Pen and Brush Settings on an Online Whiteboard: A Guide

To set up a pen on an online whiteboard, pick the pen, then adjust its colour, size, opacity and stabilizer before you write. In Educastic these controls appear in the top bar as soon as you select a pen, brush, marker or pencil, and each tool remembers its own settings on your device.

Handwriting is the part of an online lesson students judge first. Wobbly, thin or washed-out lines make a clear explanation look messy, and most of that comes down to settings, not to your hand. This guide covers which tool to use for which job and what each setting actually changes.

What pens and brushes does Educastic have?

Educastic's whiteboard has four groups of drawing tools on the left toolbar, and each group opens as a flyout.

Each tool starts with its own colour: the Ballpoint is blue, the Highlighter is yellow and the Neon Pen is pink, for example. That way switching tools also switches ink, which saves a click in a fast explanation.

How do you change a pen's settings in Educastic?

Select a drawing tool and the settings bar appears in the top bar. If the top bar has no room, on a tablet for example, the same bar floats just below it.

1. Pick the tool from its group on the left toolbar, for example Pens, then Fineliner.
2. Choose a colour with the colour button at the start of the bar.
3. Drag Size to set the line thickness, from 1 to 17.
4. Drag Opacity to make the ink more see-through, from 10% to 100%.
5. Drag Stabilizer to smooth shaky lines, from 0 to 90.
6. Check the preview next to the colour button, which draws a sample stroke with your settings.
7. Press Reset to put the tool's colour, size and other settings back to their defaults.

The settings are kept per tool, so making the Highlighter wide does not make your Fineliner wide. They are saved in your browser on that device, so they are still there after a reload.

What does each setting do?

Each setting changes one thing about the stroke.

• Colour: opens a picker with the tool's Default colour, a row of Pens & highlighters inks, a Palette, your Recent colours and a Custom colour with a Hex colour field.
• Size: how thick the line is.
• Opacity: how see-through the ink is. Lower it to see what is underneath.
• Stabilizer: smooths hand-drawn lines. Higher is smoother, but the line trails the pen a little more.
• Pressure: appears only after you draw with a pressure-sensitive pen. Soft responds to a light touch, Firm needs a harder press.

The Pen (the first tool in Pens) also has a Style choice of Solid, Dashed or Dotted, which is handy for construction lines in geometry.

Which tool should you use for handwriting?

For handwriting, use the Fineliner, Ballpoint or Gel Pen at a small size with the Stabilizer around the middle. A common mistake is writing with a size that is too thin: what looks neat on your laptop is hard to read on a student's phone, so test a word at your usual zoom before class.

If you write with a mouse, raise the Stabilizer. It cannot turn a mouse into a pen, but it takes the jitter out of numbers and letters. With a drawing tablet, the Dip Pen, Brush Pen and Calligraphy Pen show their thick and thin strokes best; our guide to drawing tablets for online teaching covers the hardware.

How do you highlight text without hiding it?

Use the Highlighter in the Markers group. Educastic's Highlighter blends with what is beneath it, so printed text on a PDF or a typed text box stays sharp and readable through the colour, on light and dark boards.

A simple routine for a reading text: Highlighter yellow for the key words, a red Fineliner for your notes in the margin. The Marker, by contrast, is a bold, solid line for headings and boxes around answers.

When are brushes and pencils useful in class?

Brushes and pencils are useful whenever the look of the line matters as much as the line.

• Art and design: Watercolor and Paint Brush for colour studies, Charcoal and Graphite Pencil for tonal sketches.
• Science diagrams: Colored Pencil to shade the parts of a cell or a leaf.
• Younger learners: the Crayon feels familiar and is thick enough to see on any screen.
• Emphasis: the Neon Pen for the one line on the board you want nobody to miss.

Can you set a default pen and colour?

Yes. In Educast Setting on the right-hand panel, the teacher can set Default Pen (the pen selected when the whiteboard opens, or None to start with Select), Pen Color and Pen Width.

Students who have whiteboard access get the same tools and settings bar. Students without access do not see the bar, because their toolbar is locked until you give them access.

Frequently asked questions

Does every tool remember its own settings? Yes. Educastic keeps colour, size, opacity and stabilizer per tool, saved in your browser on that device.

Why can't I see the Pressure slider? It appears only after you draw with a pressure-sensitive pen, since pressure means nothing for a mouse or a finger.

How do I go back to a tool's original colour? Press Reset in the settings bar, or choose Default in the colour picker.

Do the Crayon and Spray Brush have their own settings bar? No. They draw with the colour and size set for the Pen.

Is there a highlighter that does not cover the text? Yes. Educastic's Highlighter blends with the page, so the text underneath stays readable.

Set up your pens before the next lesson

Open the Educastic online whiteboard, write one line with three pens at your usual zoom and keep the one your students can read best. For a tour of every other tool, see the online whiteboard tools guide.

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