Editing Tile Layers

Tile Layers are what makes Tiled a tile map editor. Although not as flexible as Object Layers, they provide efficient data storage and good rendering performance as well as efficient content creation. Every new map gets one by default, though feel free to delete it when you’re not going to use it.

Stamp Brush

Shortcut: B stock-tool-clone

The primary tool for editing tile layers is the Stamp Brush. It can be used to paint single tiles as well as larger “stamps”, which is where it gets its name from. Using the right mouse button, it can also quickly capture tile stamps from the currently active layer. A tile stamp is commonly created by selecting one or more tiles in the Tilesets view.

The Stamp Brush has some extra features:

  • While holding Shift, click any two points to draw a line between them.

  • While holding Ctrl+Shift, click any two points two draw a circle or ellipse centered on the first point.

  • Activate the Random Mode using the dice button on the Tool Options toolbar to have the Stamp Brush paint with random tiles from the tile stamp. The probability of each tile depends on how often it occurred on the tile stamp, as well as the probability set on each tile in the Tileset Editor.

  • Activate the Terrain Fill Mode using the Terrain tile terrain button on the tool bar to have the Stamp Brush paint using random terrain tiles. This makes adjacent tiles match edge and corner terrains to be placed. Terrain tiles are described in detail in Using Terrains.

  • In combination with the Tile Stamps view, it can also place randomly from a set of predefined tile stamps. This can be more useful than the Random Mode, which randomly places individual tiles.

  • You can flip the current tile stamp horizontally/vertically by using X and Y respectively. You can also rotate left/right by using Z and Shift+Z respectively. These actions can also be triggered from the Tool Options tool bar.

Terrain Brush

Shortcut: T terrain-edit

The Terrain Brush allows for efficient editing with certain types of terrain transitions (corner-based, edge-based or a combination). Setting it up requires associating terrain information with your tiles, which is described in detail in Using Terrains.

Similarly to the Stamp Brush, you can draw lines by holding Shift. When holding Ctrl, the size of the edited area is increased to cover an entire tile rather than just one corner or edge.

Since Tiled 1.0

When holding Alt, the editing operations are also applied at a 180 degree rotation. This is especially useful when editing strategic maps where two sides need to have equal opportunities. The modifier works well in combination with either Shift for drawing lines or Ctrl for increasing the edited area.

Since Tiled 1.1

Bucket Fill Tool

Shortcut: F stock-tool-bucket-fill

The Bucket Fill Tool provides a quick way of filling empty areas or areas covered with the same tiles. The currently active tile stamp will be repeated in the filled area. It can also be used in combination with the Random Mode, or Terrain Fill Mode.

When holding Shift, the tool fills the currently selected area regardless of its contents. This is useful for filling custom areas that have been selected previously using one or more Selection Tools.

You can also flip and rotate the current stamp as described for the Stamp Brush.

Since Tiled 1.1

Shape Fill Tool

Shortcut: P rectangle-fill

This tool provides a quick way to fill rectangles or ellipses with a certain tile or pattern.

  • Holding Shift fills an exact square or circle.

Since Tiled 1.10.2

  • Holding Alt draws the rectangle or ellipse centered around the starting location.

You can also flip and rotate the current stamp as described for the Stamp Brush.

Eraser

Shortcut: E stock-tool-eraser

A simple eraser tool. Left click erases single tiles and right click can be used to quickly erase rectangular areas.

Since Tiled 1.5

  • Holding Shift erases on all layers.

Selection Tools

There are various tile selection tools that all work in similar fashion:

  • stock-tool-rect-select Rectangular Select allows selection of rectangular areas (shortcut: R)

  • stock-tool-fuzzy-select-22 Magic Wand allows selection of connected areas filled with the same tile (shortcut: W)

  • stock-tool-by-color-select Select Same Tile allows selection of same-tiles across the entire layer (shortcut: S)

By default, each of these tools replaces the currently selected area. The following modifiers can be used to change this behavior:

  • Holding Shift expands the current selection with the new area

  • Holding Ctrl subtracts the new area from the current selection

  • Holding Ctrl and Shift selects the intersection of the new area with the current selection

You can also lock into one of these modes (Add, Subtract or Intersect) by clicking on one of the tool buttons in the Tool Options toolbar.

Managing Tile Stamps

It can often be useful to store the current tile stamp somewhere to use it again later. The following shortcuts work for this purpose:

  • Ctrl + 1-9 - Store current tile stamp. When no tile drawing tool is selected, tries to capture the current tile selection (similar to Ctrl + C).

  • 1-9 - Recall the stamp stored at this location (similar to Ctrl + V)

Tile stamps can also be stored by name and extended with variations using the Tile Stamps view.