Canvas

The canvas is a freehand drawing and diagramming space. Use it for flowcharts, mind maps, wireframes or just thinking out loud.

Turn the canvas on

The canvas is optional and off by default.

1. Open Settings at the bottom of the sidebar.
2. Go to Features.
3. Switch on Canvas.

A Draw entry now appears under Quick Access in the sidebar. Click it to open the canvas.

Tools

Pick a tool from the toolbar, or press its key:

Tool	Key	Use it to
Select	V	Click, drag, and resize shapes.
Pen	P	Draw freehand.
Rectangle	R	Draw boxes.
Ellipse	E	Draw ovals and circles.
Line	L	Draw straight lines.
Arrow	A	Draw arrows to connect shapes.
Text	T	Add text anywhere.
Sticky note	S	Drop a sticky note.

Press EscEsc to go back to the Select tool.

Style your shapes

The toolbar controls apply to the shape you’re drawing, or to the shape you have selected.

• Colour. A 12-colour palette sits in the toolbar.
• Fill. Click fill to add or remove a tinted fill. It works on rectangles and ellipses.
• Stroke width. Choose thin (1.5 px), medium (3 px) or thick (6 px).
• Corner radius. For rectangles, a corner control rounds the corners. Click + or − to change it.
• Text. For text, pick a size (12, 16, 24 or 36), a font (Sans, Serif or Mono), and B for bold or I for italic.

To type inside a shape or edit existing text, double-click it. Press ⌘EnterCtrl+Enter or EscEsc to finish.

The toolbar also has Sketchy style, which gives shapes a hand-drawn look (on by default), and Show grid / Hide grid for the dotted background.

Select, move and arrange

Do this	To
Drag on an empty area	Draw a selection box (lasso) around shapes.
⇧Shift + click	Add or remove a shape from the selection.
⌘ACtrl+A	Select everything.
Drag a handle	Resize the selected shape.
Arrow keys	Nudge by 1 px. Hold ⇧Shift for 10 px.
⌘DCtrl+D	Duplicate.
⌘CCtrl+C, ⌘XCtrl+X, ⌘VCtrl+V	Copy, cut and paste.
⌘GCtrl+G / ⌘⇧GCtrl+Shift+G	Group / ungroup.
⌘⇧]Ctrl+Shift+] / ⌘⇧[Ctrl+Shift+[	Bring to front / send to back.
DeleteDelete	Delete the selection.
⌘ZCtrl+Z / ⌘⇧ZCtrl+Shift+Z	Undo / redo.

Zoom and pan

• Hold ⌘Ctrl and scroll to zoom, or use the zoom buttons in the toolbar (⌘=Ctrl+= and ⌘-Ctrl+-).
• Hold Space and drag to pan.
• ⇧1Shift+1 zooms to fit everything, ⇧2Shift+2 zooms to fit your selection, and ⇧0Shift+0 resets to 100%.

Start from a template

Click Templates in the toolbar and pick a starting point. Templates are grouped by category:

Category	Templates
Diagrams	Flowchart, Mind Map, Org Chart, Sequence, Timeline, Venn Diagram
Database	ER Diagram, Table Schema, Data Flow
Architecture	System Design, Component Tree, API Flow, Brainstorm
Design	UI Frame, Button States, Input Form, Card Component

After you pick one, a side panel opens with extra building blocks for that category. Click any block to add it to your canvas. Examples: Process, Decision and Swim Lane for diagrams; Entity Table and Junction Table for databases; Service / API, Cache and Load Balancer for architecture; Button, Input Field and Toggle Switch for design. Use the arrow on the panel’s edge to collapse or expand it.

Add notes to a diagram

Select a shape (or several) and click Add note in the toolbar. A notes panel slides in with an Edit tab, where you write markdown, and a Preview tab. Toggle the panel any time with ⌘/Ctrl+/.

For a sticky note, Expand to note turns its text into a full note. From then on, the sticky and the note are independent.

Where your canvas is saved

The canvas saves itself about a second after each change. By default one canvas is shared across every vault and stored in a .inkwell folder in your home directory (canvas.json, with notes in canvas-notes.md).

To keep a canvas inside a specific vault instead, go to Settings → Features → Canvas storage and click Link to a vault…. Click Unlink to go back to the shared canvas.