Astropad Studio and Clip Studio Paint

Getting Started with Clip Studio Paint & Astropad

Clip Studio Paint works great with Astropad Studio on both Mac and Windows. It’s popular for everything from illustration to full comic book creation — with tools for layouts, perspective rulers, sketching, inking, coloring, and adding captions.

In this simple guide, we’ll show you how to organize your Clip Studio Paint workspace to work smoothly with Astropad. For best results, we recommend using the latest version of Clip Studio Paint.

Arranging Your Workspace Panels

Clip Studio Paint makes it easy to move and resize tool panels. Just click and drag the top of any panel to move it, and drag the edges or corners to resize. You can also collapse or hide panels to save space.

Free-floating Clip Studio Paint panels and Astropad Studio Shortcuts sidebar

Astropad Studio’s sidebar can sit on the left or right side of your iPad screen. You can drag it using your finger or hide it by tapping the Astro-red ring button anytime.

We recommend keeping these panels open for easy access:

Subtool (brush)
Tool Property (for stroke adjustments)
Color Wheel
Layers

Materials Panel: If you use 3D posing, screen tones, or textures, keep the Materials Panel nearby. You can collapse it to save space but still have quick access when needed.

Materials Panel collapsed

Materials Panel expanded

Setting Up Shortcuts

Astropad Studio’s shortcuts are fully customizable for Clip Studio Paint. In Astropad’s Workspace sidebar, tap Edit Shortcuts to adjust or rename your shortcut buttons. When you’re finished, tap Workspace to save your changes.

We recommend adding your most-used tools to the sidebar for quick access:

P: Pencil / Pen
M: Marquee
G: Gradients
J: Blending Tool

Suggested Magic Gestures to enable:

Hover
Eraser
Option
Shift
Undo
Redo

Using Quick Keys

If you want even faster access to main keys like Command, Option, Control, and Shift, turn on Astropad’s on-screen Quick Keys. You’ll find Quick Keys near the bottom of the Shortcuts Sidebar. These are fully customizable too — learn more here: Customizable Quick Keys.

Astropad’s on-screen Quick Keys

Using the On-Screen Keyboard

For typing captions or editing text, Astropad Studio includes a full on-screen keyboard. You can open it by tapping Keyboard in the Shortcuts Sidebar or from the Quick Keys area.

Astropad Studio’s on-screen keyboard

Touch Gestures: Zoom, Pan, Rotate

Astropad’s touch gestures work smoothly with Clip Studio Paint. You can zoom and pan just like you would on a Mac trackpad:

Pinch with two fingers to zoom
Slide two fingers to pan

Astropad’s Touch Zooming

You can also rotate your canvas using a two-finger twist:

Astropad Studio’s Touch Canvas Rotation

If you want to learn how to set up brushes and pen pressure in Clip Studio Paint, check out our guide: How to use brushes in Clip Studio Paint with Astropad.