Open Editor All Docs
The Batch Color window stepping through a recolor: a red cursor, the same cursor previewed in blue after a hue shift, the Applying colors progress panel, and Review mode with Discard Batch and Keep Changes

Batch Color changes the colors of several cursors in one go: every size and every frame of each cursor you pick. You see every result before anything is saved, and you can undo the whole batch afterwards.

The backup is Windows cursor files, not a full editor backup

Download backup (.zip) saves your cursors as they were before the batch, as Windows cursor files (.cur and .ani) that you can install or import again. It does not save your editor workspace: layers are merged into one image, and hidden layers, layer locks and undo history are left out. Download it before you keep a batch.

The steps

The Workspace panel's actions card with the Batch Color button below Import and Undo import
  1. Open. Click Batch Color under Workspace actions. Cursors with artwork are listed and selected, except those marked Too large. Empty cursors are excluded. If the whole workspace is empty, draw or import artwork first.
  2. Choose. Pick an adjustment, set its values and choose which cursors it applies to.
  3. Back up. Click Download backup (.zip).
  4. Apply. Apply to N cursors makes the change in a preview. Nothing is saved yet. While it works, a progress panel covers the window; Cancel there stops it without changing anything.
  5. Review. Check each changed cursor and untick any you want to keep as they were.
  6. Keep or discard. Keep Changes saves the results; the panel shows "Batch complete — updating the editor…" until the editor has caught up. Before you keep the results, Discard Batch or reloading the page leaves the original artwork unchanged.

The Batch Color window

Cursor list (left)

Tick a cursor's checkbox to include it; click its picture to look at it. Looking at a cursor does not change its checkbox. Select all includes every eligible cursor, including extras and cursors without a role; Clear unticks them all. A cursor marked Too large stays unticked and can be looked at but not recolored. On small screens the preview comes first and the list sits below it.

Preview (middle)

Shows the selected cursor with the adjustment. Switch between Original and Adjusted; the highlighted button and label on the preview show which view is active. Changing the mode, Hue, Strength or target color switches back to Adjusted.

Choose a size, drag the picture to move it around, and use − / +, scroll or pinch to zoom. Fit recenters the picture and fits it inside the preview. These controls only change your view; the adjustment still covers every size and frame.

For animated sizes, click a frame in the strip or press Play / Pause. Untick Loop to stop at the last frame. Playback controls are hidden for a size with only one frame.

Adjustment (right)

Choose one of three adjustments. Type an exact value in a number box or drag its slider.

  • Hue Shift: turns every color around the color wheel by the same angle, from -180° to +180°. Grays stay gray.
  • Tint: gives the artwork the target color's hue and saturation while keeping its light and dark shading. Strength blends between the original and the tinted result, from 0% to 100%.
  • Recolor: paints every pixel the target color, keeping its transparency.

For Tint and Recolor, choose the target with the color box, enter a #RRGGBB hex value, or use its eyedropper to pick a color from the original artwork. All three adjustments preserve pixel transparency.

Ignored colors

Colors in this list are left alone in every selected cursor, which is how you protect black outlines or white shines. Choose a color or enter its hex value, then click Add. You can ignore up to 8 colors. Click a color's × to remove it, or Clear all to empty the list.

The eyedropper beside Ignored colors pauses playback and shows Picking from original. Click a visible pixel to add its original color directly to the ignored list; keep clicking to add more. Transparent pixels do not add a color. Press Esc or click the eyedropper again to stop picking and return to the previous view.

Tolerance (0 to 255) also protects nearby shades. Picking samples the visible, merged artwork, while the adjustment checks each layer's own pixels. Overlapping or partly transparent layers may need a higher tolerance.

Hidden and locked layers

Include hidden layers and Include locked layers start ticked. Untick one to leave that artwork unchanged. Hidden artwork is checked frame by frame, so a layer hidden in only some frames keeps its old colors in those frames. Locked layers stay locked either way.

Reviewing the result

After Apply, a Review mode banner appears and the list shows only the cursors that changed. Nothing is saved yet.

  • Untick a cursor in the list, or Keep this change under the preview, to keep that cursor's original.
  • Select all keeps every changed cursor; Clear unticks them all. Keeping with none ticked discards the batch.
  • Click the preview, then hold Space to compare with the original. Release it to return to Adjusted. You can also use the Original and Adjusted buttons.
  • Alt + ↑ / ↓ moves between cursors.
  • Change adjustment throws the result away and takes you back to the settings.
  • Keep Changes saves the ticked cursors. Discard Batch saves nothing.

After Keep Changes: Undo Batch

A Batch saved button appears in the top bar. It opens a message with Download original backup (.zip) and Undo Batch, which puts every cursor in the batch back exactly as it was. Close hides the message; the button stays so you can reopen it.

Undo Batch and the original backup download last until your next content change, or until you close or reload the editor. Drawing, changing layers, adding or removing cursors, or keeping another batch can end or replace them. Zooming, playing animations and looking around don't end them. A save from the editor in another tab can end them too. When they have ended, the message says so and Dismiss removes the button. A ZIP you already downloaded remains available on your device.

Once Undo Batch has ended, the backup is your only way back

Without a backup, the original colors are gone for good. Because the backup is Windows cursor files and not a full editor backup, importing it brings the cursors back with their layers merged into one image.

What the backup contains

  • Every cursor in the workspace, including cursors you didn't select, as they were before the batch. Before Keep Changes it is simply your current saved cursors.
  • One .cur file per still cursor and .ani files for animated ones, each named after its cursor, plus an install.inf that records roles such as Normal Select or Help Select.
  • Layers are merged into one image. Hidden layers, layer locks and undo history are not saved. Sizes with no visible artwork are skipped, including artwork that is entirely hidden. A cursor with no visible sizes is left out of the ZIP.
  • Names become simple file names. When you import the backup, each cursor is named after its file: "Arrow One" comes back as arrow-one. Two cursors with the same name get -2, -3 and so on. Roles come back as they were, even when two cursors share one.
  • An animated cursor whose sizes don't form one of the standard size groups can come back as more than one cursor when you import the backup. The import window's Combine sizes button puts it back together.

The backup covers the whole workspace, so unticking a cursor does not remove it from the backup. If a cursor is unreadable or exceeds the backup limits, the dialog reports the problem and blocks Apply. A failed backup download can also block Keep Changes during review. Reload the editor, or reduce or remove the affected cursor, then open Batch Color again. If every layer is hidden, show some artwork first so the backup has visible pixels to save.

Why Apply may be unavailable

Read the message beside the footer buttons. Common reasons are:

  • The editor is still checking the artwork or finishing another operation.
  • No eligible cursor is ticked. Empty cursors are excluded, and cursors marked Too large cannot be selected.
  • Hue Shift is at 0°, or Tint strength is at 0%. Change the value to enable Apply.
  • The original backup cannot be built, even if the cursor causing the problem is unticked.
  • The workspace changed in another tab, or a save/reload error requires you to reload the saved workspace.

If Apply reports No pixels changed, nothing was saved and there is no result to review. Check the adjustment, ignored colors and layer scope. For example, Hue Shift leaves gray pixels unchanged.

Limits

The limits fit the largest cursors on the site, such as a full 256 × 256 set with 64 frames. The work runs in the background, so the editor stays responsive while it does.

  • Per cursor size: up to 16 MiB saved and 64 MiB of image data (for example, a 256 × 256 size with 64 frames and up to four layers). Larger cursors are marked Too large.
  • Per batch: up to 512 MiB saved, about 268 million layer pixels, and 2,048 cursor sizes in total.
  • Backup: up to 96 MiB of working memory to build any one cursor, and 50 MiB for the encoded cursor files in the backup, matching the importer's archive file-size limit. ZIP packaging adds a little extra to the downloaded file.

Batch Color also checks that your browser has room for the batch and a copy of the originals before it starts. Cancel stops a running batch without changing anything.

Related Pages

Colors Choose quick colors, sample colors, shift hues, tint artwork, and recolor selected areas. Cursor Projects and Sets Name cursors, manage workspace items, assign roles, and export complete cursor sets. Saving Drafts Understand local autosave drafts, browser storage, and how to avoid losing work while testing.