How to use Draw

Draw is an infinite canvas — pan and zoom anywhere, and your work saves automatically on your device. Here's the 30-second version:

1. Pick a tool from the toolbar (or press its shortcut) and drag on the canvas to draw.
2. Select with the arrow tool ( V ): click a shape, or drag a box around several.
3. Move by dragging, resize from the handles, and delete with Delete .

Navigating the canvas

• Pan: hold Space and drag, or drag with the middle mouse button.
• Zoom: Ctrl Wheel , or the zoom controls in the status bar.
• Fit everything: zoom-to-fit to frame your whole drawing at once.

Every tool sits in the toolbar and has a one-key shortcut so you never break flow.

• Selection V — select, move, resize, and rotate.
• Rectangle R , Diamond D , Ellipse O — the core shapes.
• Arrow A and Line L — connectors; arrows can bind to shapes.
• Draw P — freehand pen for sketches and annotations.
• Text T — click to type anywhere, or double-click a shape to label it.
• Image — drop in or paste pictures.
• Eraser E — wipe away strokes and shapes.
• Frame F — a container for grouping and presenting (see below).
• Laser pointer — a temporary highlight for presenting, leaves no marks.

Select anything (or pick a tool before drawing) and the properties panel lets you restyle it live. Styles you set become the defaults for the next shape.

• Stroke & fill color — choose from presets or any custom color, with an eyedropper.
• Stroke width & style — thin to bold; solid, dashed, or dotted.
• Hand-drawn vs. crisp — toggle a sketchy, human feel or clean precise lines per shape.
• Fill style — solid, hachure, or cross-hatch.
• Opacity, corners, and arrowheads — fine-tune the look.
• Fonts — including a natural handwriting face for labels and notes.

Once something's on the canvas, shaping it is fast and forgiving — everything is undoable with Ctrl Z .

Move, resize, rotate

• Drag to move; nudge precisely with the Arrows (resize with Ctrl Arrows ).
• Drag a corner handle to resize; hold Shift to keep proportions.
• Rotate from the top handle, or with [ / ] .

Duplicate, group, lock

• Duplicate: Ctrl D , or hold Alt and drag.
• Group / ungroup: Ctrl G / Ctrl Shift G .
• Lock a shape so it can't be moved by accident.

Align & order

• Align and distribute multiple selections from the panel.
• Smart guides snap edges and centers as you drag; hold Ctrl to override.
• Send to back / bring to front to manage layering.

This is where Draw shines — diagrams stay editable and connected.

Smart arrows

• Draw an arrow from one shape to another and it binds — move either shape and the arrow follows.
• Add a label to an arrow by double-clicking it.

Text to diagram

1. Open the text-to-diagram dialog.
2. Type a simple flowchart (e.g. A --> B) in the supported syntax.
3. Insert — you get real, editable shapes with connected arrows, not an image.

Mind maps & flow

• Grow a mind map with Tab (child) and Shift Tab (sibling).
• Spawn a connected node in any direction with Alt Arrows .
• Drop in charts generated from your own data.

Big boards stay tidy with frames and search.

• Frames F — draw a frame around related content; moving the frame moves everything inside.
• Frames as slides — each frame becomes a slide you can present in order.
• Find on canvas Ctrl F — jump to any text; matches are selected and centered.

Stop redrawing the same things.

• Library — save any selection as a reusable item and drag it back onto the canvas later.
• Templates gallery — start from built-in starter scenes, or save your own drawing as a template.
• “Insert” drops a template into the current canvas; “New” starts a fresh document from it.

• Equations — write LaTeX and render crisp vector math that exports cleanly.
• Tables — insert and edit structured tables right on the canvas.
• Web embeds — paste a link to embed live content inside your board.

Share a link

• View-only link — let others see the board without editing.
• Presentation link — open straight into slide mode.

Export

• PNG for quick sharing, SVG for crisp vectors, PDF for documents.
• Export a portable file that reopens fully editable.
• Crop an image export to just the region you need.

• Zen mode Alt Z — hide all chrome for a distraction-free canvas (you can still edit).
• View mode Alt R — read-only: pan and zoom only, nothing gets changed.
• Presentation — play your frames as full-screen slides.

Open Preferences from the menu (or Ctrl , ). It's split into focused pages:

• Appearance — theme (light / dark / system), interface font, canvas background, auto-hide toolbar.
• Editing — selection behavior, arrow binding, object snap, hand-drawn default, grid, and touch & stylus (pen mode + pressure).
• Keyboard shortcuts — a full reference; press Edit to rebind any shortcut.

A few that pay off immediately — the full, customizable list lives in Preferences → Keyboard shortcuts (or press ? ).

• V select · R rectangle · O ellipse · A arrow · T text · P draw
• Ctrl Z undo · Ctrl Shift Z redo · Ctrl D duplicate
• Ctrl G group · Ctrl F find · Ctrl / command palette
• Space + drag to pan · Ctrl Wheel to zoom

• Nothing draws with a finger? Pen mode (palm rejection) may be on — toggle it in Preferences → Editing.
• Lost your work off-screen? Use zoom-to-fit to frame everything instantly.
• Want pixel-perfect lines? Turn off hand-drawn style for the selected shapes.
• Accidental edits? Switch to View mode Alt R when you just need to look around.