The canvas
Gestures, zoom, and navigation
The canvas is infinite in every direction. Here is how to move through it without getting lost.
Updated 20 April 2026
The infinite canvas makes one thing obviously true and another thing not-so-obviously true. Obviously: you never run out of space. Not-so-obviously: you can get lost in the space. This page is about staying oriented.
One-finger and two-finger gestures
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| One finger — drag | Pan the canvas |
| Two fingers — pinch | Zoom in and out |
| Two fingers — rotate | Rotate the canvas |
| Two fingers — double-tap | Reset zoom and rotation to 100 % |
| Three-finger swipe up | Overview mode (continent view) |
| Three-finger tap | Quick-select last tool |
On desktop, the same gestures work with trackpad. Mouse users: Space+drag to pan, Ctrl+scroll to zoom.
The pen and the finger are different
By default, the pen draws and the finger navigates. You can invert this in Settings → Canvas → Input mapping if you prefer, but we recommend sticking with the default — it keeps your hand rested on the screen without worrying about stray marks.
Overview mode
Three-finger swipe up (or Cmd+0 on desktop) zooms out to show your entire canvas at a glance. This is the continent view. It is the view that makes the memory-palace work — it lets you see neighbourhoods of concepts form over time.
Tap any region in overview mode to zoom back to that location at a sensible level.
Named sections and bookmarks
If your canvas is getting large, use Section to mark named regions. A section is just a rectangular named area — tap its label in the canvas list to jump there.
Bookmarks (Cmd+B) save a specific zoom+position and let you return later.
What not to do
- Don’t spend ten minutes arranging before you start writing. The spatial layout emerges from the content, not the other way around.
- Don’t delete old clusters to “clean up”. They are a record of your thinking over time. A sparse neighbourhood is data.
- Don’t zoom in so far that you lose the spatial cue. If you can only see one node, you are operating like a list app. Zoom out occasionally to remember where you are.
Next
- The 12-step cycle — how navigation relates to spaced returns
- Settings