You are not in control of them.
You are in a dialogue with them.

1. Tap an empty part of the canvas to release one drawing agent.
2. Drag to release a continuous trail. Pause and let the lines develop following the field.
3. Open the round radial control to change the drawing parameters: brush, flow, color, speed, or stroke.
4. Use two fingers to pan, pinch to zoom, or rotate the canvas.
5. Open the sidebar and choose Save to Library when you want to keep the project.

A tap releases a single agent pair. A drag releases a flowing sequence. Slow drags place points close together; faster gestures spread the release over more of the canvas.

Build a drawing in passes

• Start with a few trails and wait to see the direction of the field or run the Trail Grid function from the radial menu
• Add another pass where the composition feels empty instead of filling the whole canvas immediately.
• Change color, width, or stroke between passes.
• Use Undo and Redo as you need.

Agents continue to develop after release. If the canvas becomes too dense, reduce Flow, use a thinner line, erase or remove selected areas.

Tap the round drawing control to open the radial menu. The menu can be moved so it stays out of the composition.

	Control	What it changes
	Brush size	The footprint used when releasing agents or erasing. Use it when you need a broad area or precise placement.
	Flow	How many agents are released along a gesture. Use it when a trail feels too sparse or becomes too dense.
	Line width	The thickness of the generated lines.
	Color	Several modes are available: solid color, color palette, rainbow. You can also use the remove function to cancel lines using erasing agents.
	Stroke	The line style: solid, dashed, dotted. For dashed and dotted you can choose between precise and random/organic styles.
	Speed	How quickly released agents draw. Try keep it low for a relaxing drawing experience!
	Eraser	Switches from adding generated lines to removing content like a normal eraser.
	Trail grid	Releases an ordered field of trails across the canvas. You can use it in a dedicated layer at the beginning to have a reference about the morphology of the field.

Use a two-finger gesture to pan, pinch to zoom, and rotate the canvas. Navigation changes only the view; it does not move or rescale project content.

Layer workflow

Open Layers from the edge tab. Add a drawing layer for a separate pass, an image layer for reference or composition, or a mask where available.

Visibility

Temporarily hide a layer without deleting it.

Opacity

Blend a layer with the content below it.

Lock

Protect a finished layer from accidental changes.

Reorder

Drag a layer to change front-to-back compositing order.

• Hover: on supported iPad and Apple Pencil models, hold the tip above the canvas to preview brush size before drawing.
• Double tap: switch between drawing and the eraser. On a mask, double tap switches the active mask draw/erase tool.
• Apple Pencil Pro squeeze: toggle the radial menu. When location information is available, the menu opens near the Pencil.

Choose New Drawing from the sidebar to open the field editor. The live preview updates as you change the four main controls, so you can judge the direction and density before replacing the current canvas.

Scale

Changes the broad size of field structures. Lower and higher values shift how quickly direction changes across the canvas.

Meander

Controls how strongly paths curl and wander through the field.

Detail

Adds or removes smaller layers of variation in the field.

Warp

Adjusts how field detail combines, creating smoother or more irregular motion. Warp is a Pro control.

Creating the drawing replaces the active canvas with the previewed setup. Save the current project first if you may want to return to it.

You might want the shape to follow a specific shape. For instance, you might want the field to follow an shape that perfectly fits an area of your body where you want your next tattoo. Choose Draw shape to place an open line directly in the preview, or Import shape to use an SVG as the source.

1. Select Draw shape and make one open line on the preview.
2. Choose Continue to inspect the field around that line.
3. Adjust Attraction and Tube first: they have the clearest effect on how strongly trails follow the shape and how wide its influence is.
4. Use the remaining 11 (!!) Shape field controls. Branch Guard and Branch Exclusion reduce unstable direction changes near crossings. End Fade, Side Softness, and Support shape the zone around the path. Phase Continuity, Phase Search, Smoothness, Constraint, and Field Cell refine continuity and calculation detail.
5. Start from the defaults and adjust in small steps while watching the preview. Advanced field controls interact, so changing several at once can make the cause of a result difficult to identify.
6. Optionally save the custom shape for reuse, then create the New Drawing.

Background

Choose the canvas color before creating the drawing. Pro also adds gradient backgrounds. Background belongs to the project and is saved with it.

Seed

The seed is the starting number used to generate a field. Reusing the same seed and settings reproduces the same starting field; the dice chooses another seed. Manual seed control is a Pro feature.

Open Layers, add an image layer, and choose a photo or file. During placement, position and scale the image before confirming. The imported image then behaves like a layer: reorder it, adjust opacity, hide it, or lock it.

• Lower opacity when using an image as a drawing reference.
• Keep the image below generated drawing layers when you want lines to remain visible over it.
• Images in image layers can be scaled and rotated by pressing its thumbnail in the layer view. However, an image layer will turn into a normal layer when drawed on top or when merged with another layer!.
• If the drawing-layer limit has been reached, delete an unused drawing layer before converting or drawing onto an image workflow.

Imported image content is stored with the saved project. Large source images may take longer to save and reopen.

Save to Library

Updates the current saved project so it can be reopened with its settings and layers.

Save as New

Creates a separate Library item and leaves the earlier saved version intact.

Photos / JPG

Creates a flattened image for sharing or use in another app.

Layered PSD

Exports supported layers for continued editing in a PSD-compatible workflow. PSD export is Pro.

Saving and exporting serve different purposes. Save to Library when you want to continue editing in Emerge. Export when you want a finished image or a file for another app.

Core drawing remains the same. Pro unlocks additional options inside the controls you already use:

• Color engines: rainbow and palette color modes, plus gradient backgrounds.
• Field control: Warp and manual seeds for more variation and repeatable New Drawings.
• Stroke styles: dashed and random stroke behavior.
• Workflow: speed control, dark theme, expanded project capacity where shown, and layered PSD export.

Select a control marked Pro to see available plans. Use Restore Purchases from the Pro screen if you previously purchased on the same App Store account.

If the problem continues, include the Emerge version, iOS version, device model, what you expected, and the steps that reproduce the issue.