Using Electric Lights

Getting started

The first time you open Electric Lights, a short welcome tour shows you around and lets you pick a picture to start from. You can see it again any time from Help ▸ Welcome to Electric Lights.

Every new picture starts as an empty board of 2,500 holes. Choose File ▸ New (⌘N) for a blank one, or File ▸ New from Sample for one of thirteen ready-made pictures, from a jack-o'-lantern to a motor yacht. Samples open as new pictures, so you can change them freely.

Pegs and drawing

• Click a hole to push in a peg of the current color and shape. Drag to draw a line of pegs.
• Click a peg that matches the current color and shape to pull it out. Hold ⌥ Option while dragging to erase.
• Right-click (or Control-click) a hole for the pop-up color palette, just like the 1992 original.
• Pick colors and shapes in the toolbar, the Color and Shapes menus, or the Toolbox (⌥⌘I). There are seven colors (blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow and white) and six shapes (circle, square, diamond, triangle, star and heart). Black, the eraser, pulls pegs out.
• Holes can be Staggered (offset rows, like the classic toy) or Lined Up (a straight grid). Switch from the View menu; your pegs stay put.
• Edit ▸ Pull Out All Pegs (⇧⌘⌫) clears the board. Everything can be undone.

Lights and patterns

Press ⌘L, or click the light bulb in the toolbar, and every peg glows, with a satisfying switch sound. Press it again to turn them off.

With the lights on, the Pattern menu makes your pegs:

• Steady: all on, all the time.
• Twinkle: each peg brightens and dims on its own.
• Chase: waves of light run across the board, like a marquee.
• Color Cycle: pegs step through all seven colors.

Settings ▸ Display adjusts the glow and the pattern speed. If Reduce Motion is on in System Settings ▸ Accessibility, patterns hold still. Patterns pause while a picture is hidden, to save battery.

Photo to Pegs

Turn any photo into pegs. Drag a photo onto the board, paste one with ⌘V, or choose File ▸ Photo to Pegs… (⇧⌘I). A window shows your photo beside a live preview of the pegs; nothing changes on your board until you click Put In Pegs, and that can be undone.

Frame it

Drag the photo to move it under the frame, and use the zoom slider to get closer. The frame always has the board's shape, so what you see is what goes on the board.

Remove the background

Turn on Remove background to keep just the person, pet or object and light only them, on a black board. If the subject is small in the photo and nothing is found, zoom in on it: detection works on what's in the frame.

Make it glow

Pick a peg shape and the hole layout, and preview with the lights on or off. In-between colors are made by mixing two peg colors, so an orange jacket becomes red and yellow pegs side by side.

Photo to Pegs, including background removal, runs entirely on your Mac. Your photos never leave it. Photo to Pegs is part of the full version.

Titles

Click the sign above the board (or press ⌘T) to name your picture. Choose the text and background colors and a style: Normal is a glossy plate, Cool is a neon sign. Pictures without a title export without a sign.

Pictures and tabs

• Each open picture gets a tab in the bright strip under the toolbar. Click a tab to switch, its × to close it, or + for a new picture. ⌃⇥ and ⌃⇧⇥ step through them.
• Save (⌘S) keeps a picture as an Electric Lights file you can open again later. Pictures save as you go, and File ▸ Revert To lets you go back to an earlier version.
• Export Picture as PNG… (⇧⌘E) makes an image with the lights and title as you see them. Print… (⌘P) and the Share button work the same way.
• Copy (⌘C) puts the picture on the clipboard as an image for other apps, and as pegs for another Electric Lights picture.

Saving, export, print, share and copying into other apps are part of the full version.

Keyboard shortcuts

Settings

Choose Electric Lights ▸ Settings… (⌘,).

• General: the hole layout new pictures start with, whether they start with the lights on, whether clicking a matching peg pulls it out, sound effects and trackpad feedback.
• Display: glow strength, faint empty holes with the lights on, and pattern speed.
• License: buy, activate, or see and deactivate your license.

Buying and your license

Electric Lights is free to play: every peg, light, pattern and sample picture, with no time limit. The full version, a one-time purchase of $4.99, adds saving, Photo to Pegs, export, print, share and copying into other apps.

Buy

Click Buy Electric Lights in the app (Electric Lights ▸ Unlock Electric Lights…) or on this website. Checkout is handled by Polar. When you're done, the thank-you page shows your license key with an Activate in Electric Lights button: it opens the app with your key filled in, and you click Activate.

Activate by hand

Your license key is also in your purchase email. Open Electric Lights ▸ Unlock Electric Lights… (or Settings ▸ License), paste the key, and click Activate.

Your Macs

One license works on up to three of your Macs. To move it to another Mac, click Deactivate This Mac… in Settings ▸ License first. Lost your key? Click Lost it? in the Unlock window, or sign in to Polar's customer portal with the email you bought with.

See also the terms and refund policy.

Updates

Electric Lights checks for new versions quietly. When one is ready, an Update button appears at the end of the picture tabs; click it to see what's new and install. You can also choose Electric Lights ▸ Check for Updates…. See the release notes.

Support

Questions, bugs or ideas? Email support@electriclights.app. You'll hear back from the person who made it.