Features
Everything that fits on a wall, and then some.
This page covers what nexcanvas can do, from the first pen stroke to a backup of the whole server. Most points come with a picture from the app, and where it helps, a tip from Cora.
Draw, write and connect
The toolbar at the top of the board has everything you would do on a wall. Every tool has its own key, and after you place something you are straight back at Select.
Notes, shapes and text
You put down a sticky note with one click, or drag it out as big as you need. It comes in seven colours, and the more you write, the smaller the type gets, so everything fits.
- Nine basic shapes: rectangle, rounded rectangle, circle, triangle, diamond, hexagon, star, arrow and speech bubble. Each one carries its own text, and you can change the shape later without losing the text.
- Text in four sizes: from small to heading, and in handwriting if you like.
- You see the real shape while you drag it out: hold Shift to make the sides equal, and hold Alt to let the shape grow from the middle.
Cora saysDouble-click an empty spot to start a text right away. You finish with Esc or a click next to it.
Lines that move along
When you drag a line from one thing to another, it attaches to the edge the shape really has, so on a circle it sits on the curve. If you move something later, the line goes with it. It can be straight or curved, carry an arrow at one or both ends, be dashed, and come in two widths.
Pen, highlighter and eraser
The pen responds to the pressure of your stylus or tablet, and with a mouse it draws evenly. There are three widths and the same colours as everywhere else. The highlighter paints wide and see-through, and the eraser only removes drawings, stroke by stroke, never a note or a photo.
Build on with the plus
A note turns into a mind map and a shape into a flow, without you having to draw lines by hand.
One click adds the next thing
When you select a note, a shape or a text, small plus signs appear on all four sides. A click on one asks what to attach: the same again, a note, a text, one of the nine shapes or something you used recently. The new item sits next to it, joined by a line, and is ready for typing straight away.
- With the keyboard: Tab adds a child, Shift + Tab adds a sibling, and Enter lets you write into whatever is selected.
- A double-click on a plus attaches the same thing again at once.
- Dragging a plus away drops the new item exactly where you let go.
Photos, files and PDFs
Drag a file onto the board, paste it with Ctrl + V, or take a photo straight from your phone. nexcanvas takes care of the rest.
A mood board almost fills itself
When a photo lands on an empty slot, meaning a shape without a fill, it fills that slot. If you drop several photos at once, the others move into the next empty slots. The “Mood board” template already comes with such slots.
- Place and device are taken out: When you upload, nexcanvas removes this information from photos. The operator can switch that off.
- Big photos stay quick: From 1,600 pixels up, a photo gets a smaller preview for the board, and the original stays available for download.
- Duplicates are stored once: The same file in the same space takes up room on the disk only once.
Page through a PDF and write on it
A PDF shows up on the board as a page that you flip through with two arrows. What you write on it with the pen or the highlighter belongs to exactly that page. It moves along when you move the PDF, and it only appears while that page is open.
A PDF is drawn without its scripts. Anything a browser does not show by itself becomes a file card for downloading, with its name, type and size.
Arrange without pushing things around
A small bar floats above a selection with everything you can do with it. The same actions are in the right-click menu.
Turning
With the handle at the bottom right you turn anything around its middle. With Shift it moves in steps of 15 degrees, and without it, it snaps to right angles.
Grouping
Ctrl + G turns a selection into a group that you click and move as a whole. Ctrl + Shift + G takes it apart again.
Line up and spread
You line several things up left, centre or right, top, middle or bottom, or you spread them out at equal distances.
Locking
Anything that is locked cannot be moved, changed or turned. Handy for a floor plan where other furniture gets shifted around.
Bring to front and send to back
What should sit on top, you bring to the front, and the rest you send to the back. Frames always stay at the very bottom.
Snapping
While you drag, edges and middles snap to other things, and otherwise to the grid of the background. With Alt held while dragging, everything stays free.
One background for everyone
In the board menu you pick a pattern: plain, dots, squares, lines, millimetre paper or isometric. Then a colour: automatic, paper white, cream, chalkboard, blueprint or your own. The background applies to everyone who opens the board, and on a fixed paper colour the text adjusts itself.
Cora saysWith snapping on, new things put their corner on the grid. For a floor plan on millimetre paper, that is worth its weight in gold.
Over 350 shapes and 33 templates
On the left of the board sits the shape library with nine packages of our own shapes plus the Lucide icons. If you do not want to start from nothing, pick one of the templates.
Like Visio, only in the browser
Basic shapes, flowchart, BPMN, UML and software, floor plan in centimetres, house and electrics, project management, network, and signs and arrows: 348 shapes of our own in all, plus over 1,600 icons in themed packages. A search, favourites and your recently used shapes help you find things.
Own packages are created by whoever manages a space, from SVG files or from a drawing on the board. A board carries every shape it uses, and so it looks the same even on a server that lacks the package.
Frames, scenes and presenting
A board grows fast. With frames you gather what belongs together and show it to others piece by piece.
Every frame is a scene
You draw a frame with the F key, and its name sits above it. When you move it, it takes everything inside it along. The “Scenes” list at the bottom right shows all frames in reading order, and a click jumps to one.
With “Present”, nexcanvas shows one frame after another on the full screen. You go on with the arrow keys, Space or Enter, go back with the arrows in the other direction, and Esc ends the show. That works on a public page too.
Together on the same board
What one person changes, everyone else sees at once. Whoever joins in sees the others' pointers with their names and whatever they have just selected.
Nobody waits for anybody
Two people can type into the same note at the same time, and the words of both stay. Undo only ever takes back your own steps, never someone else's. Whoever may only read follows everything live but cannot change anything, and the server checks that itself.
Pass it on as an image, PDF or file
PNG and PDF
The whole board, just the selection, or all scenes as a PDF with one page per frame. A PNG can take the board's background along if you like. It is drawn at double size, just as the board looks right now, light or dark. The pages of a PDF are images, not vector graphics.
JSON Canvas
You can save a board as a .canvas file, with its photos and files as a ZIP. That way it travels to nexlore, to Obsidian or to another nexcanvas, and whatever only nexcanvas knows about travels along invisibly and comes back intact. More about the exchange
Nothing gets lost
Versions
While a board is being worked on, nexcanvas keeps a snapshot every 30 minutes. An older one is back with one click, for everyone at once.
Bin
Deleted boards and whole spaces stay in the bin for 30 days before they really disappear.
Backups
Every night an archive with the database and all photos and files, and seven are kept by default. Before you restore, a dry run shows what would change.
Light, dark and on the phone
The way you like it
nexcanvas comes in light, dark or whatever your system is set to. The interface speaks German and English, and the operator adds further languages as a JSON file.
All the tools with your finger
On a phone the tools sit in a bar at the bottom. One finger pushes the board, two zoom, a long press opens the menu, and a double tap writes a text. Photos come straight from the camera.
