Craftums

Help and contact

This page is for grown-ups. It answers the questions we expect most, and says how to reach us.

Write to us

Email hello@craftums.com. A person reads it and answers.

It helps to say which device you use and the app's version. You find the version in the app's Settings, under ABOUT. Please do not send photos of your child.

1. Opening Settings

Grown-up things are behind a hold, so a child's tap does not open them. Hold the small gear in the top-right corner for two seconds, until its ring is full. The same hold opens printing, the microphone in STORY and the bins that throw things away.

2. Scanning

The scan did not cut out well

The app cuts the drawing out of the photo by itself. It works best when:

  • the paper lies on a plain surface that looks different from the paper, such as a dark table;
  • the drawing is in the middle of the frame, with some of the surface visible all around it;
  • the drawing is big, and the light is even, without a hard shadow across it.

When the app is not sure about its cut, it opens the fixer instead of guessing. Pick KEEP and paint over what should stay, pick ERASE and rub out the rest. It does not need to be neat: the app follows the edges near your finger. UNDO takes back a stroke, DONE makes the Craftum. The back button takes the photo again.

A scan is never refused. If a Craftum came out wrong, scan the drawing again; you can throw the first one away (see Deleting things).

The camera does not start

If camera access was turned off, the scan screen says so and shows a gear. Hold it to open the device's Settings for Craftums, turn the camera on, and go back to the app.

3. Sound

There is no sound

  • The speaker button in the top-right corner is the child's own quiet button. When it is on, everything is silent. Tap it again.
  • In Settings, SOUNDS and MUSIC are separate switches.
  • Music stays off while another app plays music or a podcast.
  • Check the device's volume and, on an iPhone, the silent switch.

4. The phone in ADVENTURE

In ADVENTURE the grown-up's phone becomes the controller. Press START on the tablet, then scan the code on its screen with the phone's camera, or open play.craftums.com on the phone and type the code. The phone needs no app and no account.

The phone does not connect

  • Both devices need the internet. They do not need to be on the same Wi-Fi: the phone can be on mobile data.
  • A code works for 10 minutes. After that the tablet says the session has ended; press "Try again" for a new code.
  • Typing the code: the dash is optional, and capitals do not matter.
  • "Couldn't connect. Check the internet and try again." means the tablet itself is offline.
  • "Our server might be having trouble" means the tablet is online but could not reach us. Try again in a few minutes, and check that the app is up to date.

The phone dropped out halfway

The Craftum sits down and waits, and the tablet shows the code small in a corner. Scan it again within five minutes and play goes on where it was. After that, start again: nothing a child made is lost, because none of it is part of the connection.

5. Printing

Open a Craftum's page from the CRAFTUMS tab and hold the small printer button. Choose STICKER SHEET (one big sticker and six small ones, with dashed cut lines) or COLOURING PAGE (the outline, to colour in on paper and scan back in). PRINT opens the device's own print dialog.

The app prints only through that dialog, so the printer must be one your phone or tablet can already print to (AirPrint on iPhone and iPad, a print service on Android). If the dialog shows no printer, the device's own help on printing is the place to look.

6. Deleting things

One thing

Throwing away a Craftum, a track, a picture book or another made thing always asks the same question: a big KEEP button and a small bin. Hold the bin until its ring is full. It is then gone from the device for good.

Everything

Delete the app. Everything a child made is stored only in the app on that device, so deleting the app deletes all of it. We hold no copy and there is no account to close.

If your device makes its own backups (iCloud or Google backup), a backup may still contain the app's data until the device replaces it; that is managed in the device's Settings, not in the app.

Hiding the starter friends

The four ready-made Craftums cannot be thrown away, but once your child has made one of their own, the "Starter friends" switch in Settings takes them out of play.

7. Privacy

What the app does with data, and what it never does, is in the privacy policy. The short version: photos, drawings and voice recordings stay on the device.