Five-finger painting
Every finger keeps its own color from the moment it touches the canvas until it lifts.
Support
Five fingers. Five colors. One canvas.
Five Fingers Paint is a simple drawing app made for children. Pick five colors, place up to five fingers on the canvas, and paint with every finger independently.
No ads, accounts, analytics, or tracking
Responsive paint
Metal-powered rendering keeps paint fluid while the brush responds to the size of each finger’s contact.
Made for children
Clear the canvas, choose colors, or save a painting to Photos—without ads or social sharing.
Getting started
Pick a color and paint.
The controls stay deliberately small so the canvas belongs to the painting.
- 1
Choose the first color
Tap one of the five paint puddles. The last one tapped becomes the color for single-finger drawing.
- 2
Build your palette
Pull the paintboard upward, select a puddle, then tap a bottle to replace that color. Flick the board down when you are done.
- 3
Paint with one to five fingers
The first finger uses the active color. Each extra finger gets another palette color and keeps it until it lifts.
- 4
Clear or save
Tap the brush, then drag it upward to clear. Tap the easel to save the canvas to Photos.
Touch input
Every finger stays itself.
Five Fingers Paint tracks direct screen touches independently, without creating a trail of short-lived objects as you draw.
Stable colors
Each active finger occupies a fixed slot. Moving fingers quickly or crossing their paths does not swap their colors.
Natural brush size
Stroke width follows the finger’s measured contact radius and narrows slightly during faster movement. It does not depend on 3D Touch.
Room to draw
Starting a stroke closes the color shelf. Drawing near the bottom temporarily hides the controls, which return after the stroke ends.
FAQ
Touch, gestures, and controls.
Does the app really support five fingers at once?
Yes. The canvas accepts up to five simultaneous direct touches. Each finger is tracked independently from touch-down until it lifts.
How are colors assigned to fingers?
The first finger uses the last paint puddle you tapped. Additional fingers receive the other unused palette colors in order. A finger keeps its assigned color for the whole stroke, even when paths cross.
Is painting pressure-sensitive?
It responds to contact size, not pressure. iPhone and iPad report the approximate radius of each touch, and the app uses that to vary brush width. It also narrows the brush slightly during fast movement. This preserves the original effect without relying on the discontinued 3D Touch hardware.
Do I need to grant permission for five-finger drawing?
No. Multi-touch is a normal iOS capability and requires no privacy permission. Five Fingers Paint enables it directly on the canvas.
Why does a Zoom window appear when I paint with three fingers?
Apple’s Accessibility Zoom uses three-finger gestures and can delay or interrupt painting. Five Fingers Paint shows a system warning that offers to turn Zoom off. For uninterrupted three-to-five-finger painting, choose Turn Off Zoom, or open Settings → Accessibility → Zoom and turn it off there.
Why is drawing slow with multiple fingers?
Accessibility Zoom can intercept three-finger input and make paint lag behind your fingers. Open Settings → Accessibility → Zoom and turn Zoom off for smooth multi-finger drawing.
Can iPad system gestures interfere?
The app asks iPadOS to defer edge gestures, and its own paintboard and clear controls are kept away from the canvas. However, iPadOS can still reserve four- or five-finger gestures for switching apps. Guided Access is the reliable way to prevent that during a painting session.
How do I keep a child inside the app?
Use Apple’s Guided Access. Enable it once in Settings → Accessibility, open the app, triple-click the top or Home button, leave Touch enabled, and start the session. This locks the device to Five Fingers Paint while preserving multi-touch drawing.
Can Five Fingers Paint enable Guided Access automatically?
No. A normal App Store app cannot start Guided Access for you. A parent must enable and start it using the device controls. Automatic Single App Mode is limited to supervised, organization-managed devices.
Why do the controls disappear near the bottom?
They move out of the way so a stroke can continue beneath them. The outline briefly marks where they were, and the controls return shortly after all fingers leave the screen.
How do I clear the canvas?
Tap the brush beside the paintboard. When the red dashed arrow appears, drag the brush upward toward the paper until the canvas clears.
How do I save a painting—and why might the button be missing?
Tap the easel to save a copy to Photos. The app requests add-only Photos access, so it cannot browse the library. Parents can hide or show the easel in the iOS Settings app under Five Fingers Paint.
Still stuck?
Talk to a person.
Tell us which device and iOS version you use, along with a short description of what happened.