OscilloScribe draws by moving a virtual pen under the control of a pair of waves. The technique is described in some detail in a tutorial: Drawing with a Wave-Guided Pen. It produces a rich variety of figures ranging from simple figure 8’s to Spirograph® patterns and beyond. You can color regions of these figures, adding your own interpretation and artistry. You can also specify the waves that guide the pen, thereby creating new figures. The waves are constructed from simple building blocks and wave parameters can be specified numerically or adjusted graphically. OscilloScribe is designed to encourage experimentation and exploration. Basic operating instructions appear below. See The OscilloScribe User’s Guide for a complete description of the program and its operation.
Things You Can Do | How To Do Them |
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Choose a color | Click any sector of the color wheel. For black, click the wheel’s hub. For white, click its outer rim. |
Draw a pattern | Click any of the wave pairs in the upper left to draw the corresponding pattern using the currently selected color. |
Adjust the drawing speed | Drag the thumb of the speed control slider ![]() |
Fill an area | Click any area of the drawing to fill it with the current color. Click outside any enclosed area to change the background color. |
Erase the last change | Click the pink half of the eraser (![]() |
Start a new drawing | Click ![]() |
Replay activity | Click to replay the steps that produced to the current drawing. |
Save a drawing (Not available on Mac) |
Click ![]() |
Export a drawing to another program (Not available on Mac) |
While in the gallery (see above) drag any drawing’s thumbnail to the clipboard (![]() |
Export a drawing to a file (Not available on Mac) |
While in the gallery (see above) drag any drawing’s thumbnail to the file folder (![]() |
Mix colors | Select the first color. Click within an empty mixing tray (![]() |
Create a new pattern | Click ![]() |
Get help on a particular item | Click ![]() ![]() |