Structure Presets

A structure preset is a named bundle of drawing defaults. Choosing a preset sets bond length, font family, aromatic ring display, lone-pair and charge sizing, arrow proportions, and other style values in one step. Molkit ships three built-in presets: Traditional, Compact, and Textbook. The preset controls how structures look; it does not control element colors, which live on the separate color scheme axis.

Switch presets

The active preset is shown at the bottom right of the window in the status bar, labeled Preset: followed by the preset name. Click it to open the preset dropup, then pick a preset to apply it. The same dropup lets you save the current settings as a custom preset and apply the active preset to all open tabs.

Switching from one preset to another that uses a different bond length rescales the atoms in the current structure so the drawing keeps its proportions.

What each preset changes

The values below come from the built-in preset definitions.

Bond length and geometry

Traditional: bond length 40, label clearance 3
Compact: bond length 28, label clearance 1.3
Textbook: bond length 40, label clearance 2.1

Compact draws tighter structures that fit more on the canvas. Traditional and Textbook use the same bond length but differ in spacing around labels.

Aromatic display

Traditional: kekule (alternating double bonds)
Compact: kekule
Textbook: circle (a single ring inside the aromatic ring)

Textbook is the only built-in preset that draws aromatic rings with the inscribed circle.

Bond rendering

Traditional uses a butt line cap with bond thickness 1.5.
Compact uses a round line cap with bond thickness 1.7, a smaller wedge width (1.5 vs 2.5), and fewer hash lines on dash bonds (5 vs 7).
Textbook uses a round line cap with bond thickness 1.5.

Fonts

Traditional and Compact use Arial, sans-serif for text.
Textbook uses Times New Roman, Times, serif.

For changing fonts on their own, see the fonts page linked below.

Arrows and other proportions

Compact scales arrow proportions down: arrow stroke width 1.25, head width 4, head length 8, against Traditional and Textbook values of 1.5, 6, and 12. Lone-pair and radical dot sizes are also smaller in Compact (1.2 vs 1.5).

Modification tracking

When you change a setting that the active preset controls, the preset is marked as modified. The status-bar label shows a small orange dot next to the preset name, and the dropup keeps the original preset name so you can tell what you started from. Re-clicking the active preset in the dropup resets your changes back to the preset’s defaults. There is no separate reset button; re-selecting the current preset is the reset gesture.

You can keep modified settings by saving them as a custom preset from the dropup. Custom presets appear under a Custom heading in the dropup.

Presets and color schemes are separate

Presets and color schemes are independent axes. The preset controls shape and style; the color scheme controls element coloring. They sit as two separate items in the status bar, and changing one does not change the other. When you apply a preset to all tabs, the color scheme on each tab is preserved.