Obsidian Canvas - Visualize your ideas

Created
Sep 18, 2024 3:01 PM
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AI summary

Obsidian Canvas is a core plugin that provides an infinite space for visualizing ideas, allowing users to organize notes, embed various media, and create diagrams. It features extensibility through an API, supports local storage in JSON format, and offers numerous tips for creating, modifying, connecting, and arranging cards. Community demos showcase its diverse applications in personal and professional contexts.

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Obsidian

Infinite space to research, brainstorm, diagram, and lay out your ideas. Canvas is a core plugin included for free with Obsidian.

Download Obsidian

A playground for thought

Canvas allows you to organize notes visually β€” an infinite space to research, brainstorm, diagram and lay out your ideas.

Embed your notes alongside images, PDFs, videos, audio, and even fully interactive web pages.

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Obsidian 1.0 for desktop and mobile

A new way to think

Effortlessly add existing notes and media from your vault, and edit them within a Canvas view.

Canvas views can be embedded in notes, and even nested within another Canvas.

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Obsidian 1.0 for desktop and mobile

Extensible and interoperable

Like everything else in Obsidian, Canvas is extensible and designed to be durable. Our API makes it easy to create plugins that add new capabilities to Canvas. Your Canvas files are stored locally using the open JSON Canvas file format that we designed to work with other tools. Apps, scripts, and plugins can easily enhance Canvas by adding or modifying cards and connections.

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Obsidian 1.0 for desktop and mobile

Flexible and intuitive

Canvas is packed with functionality. This collection of tips will help you discover how you can use Canvas to its fullest.

Create a canvas (3 tips)

From ribbon

Create in folder

From command palette

Card types (6 tips)

Text card

Markdown file embed

Image & video

PDF file

Webpage

Nested canvas

Create cards (10 tips)

Click toolbar to create text card

Click toolbar to create note card

Double click to create

Drag from toolbar to create

Right click to create

Connect and create

Paste text to create

Create website by pasting URL

Create YouTube embed

Bulk create cards from folder

Modify cards (7 tips)

Swap file for card

Convert text card to file

Narrow down to headings

Change URL of webpage card

Smart auto-resize cards

Manually resize cards

Delete card

Connections (7 tips)

Connect two cards

Add label to connection

Remove label from connection

Add color to connection

Connect to a group

Update connection target

Delete connection

Pan and scroll (4 tips)

Scroll up and down

Hold Shift to scroll left and right

Hold Space and drag to pan

Hold middle or right click to pan

Zoom (6 tips)

Hold Ctrl or Cmd and scroll

Hold Space and scroll

Zoom to fit all cards

Zoom to fit all cards with hotkey

Zoom to selection

Zoom to selection with hotkey

Select cards (5 tips)

Select a single card

Drag to select multiple cards

Add or remove one card from selection

Add or remove multiple cards from selection

Select all cards in the canvas

Arrange cards (10 tips)

Move cards

Duplicate cards

Move card along an axis

Snap card to grid

Snap card to align with other cards

Move card without aligning

Align selected cards on one end

Align selected cards on both ends

Bulk arrange selected cards

Spread selected cards evenly

Group cards (6 tips)

Right click to create group

Create group of a certain size

Create group around cards

Rename a group

Select a group

Nest groups

Colors (6 tips)

Add color to card

Add color to group

Add color to connection

Pick a custom color

Remove color

Export (2 tips)

Export what you see to image

Export entire canvas to image

Community demos

Explore how members of the Obsidian community are using Canvas for the personal life and at work.