Canvases
Sketch visually on a freeform canvas and link shapes to nodes in your graph.
A canvas is an infinite, open drawing surface inside a space. A view lays your nodes (the individual items in your space) out as a table or board. A canvas, by contrast, lets you think spatially. You can sketch a diagram, map out a flow, group sticky-note ideas, or pin live references to nodes you already have.
Everything you draw is saved to the canvas and shared with whoever has access to it.
Creating a canvas
Canvases live in the canvases list in the sidebar.
- Open the canvases list for your space.
- Click the + ("New canvas") button.
- A fresh, empty canvas opens, ready to draw on.
Each canvas belongs to its space and carries its own access settings, separate from both the space and your other canvases.
The toolbar
Your drawing tools sit in a floating toolbar at the bottom of the canvas, organized into three groups:
- Pointer and Hand — select and move things, or pan (slide) the canvas.
- Shape, Line, Pencil, Text, and Image — the creation tools.
- Eraser — remove elements by dragging over them.
Some tools hide extra options behind a small chevron (a downward-pointing arrow). Click the chevron next to Shape to switch between Rectangle, Diamond, and Ellipse. The chevron next to Line toggles between a plain Line and an Arrow. The tool button always shows the icon of whichever option you picked last.
Pick a tool, drag on the canvas to draw, and the Pointer takes over again so you can immediately position what you just made.
Drawing shapes
Choose a creation tool, then drag on the canvas:
- Rectangle, ellipse, diamond — drag out the bounds; the shape fills the box you draw.
- Line and arrow — drag from start to end. Arrows can carry an arrowhead on either or both ends.
- Text — click to place a text box and start typing. Double-click existing text to edit it.
- Pencil (freehand) — draw a continuous stroke that follows your pointer, pressure included.
- Image — add a picture to the canvas.
By default, Naumu draws shapes in a hand-drawn, sketch-like style. You can adjust how rough or clean that style looks with the Sloppiness setting described below.
Styling elements
Select one or more elements with the Pointer to open the properties panel (top-left on desktop, or a bar along the bottom on mobile). Which controls appear depends on what you have selected:
| Control | Applies to | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Stroke / Color | Shapes, lines, text, freehand | The outline or text color |
| Background | Shapes | The fill color (including transparent) |
| Stroke width | Shapes, lines, freehand | Small, Medium, or Large line weight |
| Sloppiness | Shapes, lines, freehand | Architect (clean), Artist, or Cartoonist (loose) |
| Fill density | Filled shapes | How tightly the fill lines are packed together |
| Shape | Shapes | Convert between rectangle, ellipse, and diamond |
| Font size / Alignment | Text | Size (S–XL) and left/center/right |
| Arrowheads | Arrows | Start and end cap styles |
| Opacity | Everything | Fades the element from 0 to 100% |
Color choices apply to whatever is selected, and they also become the default for the next thing you draw. When elements overlap, you can reorder them with the layer actions: bring to front, send to back, and the steps in between. These live in the right-click menu or the mobile "more" panel.
Embedding live node references
A canvas can hold live embeds of other content in your space. These are not screenshots — they are cards that update automatically whenever the original content changes.
To add one, paste an internal link to a note or a view onto the canvas. Naumu turns the link into a card that shows the real content right there on the surface. You can move and resize the card like any other element, and what is inside always reflects the latest version.
This is what makes a canvas more than a sketchpad. You can arrange a note, a saved view, and a few arrows together to explain how the pieces of your graph relate.
Moving around: zoom and pan
The canvas is effectively infinite, so getting around easily matters:
- Pan (slide the view) — drag with the Hand tool, hold Space and drag with any tool, or scroll / two-finger swipe on a trackpad.
- Zoom — pinch on a trackpad, or hold Ctrl/Cmd while scrolling. The zoom controls in the bottom-left show the current level; click the percentage to reset to 100%.
Right-clicking the canvas opens a menu for copy, paste, duplicate, select all, undo/redo, and clearing the canvas.
A canvas has its own access level, just like a view. Sharing a canvas never reveals nodes someone could not already see — embedded references respect each viewer's existing permissions.