How to use CandleDraw

Top bar

The bar across the top of the canvas. The canvas opens after you sign in.

Projects

The square grid button at the left end opens your saved projects. See Saving and projects below.

Title and version

The app title, and the version number, which opens the changelog in a new tab. Both can be changed in Settings.

Theme

The sun or moon button switches between light and dark. It overrides the device theme until the device next changes.

Export

Opens the Export dialog. See Exporting below.

Profile button

Your avatar. Opens the profile menu, described below.

On phones

One row: projects and the title at the left, then the theme button, Export and the profile button.

Tool rail

The column of tools at the left of the canvas. Every tool is described on the Tools page.

Tool buttons

Click a button to pick its tool. Each tool also has a key, shown in its tooltip.

Tool menus

A small mark in a button's corner means it holds a menu of related tools. Click it to pick its tool and open the menu of the others.

MagnetM

Turns magnet snapping on or off.

Studies

Opens the Studies dialog. Available once the canvas has candles.

Undo, Redo, Clear canvasCtrl/CmdZ

At the bottom of the rail. Clear canvas asks you to confirm; Undo brings the chart back.

Customizing

Right-click the rail to open the Tools section of the Menu, where you choose which tools it shows.

Quick tool menu

Middle-click the canvas (press the scroll wheel) for a ring of four favorite tools. Choose them in Menu, Tools.

On phones

The rail folds to Select, the current tool when it is another one, and a chevron. The chevron opens every tool in a scrolling list; a touch outside it folds it again.

Moving around the canvas

Panning and zooming change only the view, never the chart.

Pan

With the Select tool, drag empty canvas. With any tool, scroll with the mouse wheel or swipe on a trackpad.

ZoomCtrl/CmdScroll

Hold Ctrl or Cmd and scroll, or pinch on a trackpad, at the pointer.

Touch screens

Drag with two fingers to pan, pinch to zoom.

Candle width and height

Drag the ruler along the bottom to widen or narrow the candles, and the ruler at the right to stretch or squeeze them vertically. Focus a ruler and use the arrow keys for small steps. The button where the rulers meet resets both. Shift+R shows or hides the rulers.

Fit to screenShiftF

Zooms out until every visible candle is in view. It never zooms in.

OHLC crosshair

While the pointer is over the chart, a guide line follows it and a readout shows the nearest candle's open, high, low and close. Turn it off in Menu, Canvas.

Properties panel

The panel at the right edits what is selected and lists everything on the canvas. The arrow at its top edge collapses it and opens it again.

Candle settings

For the selected candle layer: Chart (chart type, price scale, the data's timeframe), Candle shape (width, wick thickness, wicks) and Candle colors. It opens when a candle is selected and can be collapsed.

Price scale

Linear, logarithmic or percent for the selected layer. Switching keeps the prices and moves the candles.

Selected drawing

The settings of the selected drawing, grouped as Style, the tool's own groups and Visibility. Each tool's settings are on the Tools page.

Several selected

With more than one drawing selected: Align, Distribute and Grouping, plus line thickness and opacity for all of them.

Selected study

Data, Inputs and Style. Each study's settings are on the Studies page.

Reset to default

The arrow beside a slider or number field puts that one value back to its built-in default. It is dimmed while the value is the default.

Recent colors

Below each color field, the last eight colors you picked. One click applies a color.

Set as default

New drawings and studies of the selected kind start with its settings. Clear custom default returns them to the built-in settings; the selected one keeps its own.

Layers

Every candle layer, drawing and study. New layer starts a new candle layer. Each row can be hidden, locked, renamed, moved up or down, duplicated or deleted. Click a row to select it.

Candle layer lock

A locked candle layer cannot be moved, resized or deleted, and new candles are not drawn into it. Its colors still change.

Hide all, Lock all

Act on every drawing at once. Candle layers are not included.

Hide all studiesShiftH

Above the Studies list in Layers. Shows them all again when every study is hidden.

Right-click menus

Right-click a drawing, a candle or a study's line, or anywhere in a study pane, for its menu: Properties and Delete. A pane holding several studies lists both for each study. On a phone, press and hold it instead. Right-click empty canvas for the canvas menu: Fit to screen, Studies, Hide all studies and the Menu sections.

Properties

Selects it and opens its settings in the Properties panel, opening the panel if it is folded. The rest of the screen dims for a moment around the settings.

DeleteDelete

Deletes it, or the whole selection when you pressed one of several selected drawings. One undo step. Dimmed on a locked drawing or on an assignment's own content, with the reason in its tooltip. The Delete key does the same.

Fit to screenShiftF

Zooms out until every visible candle is in view. It never zooms in; when the candles fit already, it only centers them. Shift+F does the same.

Studies

Opens the Studies dialog for the chart's candle layer.

Hide all studiesShiftH

Hides every study, or shows them all when none is visible. Shown when the chart has studies. Shift+H does the same.

Canvas, Tools, Settings

Canvas, Tools and Settings open that section of the Menu dialog.

Grid

The editing grid.

Gradient

The canvas background gradient, for the current theme.

Edge rulers

The bottom and right rulers. Shift+R also shows or hides them.

Timeframe strip

The timeframe strip.

OHLC crosshair

The guide line and price readout under the pointer.

Magnet snappingM

Snapping to candle prices.

Timeframe strip and split view

The strip in the bottom-left corner of the canvas reads a candle layer at another timeframe without changing it.

Timeframe strip

Click a timeframe, M1 to W1, to view the layer at that timeframe. The candles you drew stay as they are; select the layer's own timeframe to return to them.

Estimated candles

A timeframe below the layer's own is a simulated breakdown, not real data. The strip then shows a warning triangle, and hovering or focusing the strip explains it.

The data's timeframe

The strip starts from the layer's own timeframe. If it is wrong, correct it in Candle settings.

Split view

The split button on the strip opens a second pane that shows the same layer at a second timeframe. The panes scroll together; each keeps its own zoom. Not on phones.

Studies and study panes

Studies are added from the Studies dialog, listed in Layers, and edited in Properties.

Studies dialog

Opened from Studies on the rail or the right-click menu. Filter by name or column, and click a row to add the study. Pattern detection opens its own panel from here.

Favorites

The star on a row puts that study in a Favorites group at the top of the list.

Study panes

RSI, MACD and the other pane studies sit in a section under the bottom ruler, newest at the top. Past half the canvas height the section scrolls.

Resizing a pane

Drag the strip above a pane.

Moving the chart from a pane

Dragging, scrolling and zooming inside the panes move the chart, and the crosshair line runs through them.

Selecting a study

Click its line, on the chart or in its pane, to select it and edit it in Properties. Right-click its line or its pane, or press and hold it on a phone, for Properties and Delete. The Delete key also deletes a selected study.

Candle Player

Replays the chart candle by candle. Open it from the profile menu; a transport bar appears over the canvas.

Play and pause

Starts and pauses the replay. Each candle forms from its open to its close.

Back to the start

Returns the replay to its start point.

Speed

How fast the candles form.

Record

Records the replay and downloads it as a video when you stop.

Settings

The gear button opens a panel you can drag aside. Source: Replay chart replays the candles on the canvas; Generate new builds a fresh sequence, of the length set in Generated candles, and leaves it on the canvas.

Start point

Set start point, then drag on the chart to aim the line or click to drop it, and Confirm start point. Candles past the line are faded until they play. Start at the beginning clears it.

Exit Candle Player

The close button on the transport bar, or the profile menu row.

Saving and projects

The canvas saves as you work.

Autosave

Every change is saved on this device, and to your account shortly after, so the drawing follows you to another device.

Undo and redoCtrl/CmdZ

Undo steps back through your changes, redo steps forward again.

Save project

In the projects menu, name the canvas and give it an optional category, then Save project. Your plan sets how many projects you can keep.

Open, Save over

Click a project to open it on the canvas. Save over replaces a project with the current canvas.

Project lock

The lock on a project row stops it from being saved over or deleted until you unlock it. A locked project still opens.

Delete

The bin on a project row deletes that project.

Exporting

Export in the top bar opens the Export dialog. It opens with the choices of your last image export.

Area

Full chart crops to your drawing, including anything off screen. Current view crops to what is on screen. Region lets you drag a box: Select region…, then Redraw or Clear.

Background

Solid uses the canvas background, with a 2 px margin in the same color. Transparent leaves the background empty.

Include study panes

Shown when the chart has study panes. Adds them under the chart in the image.

Download PNG

Saves the image. The file name starts with the date and time, so exports do not overwrite each other.

Copy to clipboard

Copies the image to paste into another app.

Download CSV

The candles as open, high, low and close rows. Uses the imported prices when the layer was imported.

Download JSON

The whole document, candles, drawings and studies, as a file.

Watermark

Images carry the watermark set in Menu, Canvas. It is drawn on the chart only, never on the study panes.

On phones

The same app, arranged for a narrow screen.

Tool rail

Folded to Select, the current tool and a chevron that opens every tool.

Long press

Press and hold a drawing, a candle, a study's line or a study pane to open its menu: Properties and Delete.

Menu dialog

Opens on a section, with a Back arrow to the list of sections and Sign out.

Education Hub

Opens on a section, titled by it, with a Back arrow to the list of sections.

Left out

Split view is not offered on phones, and the Guide row shows no ? key hint.

Profile menu and Menu dialog

The profile button opens a menu. The first rows open a section of the Menu dialog; the others open help, the Candle Player, or sign you out.

Account

Opens the Menu dialog at Account, described below.

Canvas

Opens the Menu dialog at Canvas, described below.

Tools

Opens the Menu dialog at Tools, described below.

Import

Opens the Menu dialog at Import, described below.

Settings

Opens the Menu dialog at Settings, described below.

Support

Opens the Menu dialog at Support, described below.

Guide

This guide, in a dialog over the canvas, with a search and the keyboard shortcuts as its last tab. The ? key opens it on the keyboard shortcuts. The dialog's Getting started button, tagged Beta, opens a short walkthrough of drawing a first chart; the walkthrough also opens by itself once, the first time the account has the tools it covers. An account without those tools gets short hints on its first visit to the canvas instead, from picking the Draw candle tool (the rest of the screen dims around it) to three drawn candles, then to the drawing tools on the rail; Skip tips ends them. On the public pages the Guide row opens this guide in a new tab.

My assignments

For students in a class: your assignments, with a count of those still to do.

Candle Player

Replays the chart candle by candle. Tagged Beta. While it runs, the row reads Exit Candle Player.

Sign out

Signs out on this device.

Education Hub

For educators: students, classes, assignments and review, from the profile menu. Students reach their work from My assignments.

Education Hub

The start of the Education Hub: what it holds and where to begin.

Affiliate program

Your referral link and code, and the accounts that joined through it.

Cohorts

Groups of students. Invite students with your code, and release work to a whole group at once.

Build

Make assignments on the canvas, and sections that group them.

Link

Release assignments and sections to cohorts, and choose when.

Review

Read submitted work, mark it with ink on the student's canvas, then approve it or return it for revision.

Building an assignment

In Build, an assignment is made on the canvas in three steps: Name it and choose the reveal, Build the finished chart, then Choose the student work by clicking the drawings, studies or candles students must add. The tools they need are lent to them.

Solution reveal

After submission shows the answer key when the student submits, so a submission is final. After your review shows it when you approve the work, and returned work can be revised. Never keeps it hidden.

Reveal boundary

Instead of marking candles, place a line on the chart: candles to its right are hidden from the student. They show with the answer key, as set in Solution reveal (after submission, after your review, or never), and then play in one by one in the Candle Player. It cannot be used together with marked candles.

Students

My assignments lists the work released to your class. Open assignment, draw your answer, then Submit work. Returned work reopens for revision with the educator's feedback; Resubmit work sends it again.