ibisPaint X is a surprisingly deep app. Because it’s designed for mobile devices—phones and tablets alike—the interface has to hide a lot of its power under sub-menus. If you’re coming from Photoshop or Procreate, the workflow feels a bit upside down. But once you get the hang of the "Lasso" and the "Selection Layer," you’ll realize the developers actually built a really robust system for manipulating pixels.
The Lasso Method: The Quickest Way to Duplicate
For most of us, the Lasso tool is the go-to. You want a specific eye, a logo, or a cool texture moved somewhere else? This is your tool. First, you have to find it in the toolbar. It looks like a little rope loop. You draw around the area you want to grab. Don't worry if it's not perfect yet.
Once you have that "marching ants" selection active, look at the top of the screen. There’s a specialized icon—it looks like a dotted square—that opens your selection options. You'll see "Copy." Hit it. Nothing happens visually, which is kinda annoying the first time. You have to hit "Paste" in that same menu for the magic to work. Suddenly, a new layer is born.
The app automatically switches you to the "Transform" tool. This is where you can drag the pasted object around, shrink it, or flip it horizontally. If you’re making eyes, flipping is your best friend. Just remember to hit the green checkmark when you're done, or the app won't let you do anything else. It's a "modal" state, meaning you're locked in until you confirm the change.
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Why Your Paste Might Look Blurry
A common frustration when learning how to copy and paste on ibisPaint is the sudden loss of quality. You copy a crisp line, paste it, and suddenly it looks like it was dragged through a swamp. This usually happens because of "interpolation." When you rotate or resize a pasted object, the app has to guess where the new pixels go.
To fix this, check your interpolation settings at the bottom of the screen while in the Transform tool. Switching from "Bilinear" to "Nearest Neighbor" can sometimes help keep pixel art sharp, but for smooth digital painting, "Lanczos" is generally the gold standard. It takes more processing power, but it keeps those edges clean. Also, try to avoid resizing things multiple times. Every time you shrink and then grow a pasted object, you lose data. It's better to paste it, size it once, and leave it alone.
Moving Between Different Artworks
Sometimes you don't want to copy within the same project. Maybe you spent four hours drawing a really high-quality signature or a specific brush-texture background in a separate file. You want that in your new piece.
You can't just "Ctrl+C" on your phone and open a new file. It doesn't work that way. Instead, you have to use the "Export" and "Import" functions. Go to your gallery, open the "source" drawing, and save the specific layer as a transparent PNG. Then, go into your "target" drawing, open the layer menu, and hit the little camera icon (Import Image). Select your PNG.
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It feels like an extra step. It is. But it ensures that your transparency stays intact. If you just take a screenshot and paste that, you’ll end up with a big white box around your art, and then you're stuck using "Multiply" blending modes or manually erasing the background, which is a massive waste of energy.
The Selection Layer Secret
There’s a hidden layer at the very top of your layer list, usually highlighted in blue. This is the "Selection Layer." If the Lasso tool is too blunt for what you need—like if you’re trying to copy messy hair or glowing effects—use the Selection Layer.
Basically, you paint the area you want to copy using any brush. Anything you paint blue becomes your selection. This is way more precise than a rope tool. You can use the airbrush to create a soft-edged selection, which means when you copy and paste, the edges will be semi-transparent and blend perfectly into the new spot. It’s a pro move that separates beginners from the people making those insane "speedpaint" videos on YouTube.
Common Blunders to Avoid
I’ve seen people get stuck because they’re trying to copy from an empty layer. It sounds stupid, but when you have 50 layers named "Layer 42" and "Layer 43," it’s incredibly easy to be on the wrong one. Always double-check that your active layer (the one highlighted in the layer panel) actually has pixels on it.
Another thing: the "Current Layer" vs. "Canvas" distinction. If you use the "Magic Wand" to select an area, make sure you look at the settings. If "Recognition Layer" is set to "Canvas," it will select based on everything it sees. If it's set to "Current Layer," it only cares about what's on your active layer. If you're trying to copy a specific shape but keep getting the whole background, this setting is usually the culprit.
Making the Most of the Clipboard
ibisPaint keeps a temporary clipboard, but it’s fragile. If the app crashes or you close it completely, that copied data is usually toast. If you’re doing something really important, don't rely on the clipboard as a storage space. Paste it immediately.
If you find yourself copying and pasting the same thing over and over—like a watermark or a specific eye highlight—consider saving it to the "Material" folder. You can hit the little picture frame icon at the top right, go to "User Materials," and add your current selection there. Now, it’s permanent. You can drag it into any future drawing without ever having to "copy" it again. It's essentially a custom sticker library.
Dealing with "Invert Selection"
Sometimes it’s easier to select what you don't want. If you want to copy everything except a small circle in the middle, select the circle, then go to the selection menu and hit "Invert." Now everything else is selected. It’s a bit of a mind-game, but it saves a lot of tedious Lasso work.
Actionable Steps for Better Workflow
To truly master this, stop thinking of copying as a standalone action and start thinking of it as part of your "composition" phase.
- Use Folders: If you’re copying multiple layers (like a character's head with separate layers for hair, eyes, and skin), put them in a folder first. You can’t easily "copy" a folder in one click to paste it elsewhere as separate layers, but you can "Duplicate Layer" on each item within the folder to keep your structure organized.
- Check the Resolution: If you paste a 500x500 doodle into a 4000x4000 canvas, it’s going to look like a Lego brick. Match your canvas sizes before you start moving assets between files.
- The "Canvas Move" Tool: If you just need to move the entire contents of a layer, don't bother with the Lasso. Just use the "Transform" tool (the four-way arrow). It automatically "selects" everything on that layer.
- Clear Selection: After you've pasted, your selection "ants" usually stay active. This prevents you from drawing anywhere else. Get in the habit of hitting "Remove Selection Area" (the square with a slash through it) immediately after pasting.
Digital art is supposed to be easier than traditional art because of these shortcuts. Don't feel like you're "cheating" by using copy and paste. Even the best artists at companies like MAPPA or Disney use assets and duplication to hit their deadlines. The tool is there; you might as well use it correctly.
Focus on getting the "Selection Layer" down. It’s the single most powerful way to handle complex copies without leaving jagged, ugly edges. Once you stop fighting the interface and start working with its quirks, your productivity will honestly double overnight. Check your layer settings, watch your interpolation, and keep your materials library organized. That’s the real secret.
Next Steps for Your Art:
- Open a current project and identify any repetitive elements (eyes, buttons, patterns).
- Use the Lasso Tool to select one element and practice the Copy > Paste flow.
- Experiment with the Selection Layer to see how a soft-edged brush affects the "pasted" result versus a hard-edged Lasso.
- Save your most used assets (like your signature) to the Material folder for instant access in future projects.