How clicks work while you draw

When drawing is off, every click passes straight through to your apps. When drawing is on, PenLayer covers the whole screen, menu bar and Dock included, and the toolbar is the only thing you can click.

While drawing is off

PenLayer stays out of the way. Clicks, scrolling and typing all go to the app underneath. The only part of PenLayer that reacts to the pointer is the toolbar handle, and the toolbar itself while it’s slid out.

While drawing is on

Every click on the screen becomes drawing. That includes the menu bar and the Dock, so you can’t switch apps or open a menu until you stop. The first click also makes PenLayer the active app, so the app underneath may lose focus.

The toolbar is part of the drawing layer, so it always stays on top and always stays clickable.

Three ways out

You never need a single shortcut to get your clicks back. Any one of these stops drawing:

1. The toolbar. Press the glowing red stop button.
2. The shortcut. Press ⌥⇧D. It’s registered all the time, so it works whatever has focus.
3. Auto-release. If you don’t draw for a while, drawing stops by itself. The default is 2 minutes. See Stop drawing automatically.

If the canvas has focus (after you’ve clicked on it), Esc stops drawing as well.

If you ever feel stuck, see Get out of draw mode.