Features and controls
Mandala is a browser-based 2D fractal explorer built for the short path from “what is down there?” to a precise, shareable view. This page is the complete reference. The in-app Help card keeps a shorter list and automatically shows the controls that fit the current device.
Start in thirty seconds
- Move around: drag to pan and scroll or pinch to zoom toward a point.
- Find structure: open Locations, press Surprise, or switch fractal family and plane under Explore.
- Change the look: open the colour swatch, choose a palette, shading and quality, then try colour cycling.
- Keep it: use Share for an exact deep link or Bookmarks for a named local copy. Use Export for a finished image.
Feature list
Explore eight fractal families
- Six escape-time families: Mandelbrot, Multibrot (z³), Tricorn, Burning Ship, Celtic and Phoenix.
- Two root-finding families: Newton and Nova.
- Parameter and Julia planes wherever the family supports both, including a live Julia preview from the parameter plane.
- Curated Locations, community finds where enabled, Surprise, a position minimap, view history and a fullscreen Zen auto-tour.
Zoom deeply without choosing a number format
- Precision changes automatically from ordinary
f64to double-double and then to perturbation with an arbitrary-precision reference orbit. - The six escape-time families use the deep perturbation path. Newton and Nova currently stop at the double-double tier, around
1e-27scale. - WebGPU renders shallow views when it is healthy; parallel Rust/WebAssembly workers render deep views and provide the fallback on other browsers.
- Progressive previews, cancellation and centre-first tiles keep navigation responsive while an accurate frame settles.
Build a finished look
- 21 built-in cyclic palettes plus a custom-gradient editor and saved personal palettes.
- Smooth escape colouring, distance-boundary shading and slope/relief shading.
- Adjustable density and shading parameters, 1×/2×/3× supersampling and animated colour cycling, orbiting light and palette morphing where applicable.
- Dark, light or system-matched interface theme. The fractal colours remain independent of the interface theme.
Save, move and publish a view
- Exact share links preserve full-precision coordinates, family, plane, rotation, palette, shading and active colour animations.
- Share as a link, QR code, portable Kalles-Fraktaler coordinates or a live read-only website embed.
- Named bookmarks include thumbnails. Download/import a JSON backup or, when the optional integration is enabled, sync through your own Google Drive app data.
- Export PNG or JPEG up to 64 megapixels. On the GPU tier, an animated palette can also export one seamless colour-cycle loop as WebM.
- The optional community gallery can publish a share-link view for moderation; when its backend is not configured, those controls are simply absent.
Learn while exploring
- Contextual one-shot tips explain features at the moment they become useful.
- The ⓘ panel identifies the current family, plane, coordinates, zoom, precision tier, renderer, palette and shading.
- The mathematical field guide explains the recurrence, colouring, Julia sets, deep precision and rendering pipeline with figures that open as exact live views.
- The fractal-tool comparison explains where Mandala fits beside specialist desktop art, deep-zoom, flame and 3D tools.
Controls
The compact Help card is capability-aware: a touch-only device sees Touch, a conventional computer sees Mouse and Keyboard, and a hybrid laptop/tablet sees all three. This full page deliberately lists everything.
Mouse and trackpad
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Wheel or trackpad scroll | Zoom toward the pointer |
| Left-drag | Pan |
| Shift + drag | Draw an aspect-locked zoom area |
| Right-drag | Rotate around the canvas centre |
| Alt + hover | Preview the Julia set seeded at that point |
| Alt + click | Enter that Julia set |
| Double-click | Reset the current family and plane to its home view |
The browser context menu is suppressed on the canvas because right-drag owns the rotation gesture.
Touch
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| One-finger drag | Pan |
| Two-finger pinch | Zoom and pan around the finger centroid |
| Long-press in a parameter plane | Preview Julia; drag to aim and release to enter |
| Double-tap | Reset the current family and plane to its home view |
Lifting one finger after a pinch continues as a one-finger pan without a jump. The gestures use Pointer Events, so a pen can use the applicable single-pointer interactions too.
Keyboard
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Pan toward that edge |
+ or = | Zoom in around the centre |
- or _ | Zoom out around the centre |
Q / E | Rotate counter-clockwise / clockwise |
0 or Home | Reset the current view to home |
H or ? | Toggle the in-app Help card |
Escape | Close an open panel/dialog, cancel an active box/rotation gesture, or leave Zen |
Navigation shortcuts pause while a form field or dialog has focus, so they do not interfere with typing or selecting options.
On-screen navigation
The bottom-right navigation pad provides pan, zoom and rotation without gestures or a keyboard. Its centre compass appears after rotation and straightens the view. Nearby back/forward buttons step through committed views without filling the browser's Back history with every pan.
What the main actions do
| Action | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Explore | Family, plane, palette, Locations, Surprise, Zen and Reset all |
| Locations | Named landmarks, community finds where enabled, and pasted coordinates |
| Surprise | A new boundary-rich location without changing your other appearance settings |
| Zen | A hands-off fullscreen tour; press Escape to leave |
| Export | PNG/JPEG, or a seamless palette-loop WebM when supported |
| Share | Exact link, QR, coordinates, embed code and optional gallery publishing |
| Bookmarks | Save, restore, back up, import or optionally sync named views |
| Settings | Interface theme, tips, renderer and mobile performance policy |
| ⓘ | Live facts about the current view and links to Learn/About/Privacy |
If rendering feels slow
- Leave Settings → Performance on Auto so live resolution and worker use can adapt to the device. Battery saver trades sharpness for lower work; explicit exports keep their requested resolution.
- Return supersampling to 1× while exploring, then raise it for the final image.
- Very deep views or high iteration counts can take longer even when navigation previews appear immediately. Wait for the progress indicator to settle.
- If WebGPU is unavailable or unhealthy, Mandala falls back to the CPU/WebAssembly renderer. That is expected; correctness is preferred over a blank GPU surface.
Still looking for something? See the FAQ, learn the mathematics in the field guide, or read how Mandala compares with other fractal software.