<--- get back to painting
paint by π is a painting tool and a Game of Life cellular automaton.
Every brush stroke seeds cells into the simulation — which evolve over time based on rules.
On-Screen Menu (bottom-right corner)
Tap / click the UI buttons in the lower-right corner to open the control wheel.
Buttons navigate levels and adjust parameters:
- light — toggles dark / light visualization
- speed — changes simulation speed (frame buffer)
- color — cycles color engine (ink / sakura / rainbow)
- reset — clears canvas and starts a new algorithm pattern
UI appears only if ui=1 or the user hasn't hidden it,
and can be toggled at any time with keyboard \.
Keyboard Controls
Painting & Evolution
SPACE — Pause / Play simulation
R — Reset / restart simulation
Visual / Display
F — Fade trail toggle
D — Full clear toggle
L — Light / Dark mode
C — Cycle color modes
Q — Cursor stroke toggle
\ — Show / Hide UI menu
Speed
, — Faster evolution
. — Slower evolution
Feedback (experimental)
↑ ↓ ← → — Offset simulation border
Shift — Turn feedback scrolling on/off
/ — Enable/disable 'hot-edges'
Debugging
S — Log full settings to console
URL “Modes” — Presets that apply multiple settings at once
The mode parameter can include multiple space-separated modes
and they are applied in order:
?mode=penandpaper colordrop
Available modes:
Color / Theme Modes
- penandpaper / pnp — White background, no UI, light mode, no fade
- ink — Standard ink colors
- gay — Full rainbow spectrum colors
- cherryblossom / cb — Soft blossom palette
- sakura — Pink background, blossom colors, light mode, no UI
- colordrop / cd — Random pastel background each start
- dark — Dark mode on
- light — Light mode on
Cell Size / Brush Size
- tiny — Very small cells, fine brush
- small — Small cells, small brush
- med — Medium cells, medium brush
- large — Large cells, big brush
Speed / Frame Buffer
- vvslow — Very very slow
- vslow — Very slow
- slow — Slow
- slowfast — Medium-slow
- fastslow — Medium-fast
- fast — Fast
- vfast — Very fast
- vvfast — Extremely fast
Random Cell Excitment
- ran — Some randomness
- vran — High randomness
- vvran — Extreme randomness
Initialization Algorithm
- ranalg — Select random algorithm
- 1–5 — Directly select algorithm number 1–5
UI / Controls
- ui — Show UI
- noui — Hide UI
- menu — Show menu
- nomenu — Hide menu
Border / Fade / Cursor
- border — Borders on
- borderOff — Borders off
- fade — Fade effect on
- nofade — Fade effect off
- nostroke — No cursor stroke
- nocursor — Cursor hidden
Brush Tips
- finetip / ftip — Small brush tip
- medtip / mtip — Medium brush tip
- bigtip / btip — Large brush tip
Playback
- pause / paused — Pause simulation
- play / unpause — Resume simulation
Timing / Cycle
- nowait — No wait between cycles
URL “Direct Control” — Modify engine values manually
Append parameters to the URL:
?alg=4&color=2&fade=1&scale=6&ran=8&ranwait=600
alg | Starting algorithm (0–5) |
color | 0 ink · 1 sakura · 2 rainbow |
fade | 1 fade trail · 0 static |
clear | Remove background each update |
scale | Cell size |
ran | Random seed drops per cycle |
ranwait | Random seed frequency (frames) |
buff | Frame buffer (simulation speed) |
ui | 1 show menu · 0 hide menu |
light | 1 light mode · 0 dark mode |
cl | Cursor line trail on/off |
bs | Brush size |
Example:
/paint?mode=sakura&buff=1&cl=1&bs=14
Feedback & Help ✨
if you have any questions or suggestions for what i could add to this app, please feel free to reach out [ @gqz7777 on instagram ]