Customizing the image

Fractal types

The fractal type button icon indicates the current fractal type (eg. for Mandelbrot Set). When the current fractal type is a custom one, the formula icon is displayed. Use this button to show the list of available fractal types with the currently used one selected.

Built-in fractal types supporting the Deep zoom are labeled deep on the right.

Use tabs to switch between built-in fractal types and your custom ones. Tap a fractal type to open it with one of the following options:

After changing a fractal type the app will start rendering the image. You may adjust fractal parameters using the scrollbar.

Use the add button on the Custom tab to create your custom fractal type.

Long press a fractal type to display its context menu with the following options:

Color palettes

Change a palette to use another color scheme at the same spot (not available when using a photo paint mode).

Use the palette button to show the list of available palettes with the currently used one selected.

Use tabs to switch between built-in palettes and your custom ones. Tap a palette to choose it. The app will apply the selected palette without recomputing the image (unless you use the Supersampling).

Use the add button on the Custom tab to create your custom palette.

Long press a palette to display its context menu with the following options:

In the Advanced mode, the palette button is not visible. Use the magic wand button instead to enter the Advanced image control screen.

Paint modes

Change a paint mode to reveal new patterns at the same spot. You can learn more about paint modes in the Coloring techniques section. You may find useful reading the Orbit trap subsection which explains how to use the common parameters of orbit trap based paint modes.

Use the brush button to show the list of available paint modes with the currently used one selected.

Use tabs to switch between built-in paint modes and your custom ones. Tap a paint mode to choose it. The app will restart rendering the image.

You may adjust paint mode parameters using the scrollbar.

Use the add button on the Custom tab to create your custom paint mode.

Long press a paint mode to display its context menu with the following options:

In the Advanced mode, the brush button is not visible. Use the magic wand button instead to enter the Advanced image control screen.

Using photos

To use photos, first select one of the special photo paint modes (with the names starting with Photo). Depeding on the current location, you may need to adjust paint mode parameters (such as Size or Radius), to make photos clearly visible.

The resulting image may contain photos that are distorted in various ways, depending on the current location.

NOTE: when using Photo paint, the background color is controlled by paint mode parameters: Background hue, Background saturation, and Background brightness. Color palettes cannot be selected.

You can learn more about how this works in the Photo coloring section.

Use the photo button to show the list of available photos with the currently used one selected.

Use tabs to switch between built-in photos and your custom ones. Tap a photo to choose it. The app will start rendering the image.

Use the add button on the Custom tab to add your custom photo (available only in the Premium mode).

Long press a custom photo to display its context menu with the following options:

In the Advanced mode, the photo button is not visible. Use the magic wand button instead to enter the Advanced image control screen.

Light

Give your fractal image a glassy 3D look by applying light.

Use the scrollbar menu button and open the Light section (marked with ) to select from the available options described in the Light parameters section. The app will apply the selected light options without recomputing the image (unless you use the Supersampling).

The app renders light using the Blinn–Phong reflection model.

Image filters

Give a final touch to your fractal image by applying an image filter.

Use the image filter button to show the list of available image filters with the currently used one selected.

Tap a filter to choose it. The app will apply the selected filter without recomputing the image.

You may adjust image filter parameters using the scrollbar.

In the Advanced mode, the image filter button is not visible. Use the magic wand button instead to enter the Advanced image control screen.

Using the scrollbar

Use the scrollbar to interactively change the image parameters. When no parameters are available the scrollbar is hidden and you can see only its menu button .

You may customize the scrollbar's orientation using the Settings / Appearance / Scrollbar orientation option.

The name and value of the currently active parameter are displayed in the scrollbar. You may change the value by dragging the scrollbar thumb, tapping the scrollbar, tapping or long-pressing scrollbar arrow buttons.

You may also long-press the thumb to show a popup dialog allowing you to input the desired value using the keyboard. Long press the scrollbar menu item to input a parameter value without switching to this parameter.

The image is adjusted on the fly. Palette length/offset and filter parameters changes are applied without recomputing the whole image. In the other cases the app restarts image rendering and image quality may be reduced until you stop changing the parameter value. When using the Supersampling, the image rendering restarts after any change except changing image filter options.

In the Advanced mode, the thumb displays an icon showing whether the current parameter concerns a fractal interior , or exterior .

Tap the scrollbar menu button to show a menu containing available parameters with their values and additional options for customizing the image.

You may also show the menu by swiping from the side of the screen. You can hide the menu button and use only swiping to show the menu (Settings / Appearance / Hide scrollbar menu button option.)

The currently active parameter is highlighted. The menu content depends on the selected fractal type, paint mode, light mode, and image filter.

The scrollbar menu is organized in the collapsible sections. Tap the section heading (orange caption) to expand the section. You may keep all the sections always expanded using the Settings / Appearance / Scrollbar menu sections always expanded option.

The menu sections are described in the following tutorial sections.

Fractal parameters

An example fractal parameters section of the scrollbar menu.

The section header displays the current fractal type name and its icon. The section contains the following items:

Paint parameters

An example paint parameters section of the scrollbar menu (in the Simple mode).

In the Advanced mode, there can be two separate paint mode menu sections. Teh first is for the fractal interior paint, and the second for the fractal exterior paint. They are marked by icons: for the interior, and for the exterior. When the same paint settings are applied to the entire image, there is only one section indicated by .

The section header displays the current paint mode name. The section contains the following items:

Light parameters

An example light parameters section of the scrollbar menu.

The section header displays the current light mode. The section contains the following items:

Image filter parameters

An example image filter parameters section of the scrollbar menu.

The filter parameters section is visible only if the current image filter has any parameters. The section header displays the current filter name. The section is visible only if the current filter has any parameters.

Scrollbar fine-tuning

You can get very precise control over the parameter value by moving your finger away from the scrollbar as you drag the scrollbar's thumb. The farther you move your finger, the more precise the control is, and the narrower the thumb is displayed.

Touch the scrollbar's thumb and quickly move your finger away from the scrollbar to continue fine-tuning. The app will not change the parameter value during that quick move.

Smart scrollbar switching

After some user actions, the application switches automatically the active parameter to the one that can be most useful in a particular situation. This includes:

• After changing a fractal type, the app switches to the first fractal parameter (if the selected fractal type has any parameters).
• After changing a paint mode, the app switches to the first paint mode parameter (if the selected paint mode has any parameters). When there are no parameters and Auto adjust is off, the app switches to the palette length or to the palette offset (for the built-in Solid paint mode).
• After turning on the light or changing the light mode, the app switches to the light direction parameter.
• After applying an image filter, the app switches to the first image filter parameter (if the selected image filter has any parameters).
• After turning off Auto adjust, the app switches to the palette length or to the palette offset (for the built-in Solid paint mode).
• After switching between the Detail level control and the Iteration limit control, the app switches to the Detail level or Iteration limit, respectively.
• After entering Julia mode, the app switches to Julia X parameter.
• After resetting parameters (for a paint mode, light or image filter), the app switches to the first parameter.
• After resetting a fractal, the app switches to the first fractal's parameter.

You can turn this off using the Settings / Behavior Smart scrollbar switching option.

Randomizer

Use the Randomizer button to randomly change the image.

NOTE: as is usually the case with random action, most the results are unlikely to be particularly pretty, but some may be really surprising.

Long press the button to enter the Randomizer setup menu where you can set the following options:

Tap OK or tap outside the popup to save your changes and hide the menu.

Image size

Use Image size option from the action menu to show the menu displaying the available options with the currently used highlighted, and the resulting image size in pixels.

Choose the image size using the Resolution options. Select the Custom option and tap the image size item (where icon will appear) to enter your custom image width and height.

The resolution may be limited by the screen resolution of your device. Use the High Resolution Rendering option to create images with higher resolution.

When the Fit screen option is selected, use the Quality options to select the image quality (100% means full screen resolution).

Use the Aspect ratio options (not Available for the Fit screen and Custom resolution options) to select the image format. (A) means the standard A series paper format.

Tap OK or tap outside the popup to save your changes and hide the menu.

The current image size in pixels is displayed in the status bar.

NOTE: using lower resolution may save the battery power and increase responsiveness.

Supersampling

Use Supersampling option from the action menu to show the menu displaying the available options with the currently used highlighted.

The Supersampling computes several samples per pixel and takes an average color. This produces much cleaner images (smooth curves, no glitches) at the expense of slower rendering and increased battery consumption.

The app uses the root mean square (RMS) for color averaging. The RMS is used twice: first to calculate the average color and then to calculate the average light (if the light is used).

When the supersampling is used, the app partially restarts rendering after changing a color palette, the palette length or offset, or light options.

You can choose from the available options from 2x2 (4 samples per pixel) to 5x5 (25 samples per pixel). In the Free version only the Low (2x2) option is available. Unlock the Premium to get access to all of them.

The supersampling optimization uses edge detection to reduce rendering time by skipping the supersampling for pixels with a color close to their adjacent pixels. This can significantly speed up rendering when your image only has small areas with a lot of detail. The Cautious option is the slowest and produces the cleanest images. The Aggressive option is the fastest at the expense of quality.

NOTE: the optimization may produce images not as clean as with the full supersampling. It may be very useful for speeding up the Video rendering but we do not recommend using it for exporting high-quality images, e.g. for printouts.

Tap OK or tap outside the popup to save your changes and hide the menu.

The current supersampling option is displayed in the status bar as the size extension. For example size=1080x1080x5C30% means 5x5 supersampling with the Cautious optimization, resulting in 30% of the image rendered with the full supersampling (70% of the supersampling time saved).

When the status bar is hidden, the progress bar turns orange while supersampling is being applied.