Grids

A grid is a card divided into cells, and every cell holds any kind of content — an image, text, a link, a video, a file, even another cluster. The grid tool places a storyboard layout that you cut into any shape — drag the dividers to resize, split and merge cells — or Generate matrix builds an empty grid of any size. Cells have a reading order, so a storyboard reads in sequence.

Updated October 29, 2026

A grid is a card that is divided up. Every cell holds real content, and the divisions are yours to move.

Press G or pick the grid tool on the rail, then click the canvas: you get a storyboard layout — one wide panel on top, two beneath — to cut into whatever shape you need.

What a cell holds

Not just images. A cell takes an image, a piece of text, a link, a video, a file, or a nested cluster. A storyboard panel can be the frame in one cell and the action line in the cell beneath it.

An empty box rests as a faint +. Point at it and it offers Text, Image and Link — or drop a file straight onto it. A filled box keeps its tools out of the way until you point at it: ··· (Box options) in the corner holds Replace, Download, the splits, Clear box and — for images — the full set of photo controls. Clearing a box shows an Undo, like every delete.

Filling several boxes at once

Drop several files on a box, or drag several cards onto one, and they fill that box and then the empty boxes after it, in reading order. While you drag, each box shows the number it will get. Anything left over, once the empty boxes run out, lands as ordinary cards beside the grid.

Moving a box

A filled box has a grip in its top-left corner. Drag it onto another box and the two swap places; drag it onto an empty box and it moves there. One Undo puts it back.

Building a layout

Grids are not fixed rows and columns. The structure is a tree of splits, which is why an asymmetric storyboard layout is as easy as a regular one.

• Drag a divider to resize the boxes either side of it. Selected, each divider shows a small grip at its middle.
• Split a box to divide it further, into columns or rows, from its ··· menu.
• Double-click a divider to remove it and merge the boxes back together.

Everything reflows around what you changed.

Select a grid and a bar sits under it. Boxes cuts the grid into an even set of columns and rows: type the numbers and press Apply. What is already in the grid stays, in reading order, and if some filled boxes would have nowhere to go you are asked first. Even out makes every box in the current shape the same size, without moving anything out of its box.

Generate matrix, in a grid's right-click menu, builds linked copies of the grid at whatever size you name — the fast path to a contact sheet. One at a time, the + on each side of a selected grid adds a linked copy right up against that side; press it again and the row keeps growing.

Spacing

A grid is a single sheet by default: boxes meet along hairline dividers. For a gallery look, right-click the grid and choose Spacing — None, Small, Medium or Large. Spaced boxes get a gap and soft corners; dividers still drag the same way. Linked grids share their spacing.

Keyboard

Select a grid and click a box, then:

• Arrow keys move between boxes.
• Enter opens the box: a text box starts editing, any other box opens its menu.
• Delete or Backspace clears the box, with Undo. On an empty box it deletes the grid, as it always has.
• Esc lets go of the box and leaves the grid selected; press it again to deselect.

All of these are in the shortcuts list (?) under Grids.

How grids count toward your card limit

Every filled box counts as one card: a grid holding 25 photos counts as 25. An empty grid counts as nothing, however many boxes it has — and so does every empty copy that Generate matrix or a + handle stamps out, so a storyboard you have laid out but not drawn yet costs no cards at all. A box that holds only a sequence number such as SHOT [#] is still empty for this purpose; the number is part of the layout, not something you put in.

Reading order

Cells have a defined order, which is what makes a grid different from a set of images that happen to be arranged in rows. A storyboard reads in sequence, and that sequence is what exports and what a reader follows.

Grid families

A family is a live link between grids on one board: change the layout in one and the change carries to the others — the mechanism that keeps a twelve-page storyboard from drifting into twelve slightly different layouts. Right-click a grid and choose Share layout to start one, Unlink layout to leave.

Discovering grids

Put four or more images on a board and the app suggests a grid, once. That suggestion is a power reveal: it fires a single time, ever, and never again.

Building a storyboard specifically? The storyboard maker guide covers the whole workflow.

Machine-readable: /docs/canvas/grids.md · /llms.txt
What changed and when: /changelog