Canvas and View
The canvas is the page you draw on. Its size, orientation and background are properties of the document, and they are edited in the Canvas section of the inspector — visible whenever nothing is selected — and in the Canvas menu.
Size
The inspector shows the canvas width and height, each settable from 100 to 40000 points. A preset menu above them applies any of the built-in or saved canvas sizes, and Save Current Size as Preset… stores the current size for reuse. See Getting Started for the preset list.
Fit Canvas to Content… resizes the canvas so that every shape fits inside it. Qwing asks for a margin first — the empty border to leave around the content — and the default is 16 points. This is the quickest way to clean up a document whose artwork has outgrown the page.
Orientation
Four commands rotate or mirror the whole canvas. They are in the Canvas menu, in the inspector's canvas section, and (for crop) in the toolbar:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| Rotate Clockwise | Turns the canvas 90° clockwise |
| Rotate Counterclockwise | Turns the canvas 90° counterclockwise |
| Flip Horizontally | Mirrors the canvas left to right |
| Flip Vertically | Mirrors the canvas top to bottom |
Cropping
Canvas ▸ Crop Canvas switches to the crop tool. A draggable crop box appears over the canvas; drag its edges and corners to frame what you want to keep. The inspector's Crop Box section shows the box's exact X, Y, width and height, and has an Apply Crop button. Press Return or click Apply Crop to commit the crop; press Esc to leave the crop tool without cropping.
Background
The canvas background colour is set in the inspector. It is part of the document, so it is included when you export or print.
Zooming and panning
| Command | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Zoom In | ⌘= |
| Zoom Out | ⌘- |
| Actual Size (100%) | ⌘0 |
| Fit Canvas | ⌘1 |
| Zoom Tool | Z |
The Zoom Tool shortcut is the bare Z key — no modifier. With the zoom tool active, click to zoom in, or drag a rectangle to zoom into that area.
The zoom menu in the toolbar shows the current magnification as a percentage and repeats these commands. Zoom in and out in steps of 25%.
You can also zoom with a trackpad: pinch to magnify, or hold ⌃ while scrolling with the scroll wheel.
Grid, rulers and snapping
Three toggles control the on-canvas guides. They appear in the View menu and in the inspector's canvas section.
| Toggle | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show Grid | Draws a grid over the canvas |
| Show Rulers | Draws rulers along the top and left edges, in the document's units |
| Snap to Guides | Makes objects snap to the grid and to other objects as you drag them |
Snapping is on by default and the setting is remembered between launches. Turn it off temporarily when you need to place something at an exact, unsnapped position.