Pocket Fractal generates intricate color images from the fractals known as the Mandelbrot and Julia Sets. You can choose whether to use the Mandelbrot set, or generate a semi-infinite number of Julia sets of your own.

The images are calculated in double precision arithmetic. A "rubber-band" window can be drawn with the Pocket PC stylus and used to define a zoom area. The zoom area is then blown up to full screen size. By repeatedly zooming in on detail, the intricacy of the patterns becomes evident.

At any time you may save the image to a file, and that file can then be used later by other graphics programs e.g. as a screen saver background.

Several utility buttons allow you to return to the top-level display, get information on the current coordinates of the Fractal image you are viewing, and adjust the method by which the display colors are chosen.

In the latter case, Pocket Fractal can draw the colors of each pixel/point depending on a) the iteration count before the point is marked as out of the Set, b) the distance of the point from the set, or c) a combination of the two.

For the Julia Sets, a special "Julia Z Picker" window allows you to select a semi-infinite number of starting imaginary numbers for the Julia Set. The default imaginary number (which produces an attractive Julia Set) is shown as a yellow point in a circle whose axes are the real plane (x) and the imaginary plane (y). You can, by tapping with the stylus, define any other point in the circle as the Set generator: this point will then be marked in green.

Some Fractal images require significant CPU time to compute. For this reason, Pocket Fractal updates the display as it works, in bands from top to bottom. This takes at the most a few seconds, and is usually much faster (it depends on how many of the screen pixels are inside the Set).

Pocket Fractal comes complete with a user manual in HTML describing all the available options.

Note for Toshiba E800 users: Pocket Fractal supports VGA screens, so if you have the MyVGA or ResFix mods that enable VGA resolution on your device, then Pocket Fractal will display in the full 640x480 pixels available.