Drawing tools

The tool rail runs down the left edge, along the bottom on a phone. Each tool shows its key in its corner. Shapes, notes and text work as in Excalidraw: drag out what you draw, and it lands selected with you back to selecting. The pen and highlighter stay on until you pick another tool.

Sticky note (N)

Click for a 220 by 180 note, or drag to size it, and start writing. Yellow by default.

Text (T)

Click and type: the text grows as you write. Drag first to give it a width to wrap at. Double-clicking an empty spot starts text too, and text left empty goes again.

Shapes

Rectangle (R), rounded rectangle, ellipse (O), diamond (D), triangle, star, speech bubble and cylinder. Drag to draw one; hold Shift for equal sides and Alt to draw from the middle. The shapes button remembers the last one; press it to pick another.

Writing in a shape

Press Enter or double-click it. The words wrap inside the shape, and it grows taller when they need the room.

Resizing

A shape with words in it keeps its proportions and its words grow and shrink with it; hold Shift to resize it freely and let the words wrap instead. An empty shape resizes freely, and Shift keeps its proportions. Text grows and shrinks from its corners and top and bottom, and its sides set where it wraps.

Arrow (A) and line (L)

Press, drag and let go. Or click to put down points one at a time, and finish with a click on the last one, Enter or Esc. A line is an arrow without heads.

Frame (F)

A named area that holds what is inside it. See Frames and arranging.

Draw (P) and highlighter (M)

Freehand, with pen pressure when your stylus reports it.

Eraser (E)

Wipe over drawings, notes and shapes; they go when you let go, and one undo brings them all back.

Add images or documents (9)

See Files, images and the web.

While either is active, a small bar beside the rail sets its color and size: Fine, Medium or Broad. The pen draws in the eight board colors, the highlighter in six see-through ones, and both take a custom color. Your choices are remembered in this browser.

The eraser leaves AI sheets, documents, frames and locked items alone. Select those and press Delete instead.

Start or end an arrow on an item and it attaches there; the item glows while it would. From then on the arrow follows the item when it moves, and stops just short of its outline, whatever its shape. Deleting the item leaves the arrow where it was.

Routes

Straight, elbow or curved, from Arrow route in the toolbar.

Heads

Each end takes an open arrow, a bar, a triangle, circle or diamond, filled or outlined, crow's feet for one, many or one or many, or nothing.

Bends

Drag the middle grip of a selected arrow to bend it; the small grips add points.

Labels

Double-click the line and type.

Select items and the toolbar shows what they can take:

Color

Ink, gray, red, orange, green, blue, violet or pink, or any custom color.

Fill

None, paper, yellow, and pale yellow, gray, red, green, blue, violet or pink.

Line

Thinner and thicker, and solid, dashed or dotted.

Text size

Any size in pixels from 6 to 999: type it in, or step it with − and + or the arrow keys. Free text grows or shrinks with it.

Font

Sans, serif or code, on text, notes, shapes and arrow labels.

Alignment

Left, center or right, on text, notes and shapes.

Opacity

From 10 to 100 percent.

Turning

Shapes, notes, text, images and drawings turn by the handle below them. Hold Shift for 15 degree steps.

Board colors follow light and dark mode, so a drawing stays readable when someone switches. A custom color stays exactly that color.

Copy and paste work between boards. Images and documents come along, conversations stay behind. Pasting from other apps and websites is described in Files, images and the web. Undo (⌘Z) only undoes your own changes, never someone else's or the AI's. Every key is on Keyboard shortcuts.