# Gallery & files

> The CrowDraw gallery: new canvases, stacks, sorting, previews and artwork info; importing PNG, JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, layered PSD and .crowdraw files; inserting photos and camera pictures; and where your artwork is kept.

Source: https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/docs/gallery/

The gallery is where your artworks live. Make new canvases, group them into stacks, bring in images and Photoshop files, and keep everything in the order you like.

## The gallery

Across the top of the gallery:

- **Select**: choose several artworks to stack, preview, share, duplicate or delete at once.
- **Import**: bring in files (see below).
- **Photo**: make canvases from up to 20 photos at a time.
- Sort: **Manual**, **Date modified**, **Date created**, **Name** or **Canvas size**.
- **+**: a new canvas (see [canvas sizes](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/docs/#canvas-sizes)).

In a narrow window, Select, Import, Photo and the sort order are in a **…** menu.

![The gallery with thirteen artworks and a Sketchbook stack, and Select, Import, Photo, sort and + at the top](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/screens/01-gallery.webp "The gallery, with a Sketchbook stack")

Tap an artwork to open it, and tap **Gallery** in the editor to close it again. Touch and hold an artwork for **Rename** (or tap its title), **Info**, **Preview**, **Share**, **Duplicate** and **Delete**, and in a stack, **Move out of stack**. Touch and hold a stack for **Rename**, **Preview**, **Share**, **Unstack** and **Delete**. Deleting can't be undone.

If an artwork's file is damaged, its card shows a warning and it can't be opened; touch and hold it to delete it.

**Info** shows the size, resolution, print size, number of layers, time spent, dates, the storage it uses and the length of its time-lapse. **Preview** shows artworks full screen: swipe between them, tap to hide the controls, and tap **Open** to start drawing.

## Stacks and order

- Drag an artwork onto the middle of another to make a stack, or onto a stack to add it.
- Drop it before or after another artwork to change the order. This switches the sort to Manual.
- In Select mode, **Stack** puts the selected artworks in a stack and **Unstack** takes them out.

Stacks hold artworks, not other stacks.

## Importing

Bring work in from other apps in any of these ways:

- Tap **Import** in the gallery and pick one or more files.
- Drag files from Files or another app and drop them on the gallery.
- Share or open a file in CrowDraw from another app. A single file opens straight away.
- Tap **Photo** to pick photos from your library.

| File | What you get |
|---|---|
| .crowdraw | CrowDraw's own format, with every layer and the time-lapse. |
| PSD, PSB | Photoshop documents, with their layers, groups, masks, opacity, visibility and blend modes (RGB, 8 bits per channel). Other colour modes and bit depths come in flattened. |
| PNG, JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, GIF, WebP, BMP | A new canvas the same size as the image. |

Very large images are scaled down to the biggest canvas your iPad can handle. `.crowbrush` files go to the brush library, and `.swatches` palettes are imported from the Colours panel.

> [!TIP] Coming from another painting app?
> Export your artwork as a layered PSD and import that: the layers, groups, masks and blend modes come with it. Palettes in the `.swatches` format import directly.

## Adding images to a canvas

In an open canvas, Actions › **Add** has **Insert a file** (PNG, JPEG, HEIC, TIFF or a PSD, flattened), **Insert a photo** and **Take a photo** with the camera. The image arrives on a new layer, centred and scaled to fit, with Transform open so you can place it.

## Where your artwork is kept

Artworks are stored inside CrowDraw on your iPad and saved automatically. They don't appear in the Files app or iCloud Drive, and CrowDraw doesn't upload them anywhere.

- **No iCloud sync.** Your artworks don't sync between your devices, and there's no account or cloud copy.
- **Device backups include them.** Your iPad's own backup (iCloud Backup, or a backup to a computer) includes CrowDraw's artwork, and restoring the backup brings it back.
- **CrowDraw files are your own copies.** To move artwork to another iPad, or to keep a backup you control, share it from the gallery as a **CrowDraw** file and save it to Files (including iCloud Drive), AirDrop it or email it. It keeps every layer, the time-lapse, saved selections and the strokes the stroke eraser can remove. On the other iPad, open it with CrowDraw or use **Import**. Select several artworks to share them together.

> [!WARNING] Deleting CrowDraw deletes your artwork
> Export anything you want to keep before deleting the app or resetting your iPad.