Unless it is the node of the school version of this software or for trial, when M-Brush is installed，the computer's hardware (CPU or hard disk) are changed, the operating system is re-installed or the registration information is damaged, it requires you to register M-Brush with a registration code so that you can fully use all designated functions. To register M-Brush, the computer must be connected to internet.    If you see menu item "Register M-Brush" under menu "Options", or you see the pop-up message reminding you to register or re-register M-Brush, please complete the registration. 

Please be advised that each registration code can only be used for the same computer to register the required version of M-Brush. It may be treated as a different computer if hardware (CPU or hard disk) information is changed by replacement or damage of hardware or operation system. Re-registration is required if your computer's operating system is changed or the registration information is accidently damaged, however the hardware information is not changed. The re-registration of one registration code is limited to 10 times in total, including the first time registration, and it has to be done in three years after you purchase this software. So please keep all registration codes safely.   

"Read", "Trace", "Copy" and "Create" are four steps for practising Chinese calligraphy. This software will provide convenience for you to go through these steps, especially step 1, 2 and 3. After you install your favorite calligraphy fonts, you can easily trace and copy the fonts or copybooks of calligraphy by using a tablet pen. You can also easily replay and review the process of your work in M-Brush.

• This software has inlcuded some calligraphy copybooks as samples. Clicking one of the files under the path "Contents\Calligraphy\Tracing Famous Copybooks" located in the middle of panel for samples files, the image of the copybook will be displayed in the working area as the background image for you to directly trace on it using a tablet pen on the graphics tablet. You can also click icon on the toolbar to load your own saved calligraphy copybook or the image of any calligraphic work as background image. Another more convenient method is to directly drag any image file which is a copybook or any calligraphic work from your hard drive or USB and drop it to the working area of this software (Please note: If you are using a computer with 64-bit Windows 7, this feature may not work because Windows 7 may have User Account Control - UAC setup. You need to turn off UAC in order to enable the feature of dragging and dropping image file to the working area of M-Brush).
• If necessary, click or to zoom out or zoom in the background copybook;
• If necessary, click on icon on the upper left corner for Brush option of tools , adjust or set parameters for Tool Parameters, Type of Ink, Ink Thickness, and Ink Effect;
• Now you can use your tablet pen on the graphics tablet, look at the cursor on the screen, trace or copy the characters displayed in the copybook (If you are a beginner using graphics tablet pen with pressure sensitivity, it's very important for you to practise it for a few hours to get used to a tablet pen on how to hold it, how to close it to the tablet to get cursor on the screen and how to apply different power to achieve different stroke);
• After tracing or copying one or several characters, if you want to hide the background copybook to only show your own handwriting, just click icon on the toolbar. To redisplay the background copybook or image, you can click on icon ;
• If necessary, you can click to undo the strokes (up to 20 strokes or steps), click to redo the strokes, or to clean up all contents (not including background).
• Click icon on the toolbar to save your work (.mbo file);
• If you want to playback your own handwriting, you can click icon on the toolbar. Use the icon , or to pause, continue to playback with original speed or playback with faster speed . If you want to quickly complete the replaying, simply have one click on the working area or click ;
• If you open calligraphy or painting works in other software, e.g., a browser, you can click the icon in the toolbar of M-Brush to switch to Desktop/White Board mode and directly trace and copy the work;

• Firstly, you need to download and install your favorite calligraphy fonts;
• Secondly, either use the text in the Tang Poems provided by this software, or enter any character in the text area of Background Text option of tools located at the upper part of the left panel as background text;
• This software has included more than 300 Tang Poems. In the middle of panel for samples files, click a file from path "Contents\Calligraphy\Poems of Tang Dynasty & Calligarphy". The contents of the poem will be displayed on the working area with the Format for Poem with Pinyin. To practise calligraphy, you need to click on the icon for any other format in the toolbar, such as, , , , or ;
• Select the name of the calligraphy font you want to practice from the dropdown list for "Font Name for Background Text"(), then select the style "Simplified" or "Traditional" from dropdown list for "Input Style of Background Text"(), enter or select font style (), font size () and select color (). The working area will display the configured background text accordingly. Some characters may not show up, which is determined by your installed fonts. Some fonts only support either Simplified or Traditional Chinese, which might not include that character by the font provider.
• If necessary, click on icon on the upper left corner for Brush option of tools, adjust or set parameters for Tool Parameters, Type of Ink, Ink Thickness, and Ink Effect;
• Now you can use your tablet pen on the tablet, look at the cursor on the screen, trace or copy the text displayed with calligraphy font (If you are a beginner using graphics tablet pen with pressure sensitivity, it's very important for you to practise it for a few hours to get used to a tablet pen on how to hold it, how to close it to the tablet to get cursor on the screen and how to apply different power to achieve different stroke);
• After tracing or copyinge some characters, if you want to hide the background text and see your own handwriting, you can click icon on the toolbar. To redisplay the background text, click on icon;
• When tracing the calligraphy fonts, you can see your score after completing a stroke (you can click the score and see the details).
• If necessary, you can click to undo the strokes (up to 20 strokes or steps), click to redo the strokes, or to clean up all contents (not including background).
• Click icon on the toolbar to save your work (.mbo file);
• If you want to playback your own handwriting, you can click icon on the toolbar. Use the icon , or to pause, continue to playback with original speed or playback with faster speed . If you want to quickly complete the replaying, simply have one click on the working area or click ;

• This software includes some samples of tracing and copying copybooks for Chinese calligraphy to show the process of the works. Clicking one of the files under the path "Contents\Calligraphy\Demonstration of Tracing Copybooks" located in the middle of panel for samples files, the process of the work will be replayed in the working area.

• The common brushes used for calligraphy have been provided in the sample files, which will be helpful for you to quickly start a calligraphy work. Click the file "Common Brushes for Ink Calligraphy" under "Common Brushes for Ink Calligraphy & Painting", select the brush you want from the popup window of Defined Brushes and start to draw on the panel. If needed, you may modify the parameters of the selected brush to create a new brush.
  
• The background (border, background color, background image of working area) of the work can be set at the beginning or any other time by clicking on the icon or double clicking the border of the work;
• The size of the work can be set or changed by clicking on icon on the toolbar, or dragging the center point of the right edge or bottom edge, or lower right corner of borders;
• Click the format icon on the toolbar, such as , , , , or ;
• If necessary, click on icon on the upper left corner for Brush option of tools , adjust or set parameters for Tool Parameters, Type of Ink, Ink Thickness, and Ink Effect. For practising calligraphy, usually it is enough to use "Regular" as the option for Type of Effect. But sometimes you may try "Wet" or "Dry" as the option for Type of Effect, and select the appropriate value of Initial Value of Effect (for calligraphy, this value should be low);
• Now you can use your tablet pen on the graphics tablet, look at the cursor on the screen, draw strokes in the working area (If you are a beginner using graphics tablet pen with pressure sensitivity, it's very important for you to practise it for a few hours to get used to a tablet pen on how to hold it, how to close it to the tablet to get cursor on the screen and how to apply different power to achieve different stroke). With the different pressure applied to the pen and the moving of the pen, it can achieve the strokes with effects of Chinese calligraphic brushes (the tip of the tablet pen should always close to the tablet);
• If necessary, you can click to undo the strokes (up to 20 strokes or steps), click to redo the strokes, or to clean up all contents (not including background).
• Click icon on the toolbar to save your work (.mbo file);
• Click icon on the toolbar to save the work as an image file (.png, .gif or .jpg file).
• Click icon on the toolbar to save the work as an animated image .gif file.
• Click icon on the toolbar to print the work. A window will be popped up for you to preview the page and select the parameters for Scaling, Resolution, Range, Orientation, Margins and Centering. Current version of M-Brush only allows the user to select up to twice of the displaying resolution as the resolution for printing.
• If you want to playback your own handwriting, you can click icon on the toolbar. Use the icon , or to pause, continue to playback with original speed or playback with faster speed . If you want to quickly complete the replaying, simply have one click on the working area or click ;
  

• There are some painting samples included to show the painting in M-Brush. Clicking one of the files under the path "Contents\Painting\Demonstration of Ink Painting" located in the middle of panel for samples files, the process of the work will be replayed in the working area. These samples do not include the effect of "Wet" or "Dry" stroke (The update of this software may provide more painting samples later).

• When drawing or painting, you'd better enable the right-click button on the pen since it can be used to quickly change the angle of the ink spot.
• When drawing or painting, it is better to show ink spot on the cursor so that you know the distribution of colors, the shape and angle of the ink spot without moving the focus of your eyesight away from the cursor. Using the shortcut key by another hand which does not hold the pen to quickly change the parameters of the tool and ink spot, combining with the right-click button on the pen, may significantly improve the efficiency of drawing or painting;
• The common brushes used for ink painting have been provided in the sample files, which will be helpful for you to quickly start a painting work. Click the file "Common Brushes for Ink Painting" under "Common Brushes for Ink Calligraphy & Painting", select the brush you want from the popup window of Defined Brushes and start to paint on the panel. If needed, you may modify the parameters of the selected brush to create a new brush.
  
• The background (border, background color, background image of working area) of the work can be set at the beginning or any other time by clicking on the icon or double clicking the border of the work;
• The size of the work can be set or changed by clicking on icon on the toolbar, or dragging the center point of the right edge or bottom edge, or lower right corner of borders;
• For painting work, usually you need to prepare some ink spots before starting to paint. Click either the icon for Brush (), Pen () or Air Brush () of the tool options which locating at the top of the left panel. Adjust or set the parameters for Parameters of Tool, Type of Ink, Ink Thickness and Ink Effect ("Wet" or "Dry" effect is important to some of the ink painting works), then have one click on the area for Defined Tools. Repeat this step to prepare more ink spots, depends on the contents you are going to paint for this work. You may add any new ink spot as well when you are painting;
• Now you can click on any prepared ink spot from "Defined Tools" or set up a new ink spot and paint on the working area;
• Usually , which means the source ink will be painted above the existing strokes, is selected as the Composite for most of strokes. However, if it is required to draw the lineament or outline first then fill or paint in the lineament, for example, paint the face after drawing the outline, then , which means the source ink will be painted under the existing strokes, should be selected as the Composite to avoid fully overriding the existing strokes. Please note: this Composite can only be displayed when Regular and Dry effects of the ink is selected for the brush or pen, and only be effective in the area which is erased, drawed or painted with thinner ink or is never drawed or painted.
• For the strokes which have been done on the work, if necessary, you can apply addtional effects on those strokes by clicking for Effects of tool options located on the top of left panel. Then draw on the strokes to apply selected effect. The function for Eraser is done by clicking the icon for Eraser () of the tool options located at the top of the left panel. The size of "Soft" eraser is not fixed, and it is determined by the pressure on the tablet pen;
• It it is necessary, you may do some editing on the painting work. Click the icon for Selection () of the tool options located at the top of the left panel, firstly select one of the options of Selection Type: "Partial", "All", "Any" or "Stroke". then press and drag or click to select the contents of the work which needs to be edited, display the dashed box. You may presss and drag the selected area to move the contents, or right click mouse button on the selected area to pop up a menu to insert before, insert after, replace, cut, copy (after copying, right click on the working area to paste the copied contents), clear, enlarge, shrink, counterclockwise or clockwise rotate the selected contents. Single-click outside the selected area to make the operation effective. Please note: these operations are only good for the whole stroke(s). Selection of part of the stroke may cause information loss. In addition, these operations of editting do not affect the background information (such as background text, grids or background image);
• If necessary, you can click to undo the strokes (up to 20 strokes or steps), click to redo the strokes, or to clean up all contents (not including background).
• Click icon on the toolbar to save your work (.mbo file);
• Click icon on the toolbar to save the work as an image file (.png, .gif or .jpg file).
• Click icon on the toolbar to save the work as an animated image .gif file.
• Click icon on the toolbar to print the work. A window will be popped up for you to preview the page and select the parameters for Scaling, Resolution, Range, Orientation, Margins and Centering. Current version of M-Brush only allows the user to select up to twice of the displaying resolution as the resolution for printing.
• If you want to playback your own handwriting, you can click icon on the toolbar. Use the icon , or to pause, continue to playback with original speed or playback with faster speed . If you want to quickly complete the replaying, simply have one click on the working area or click ;
  

Expand the tree structure in the left panel containing files and select one node in one of the sub-directories of "Contents\Chinese Characters", the animation or Pinyin will be displayed.

The animations of the strokes of Chinese characters are summarized in this category.

The animations of 100 common indexing components of Chinese characters are included.

This category shows how to write most common used 500 Chinese characters and the Pinyin as well.

There are more than 7000 Chinese characters included in this category to show the characters and Pinyin.

Clicking one of the files under the path "Contents\Calligraphy\Poems of Tang Dynasty & Calligraphy Fonts" located in the middle of panel for samples files, the poem with Pinyin will be displayed with designated font and color. If the screen mode is "Regular", the explanation of the poem will be displayed in panel located at the left lower corner.

Stamp is part of the calligraphy and painting. A simple tool is provided in this software for you to easily create a stamp. To create a new stamp, you need to click or on the panel of parameters for new stamp or changing stamp. After you enter or modify the text of the stamp and select a few parameters, a stamp will be generated. Advanced users can also draw on the stamp to modify and customize the stamp. After saving the stamp or text, you can click move the cursor to the designated location of the working area, press and drag it to the proper size and release to place your stamp or text on the work.

• This verion of M-Brush uses 32-bit JRE(Java Runtime Environment) 1.6 (it is also called version 6). Please ensure JRE is installed under directory 'C:\Program Files\Java\' for your 32-bit operating system, or 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\' for your 64-bit operating system.
• M-Brush should be installed with Administrator's privilege. After the installation is completed, when you try to launch M-Brush or update it, if you see the message "Could not create the Java virtual machine", which is usually caused by resource shortage of RAM or conflict from other software, you need to restart the computer. If it still shows the same message after the computer has been restarted, then follow the path "Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced system settings > Environment variables" of your computer, change or add an environment variable "_JAVA_OPTIONS" with value "-Xmx512M" or "-Xmx1024M", and restart your computer, launch M-Brush before launching other software.
• Before starting M-Brush, always ensure that the graphics tablet has been plugged in your computer.
• If you are a beginner using graphics tablet pen with pressure sensitivity, it's very important for you to practise it for a few hours to get used to a tablet pen on how to hold it, how to close it to the tablet to get cursor on the screen and how to apply different power to achieve different stroke.
  
• The technique of writing each stroke depends on the calligraphy font you chosed. Basically each stroke has three steps: Start, Continue and End. You will find the tricks when you trace the font or copybook. Please keep it in mind: Practice Makes It Perfect. More you practise, more tricks you will find.
• Using a calligraphy font to help you learn calligraphy, you need to install the calligraphy fonts.
• Holding the tablet pen straightly like holding a Chinese brush will achieve the best effect for brush functions. As a beginner, you can rest your wrist of the hand holding the pen on the tablet.
  
• It will be easy for you to create different ink spot if you are familar with the Customized Ink and use the Position of Effect and apply multiple effects to one ink spot. Use Ink Fade Speed parameter to create smooth fading out strokes.
• When the work is re-played, the strokes drawn with "Dry" effect may be a little bit different from the original strokes. You may re-try it a few times if it is necessary.
• Since this program may use lots of memory of your computer to handle the work you are viewing or creating, please close all other programs which are not being used at that time. If there is no enough memory to complete some operation, this program may remind you, sometimes may exit and restart automatically. You are recommended to save your work periodly. Decreasing the size of the work or the value of the zoom can significantly decrease the chance of out of memory. In addition, periodly minimizing the window for M-Brush will also release lots of memory.
  
• The file of the work should not be bigger than 100MB.
• In the case that you accidently open and override an existing work file (.mbo file), you may have a look at the same directory and see if a temporary file is saved for that file under sub-directory "_temp".
• If your computer's CPU is slow and memory is less than 2.5GB, you need to pause a moment between two strokes when you are using mixed color to draw or paint.
  
• M-Brush and graphics tablets cannot fully run in Virtual Machine. It must be installed in the host machine, either a desktop or laptop. Currently M-Brush only supports Windows 7, Windows 8，Windows 10 or Windows 11(32-bit or 64-bit). It does not support Mac OS (You may check the new version of M-Brush in the future if you are interested in it).
• If your tablet pen uses battery, you may need to replace the battery in the case that the pen is not sensitive to the pressure change.
• Using the provided common brushes for ink calligraphy and painting will make it much easier to create your calligraphy and painting works.
• Please note: the "Effect" tools can only be used to apply additional effects on the strokes rather than being directly used to draw strokes.
• If you want to hide the cursor when replaying or painting the work, just change the options for "Showing cursor" under menu "View".
• When tracing the calligraphy fonts, you can see your score after completing a stroke (you can click the score and see the details).
• If a reminding message for updating M-Brush is shown, we suggest you accept the update.
• 4K display resolution can be only supported if it is used the registration code with "k" to register this software. If you have used the registration code without "k", you can contact us to upgrade the code which requires additional fee.