Canvas manual/Tools & keyboard shortcuts

Tools & keyboard shortcuts

Pick a tool from the toolbar or press its key. Below the tools is the complete shortcut reference — the same set a designer expects, so your muscle memory carries over.

The toolbar

Six tools, plus variant menus behind the chevrons. The ✦ chip is the AI assistant, not a design tool.

ToolKeyWhat it does & variants
Move / SelectVSelect, move, resize and rotate. Variants: Scale (K), Hand / pan (H).
FrameFDraw a frame or artboard. Variants: Section (S), Slice (⇧S).
ShapeRRectangle. Variants: Ellipse (O), Line (L), Arrow (⇧L), Triangle, Star, Place image (⌘⇧K).
PenPDraw vector paths anchor by anchor. Variant: Pencil / freehand (⇧P), plus stroke-weight presets.
TextTClick for point text, drag for a fixed text box.
CommentCDrop a comment pin anywhere on the canvas.

Press Esc or V to return to Move at any time. The chevron beside Frame, Shape and Pen opens the variant menu shown above.

Mouse & trackpad

What clicking and dragging does, once a tool is active.

Create

With a tool active, click drops a default size and drag draws a sized one. Text is the exception: click makes point text (a caret that grows), drag makes a fixed-width text box.

Select & move

Click to pick (it expands to the enclosing group); +click adds or removes from the selection; click empty space and drag for a marquee. Drag a selected layer to move it; +drag to clone-and-move.

Resize, rotate & edit

Drag a corner or edge handle to resize; the handle just above the top edge rotates. Double-click a text layer to edit it, or a path to enter point-editing (double-clicking a vertex toggles corner ↔ smooth).

Navigate

Two-finger scroll (or Space+drag, or middle-button drag) pans; +scroll or pinch zooms at the cursor; Z+drag zooms into a region.

Keyboard shortcut reference

⌘ is Command on macOS (Ctrl on Windows), ⌥ Option/Alt, ⇧ Shift, ⌃ Control.

Tools
Move / selectV
FrameF
RectangleR
EllipseO
LineL
ArrowL
PenP
PencilP
TextT
CommentC
ScaleK
Hand / panH
EyedropperI
Edit & clipboard
UndoZ
RedoZ
CopyC
CutX
PasteV
Paste in placeV
Copy propertiesC
Paste propertiesV
DuplicateD
Select allA
DeleteDel
Deselect / cancelEsc
Arrange & structure
GroupG
UngroupG
Frame selectionG
Bring forward]
Send backward[
To front]
To back[
RenameR
LockL
HideH
FlattenE
Boolean & components
UnionU
SubtractS
IntersectI
ExcludeX
Create componentK
Detach instanceB
Use as maskM
Align & distribute
Align leftA
Align rightD
Align topW
Align bottomS
Center horizontallyH
Center verticallyV
Distribute horizontallyH
Distribute verticallyV
Tidy upT
View, zoom & nudge
Zoom to fit1
Zoom to selection2
Zoom to 100%0
Zoom in+
Zoom out
Toggle rulersR
Layout gridG
Nudge 1px←↑→↓
Nudge 10px←↑→↓

Two more: the digits 19 set the selection’s opacity to 10–90% (0 = 100%), and Enter steps into a selection while Tab / Tab move between sibling layers.