The canvas

Every cluster opens as an infinite canvas. You pan with Space or H, zoom with Cmd and plus or minus, and place cards anywhere. A tool rail runs down the left edge, right-clicking gives you a full menu wherever you clicked, and your zoom and pan position are remembered per cluster so reopening resumes where you left off.

Updated August 8, 2026

The canvas is the default view of every cluster. It is an unbounded surface — position means something here, which is the whole point. Two images side by side are being compared; an image with a note under it is being annotated.

If you want the same contents as a sortable file list instead, every cluster also has a list view.

Moving around

Your position is saved per cluster. Close a board deep in a corner of the canvas and it reopens there, not at the origin.

The tool rail

Down the left edge:

• Select / move (V) — the default. Click to select, drag to move, drag on empty space to marquee-select.
• Pan (H) — grab the canvas itself.
• Add image — file picker. Dragging from your desktop is usually faster.
• Add note (N) — a rich-text note.
• Add doc — a document card.
• Add cluster — a nested board.
• Add grid (G) — a grid.
• Arrow (A) — connect two things.

The + at the end of the rail opens the rest, grouped:

• Tools — Draw (D), Shape, Palette
• Create — File, Link, Schedule, Linked cluster
• Annotate — Comment, Vote

Right-click

Right-clicking is the fastest path to almost everything, and the menu differs by what is under the cursor.

On empty canvas: Add (Cards / Visual / Web / Annotate), Paste, Select all, Background colour, Reset zoom, Export to PNG or PDF, and Clear all drawings.

On a card: everything specific to that card kind, plus the universal operations — duplicate, delete, layer order, tag, comment, copy link.

On a group: rename, outline shape and colour, add to group, ungroup, group comment, group tag.

Double-clicking empty canvas opens the add menu right at your cursor. On a long canvas this beats travelling to the rail and back.

Selection

Click to select. Shift-click to add. Drag on empty canvas to marquee.

With several cards selected you can move them as one, align them, delete them together, or press ⌘G to make them a group — which is a selection that persists, gets a name, and can be commented on as a unit.

Drawing

Press D for the freehand tool. Draw straight onto the canvas over and around cards; strokes are their own layer, so they do not attach to a card and do not move when you move one.

The eraser removes whole strokes rather than nibbling at them, which is what you want when annotating in a hurry. Clear all drawings in the canvas right-click menu removes them in one go.

For a bigger drawing surface, the sketch pad overlay covers the whole viewport. For a drawing that belongs to the board as an object you can move and resize, use an art canvas card instead.

Background

Right-click → Background colour. Seven presets plus a custom picker, set per cluster. Useful for separating a scratch board from a client-facing one at a glance.

Getting it out

Right-click → Export gives you the whole board as a PNG or a PDF. See Exporting a board for what is included and what is not.

If you are building a specific kind of board, these walk through the whole workflow: mood board maker · reference board maker.

Machine-readable: /docs/canvas.md · /llms.txt