Inside the editor: tools, tabs and shortcuts
A tour of the Canvas Design Studio editor, covering the seven studio tabs, contextual toolbar, layers, groups, smart guides, keyboard shortcuts, and mobile gestures.
The editor is the heart of the app. The same canvas powers your template authoring and your customers' designing, just with different permissions. Here's everything in it.
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This is the feeling your customers get: type, style, done.
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The seven studio tabs#
The left sidebar (bottom tab bar on mobile) is organised into seven tabs. Any of them can be hidden per template, or globally in Settings, so customers only see what they need:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Designs | The template picker: starter templates, your saved templates |
| Text | Add and style text: fonts, size, weight, alignment, curved text |
| Photos | Built-in Unsplash stock photo search (Starter plan and above) |
| Graphics | 2,000+ icons in outline and filled weights, plus a vector QR code generator |
| Shapes | Rectangles, circles, ovals, rounded squares and custom paths |
| Uploads | Customer image uploads: PNG, JPG, WebP, SVG |
| Layers | The layer stack: select, reorder, lock, rename, show/hide |
The contextual toolbar#
Select anything on the canvas and a properties toolbar appears with controls for that object type:
- Text: font family, size, weight, italic, underline, letter spacing, line height, alignment, colour, vertical anchor, curved text, and the ✨ Effects panel (nine effects)
- Images: crop, brightness/contrast, Threshold / Grayscale / Invert filters, and one-click Remove background (details)
- Shapes: fill, stroke colour and width, opacity, and text-on-shape (curve text along the path)
- Everything: arrange (bring forward / send back), align (horizontal & vertical), lock, duplicate, delete
Groups and multi-select#
Select several objects to group them (⌘G), move them as one, and drill in with a double-click to edit children. A breadcrumb shows where you are, with an "Exit group" chip to step back out. Ungroup with ⇧⌘G.
Precision tools#
- Smart guides: objects snap to each other's edges and centres, and to the canvas centre lines
- Print guides: bleed, trim, and safe-zone overlays drawn live on the canvas (toggleable per template); see Production files and preflight
- Zoom and pan: scroll wheel or pinch to zoom; space-drag or two-finger drag to pan
- Undo/redo: unlimited history via the header buttons or ⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z
Keyboard shortcuts#
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘A | Select all |
⌘C / ⌘V | Copy / paste |
⌘D | Duplicate |
⌘G / ⇧⌘G | Group / ungroup |
⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z | Undo / redo |
Delete | Delete selection |
Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] | Send back / bring forward |
| Arrow keys | Nudge 1px (Shift = 10px) |
| Space + drag | Pan the canvas |
On mobile#
The editor is genuinely touch-first, not a shrunken desktop app:
- Pinch to zoom, two-finger drag to pan
- Tap to select; double-tap to edit text or enter a group
- A slim action bar appears above the tab bar on selection (Edit, Font, Size, Colour, Alignment, Duplicate, Lock, Arrange, Group, Delete) with sheets you can swipe down to dismiss
Most personalised-product purchases happen on phones. Test your templates on a phone before launch. The Form and Inline customer modes are especially strong on small screens.
Related guides#
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