• Mystery mode: Everything is a surprise. By default is disabled.
  
• Master sound control: On / Off - toggles sound effects.
  
• Pixelarium cursor: On / Off.
  
• Close menu
  
• Color mode: Choose between using the Light codes or the Dark codes.
  
• Visual Effects - toogle for visual effects in Relax mode and Competitive Relax mode.
  
• Shake Effect - toggle for screen shake when incorrectly coloring a pixel. Only applies to Game Mode.
  
• Pixels types appearance: Choose the appearance of completed pixels from the 9 options. Can be changed in-game.
  
• 4 Codes buttons: Choose the codes to use for the colors. The fourth option is only available on
  workshop pictures, and only if included by the puzzle creator.
  
  • Numbers - use numbers to represent each color.
    
  • Letters and numbers - use letters (and numbers if more than 26 colors)
    
  • Icons - use various icons to represent each color. This option can be both easier and harder because it is somewhat easier to spot pixels by icon, but at the same time, it is harder to navigate through the possible colors in the palette.
    
  • Custom code - uses codes specified by the creator of a subscribed workshop image.
• Music Volume: Increase / Decrease music volume. This will not affect the volume of sound effects.
  
• Borderless Mode/Windowed/Resolution: This button will switch to Borderless mode (full screen), and the button will change to say "Windowed". Clicking again, will switch to windowed mode, and the button will change to show the current screen size. Clicking again will switch to smaller screen sizes in a loop going from largest window to smallest window.
  
• Fullscreen button returns to full screen mode.
  
• In-game Controls button: lists the key mappings and controller mappings used by Pixelarium. This list can also be seen by pressing cursor up arrow in game.
  
• Exit button - closes Pixelarium and returns to desktop.
  
• Help button - open Guide.

Relax mode is intended for non-competitive enjoyment of coloring the puzzles. There is no ranking
and no in game icons as in the Game mode.

Top Toolbar

• House: return to main menu of Pixelarium and save progress on the current puzzle.
  
• Settings button: Open the game settings menu.
  
• Color eyedropper: Click on eyedropper, left click and hold on a colored pixel or a code pixel to select that code as the active color. There must be at least 1 uncolored pixel left of the selected color for this to work. This can also be done holding both control and left click on the desired target.
  
• Magnifying glass: Fast zoom in/out. First click will zoom out to complete picture and then second click will zoom back in to the view you had before zooming out.
  
• Colors palette: Opens current palette for the puzzle showing all unfinished colors. Click on one to make it the current active color.
  
• Hints box: Shows number of currently available hints. Clicking it will highlight pixels of the active color remaining in the picture. Note that the highlighting will disappear if you change the active color.
  Be careful, you will lose hint information if you change the current color.
  
• Two counters:
  
  • Left counter: pixel counter to obtain next hint. Upper number shows number of pixels accumulated; lower number is the target for the next hint.
    
  • Right counter: pixel counter to obtain next color bucket. Upper number shows number of pixels accumulated; lower number is the target for the next color bucket.
• Color bucket: The bucket fills a connected area of same color pixels with the active color.
  Select the color you want to use, then click the bucket, and finally click an unpainted pixel of that color to fill it and all attached pixels that are that color. The active color and the targeted pixel must be of the same color code.
  
• Color palette Scroll bar: Shows current active color (in background), its code (top center), and number of remaining pixels (bottom center). The left and right arrows show which color code will become the active color by scrolling left or right. Completed colors are skipped automatically.

In-game settings menu

• Mystery button, disabled by default. If you switch mystery mode in-game, you need to exit the current game and reload it.
  
• Screen button: toogle Dark mode / Light mode.
  
• It's not possible to change a game from Relax mode. You need to restart the game to play in a ranked mode.

Competitive Relax mode is the purest competition. This mode allow players to compete for fastest times without any other interference.

Top Toolbar:

• House: return to main menu of Pixelarium and save progress on the current puzzle.
  
• Settings button: Open the game settings menu.
  
• Color Eyedropper: Click on eyedroper, left click and hold on a colored pixel or a code pixel to select that code as the active color. There must be at least 1 uncolored pixel left of the selected color for this to work. This can also be done holding both control and left click on the desired target.
  
• Magnifying glass: Fast zoom in/out. First click will zoom out to complete picture and then
  second click will zoom back in to the view you had before zooming out.
  
• Colors palette: Opens current palette for the puzzle showing all unfinished colors. Click on
  one to make it the current active color.
  
• Hints box: Shows number of currently available hints. Clicking it will highlight pixels of the
  active color remaining in the picture. Note that the highlighting will disappear if you
  change the active color.
  
• Two counters:
  
  • Left counter: pixel counter to obtain next hint. Upper number shows number of
    pixels accumulated; lower number is the target for the next hint.
    
  • Right counter: pixel counter to obtain next color bucket. Upper number shows number of
    pixels accumulated; lower number is the target for the next color bucket.
• Color bucket is disabled in Competitive Relax mode. Color bucket counter is active.
  
• Color palette Scroll bar: Shows current active color (in background), its code (top center), and number of remaining pixels (bottom center). The left and right arrows show which color code will become the active color by scrolling left or right. Completed colors are skipped automatically.

Timer
Timer and time ranking is available only in ranked modes.
Timer in seconds will start with your first click. Timer is at bottom right corner of game area.

In-game settings menu

• Mystery button, disabled by default. If you switch mystery mode in-game, you need to exit the current game and reload it.
  
• Screen button: toogle Dark mode / Light mode.
  
• You can switch a puzzle from a ranked mode to Relax mode, but not from Relax mode to a ranked mode. To return to Game mode, you need to start the puzzle over, and select game mode at that time.

Finished picture top toolbar:
Game Mode Ranking button.
Share button: To create a screenshot.

Play button
In bottom left corner, to see an animation of final picture color by color.

Textures button
In bottom right corner, to apply different pixel textures to customize final image.

Finished picture screen
Ranking list will appear automatically when you finish a picture in Competitive Relax mode or Game mode.
If you were playing in ranked mode your best mark will appear in the list, showing -5/+5 nearest time ranks.
If you were playing in Relax mode, best ten time ranks are shown clicking on each Ranking button.

Game mode is meant as an alternative to the relax mode to allow players to compete for fastest times taken to color an image. It also introduces several other effects that apply to game mode only to make it more challenging.

Top Toolbar

• House: return to main menu of Pixelarium and save progress on the current puzzle.
  
• Settings button: Open the game settings menu.
  
• Color Eyedropper: Click on eyedroper, left click and hold on a colored pixel or a code pixel to select that code as the active color. There must be at least 1 uncolored pixel left of the selected color for this to work. This can also be done holding both control and left click on the desired target.
  
• Magnifying glass: Fast zoom in/out. First click will zoom out to complete picture and then
  second click will zoom back in to the view you had before zooming out.
  
• Colors palette: Opens current palette for the puzzle showing all unfinished colors. Click on
  one to make it the current active color.
  
• Hints box: Shows number of currently available hints. Clicking it will highlight pixels of the
  active color remaining in the picture. Note that the highlighting will disappear if you
  change the active color.
  
• Three counters:
  
  • Bottom left counter: pixel counter to obtain next hint. Upper number shows number of
    pixels accumulated (including chain bonuses); lower number is the target for the next hint.
    
  • Bottom right counter: pixel counter to obtain next color bucket. Upper number shows number of pixels accumulated (including chain bonuses); lower number is the target for the next color bucket.
    
  • Top middle counter: pixel counter for chain target with increasing difficulty for each new target.
    Current pixel chain length is on the bottom, and the top is your current chain target.
• Color bucket is disabled in Game mode. Color bucket counter is active.
  
• Color palette Scroll bar: Shows current active color (in background), its code (top center), and number of remaining pixels (bottom center). The left and right arrows show which color code will become the active color by scrolling left or right. Completed colors are skipped automatically.

Timer
Timer and time ranking is available only in ranked modes.
Timer in seconds will start with your first click. Timer is at bottom right corner of game area.

In-game settings menu

• Mystery button, disabled by default. If you switch mystery mode in-game, you need to exit the current game and reload it.
  
• Screen button: toogle Dark mode / Light mode.
  
• You can switch a puzzle from a ranked mode to Relax mode, but not from Relax mode to a ranked mode. To return to Game mode, you need to start the puzzle over, and select game mode at that time.

Icons in-game
In the game you will find some special pixels:

Chain Bonuses
Multipliers are aplied in your current chain of pixels.
You can get as many bonuses as you like in the same chain.

Frozen Pixel
Be careful of sky blue pixels as they are frozen and need to be melted by holding the pointer on them until the ice breaks. If you don't wait, your chain will be broken.

Color Jumping
Color jumping allows an automatic change of active color.

Pixel Bugs
Watch for pixel bug eggs. They are visible if you zoom in, otherwise you may not be able to see them and only discover their presence when they hatch after you color their pixel.
When activated, the eggs hatch and release some pixel bugs which will move randomly on to adjacent unpainted pixels.
When bugs are active, they can freeze pixels and lay more eggs.
Pixel bugs die if they have no more pixels to freeze.

Tips:

• With high zoom you can see the eggs.
  
• You can restrict the movement of pixel bugs by surrounding them with painted pixels.

Color Bombs comes in two types:

• Chamaleon bombs adopt the color of the pixel they are on and will only paint that color pixels when exploded.
  
• Rainbow bombs will paint all pixels in their blast radius.

The blast radius of bombs increases with higher chain targets achieved.
To explode a color bomb, you click on it with the color of the pixel it is on.

* Pixelarium Creator Tool is not an image editor *
Edit colors tool is able to correct little color details.
For important changes you may use your favorite image editor.

Top bar menu

• Exit button: To leave Creator Tool.
  
• Load image: Load an external image in png, jpg and gif.
  Gif has limited support. Only the first frame and some gifs don't work.
  
• Image size: Width and Height in pixels.
  You can edit image W & H within minimum of 5 px and maximum of 512 px.
  
• Color reduction: + & - buttons to try to add or reduce colors.
  
• Custom codes: To add your own codes images in dark and light backgrounds.
  
• Submit button: To upload your creation to Steam.
  Some information is required:
  
  • Image information (title and description)
    
  • Edit your Creator credit (by default your Steam name).
    
  • Change Log (by default Version 1.0).
    
  • Edit your image visibility: Public, Friends or Private.
• Test button: You can test your game in both modes.
  By default in your last played mode.
  To exit Test mode: Press Home icon or Exit in Settings.
  
• Pixels: Real pixels number of the image (total pixels minus alpha pixels).
  
• Edit Colors button: Number of colors.
  
  • Colors palette is opened with number of pixels information for each color.
    
  • Press on a color to edit: You can delete or convert to another color in palette.
    
  • You can cancel or press apply changes to confirm.
• Pixel Grid: Enable / Disable Pixel Grid to see opaque color background.
  
• Background: Background color palette and luminosity bar.

Working area

• Click on a pixel with left mouse button to open menu for:
  
  • Edit Color: To select and edit all pixels in this color.
    
  • Edit Pixel: Tool to edit pixel by pixel. Allows to edit alpha pixels inside image area.
• In bottom right corner: Pixel information (Color ID and pixel number)

My workshop menu
You can chose Competitive Relax mode, Game mode or Relax mode.
You can edit your creation, for example, edit colors, background color or Steam visibility.
Unsubscribe: Click to remove your creation from your Pixelarium.

Keyboard shortcuts

Right-handed:
* WASD: move around.
* Q or Z or LEFT arrow: Jump to left color.
* E or X or RIGHT arrow: Jump to right color.

Left-handed:
* IJKL: move around.
* U or LEFT arrow : Jump to left color.
* O or RIGHT arrow: Jump to right color.

General:
* Numbers: You can change active color by typing a color code.
* Caps Lock On: you can use LETTER shortcuts when playing with letters & numbers.
* Spacebar: Open palette.
* Control + Left Click: Color eyedropper.
* UP arrow: show controls shortcuts.
* Esc: Exit Game.