Canvas workflow

Panel Docking

Every panel is a free-floating window, not a fixed dock slot. Drag it anywhere; it magnet-snaps to the work area's edges and to other panels, collapses to a chip or a title strip, and any inner section can be popped out into its own mini window.

← Interface overview

Move & snap

Drag a panel's title bar (or right-drag its body) to reposition it. Nothing is locked to a slot — get within ~12px of the work area's edge or another panel and it snaps flush; anywhere else it can freely overlap.

Default panel layout with panels snapped to the work area's edges
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Snapped left

Tool Settings sits flush against the work area's left edge — that's a magnet snap, not a fixed dock, so it can be dragged off just as easily.

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Snapped right

Layers is magnet-snapped to the right edge the same way.

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Free-floating

Tools isn't touching any edge — it's just parked wherever it was last left.

Edge-joined groups — when two panels are dragged flush against each other (gap ≈ 0), they become a connected group: dragging one carries every panel still touching it along, so a stacked cluster moves as one piece.

Collapse

Click a header without dragging to collapse the panel. Where it lands depends on what it's touching.

Two collapsed panel shapes: an icon chip on the left wall and a title strip on the right
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Icon chip

Collapsing a panel stuck to the left or right wall shrinks it to a small square icon — click it again to reopen.

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Title strip

Anywhere else — top/bottom edge or mid-canvas — it collapses to a thin title-only bar instead, keeping its horizontal position.

Whichever edges the panel was stuck to before collapsing stay stuck after — a bottom-anchored panel keeps its bottom edge in place whether open or collapsed.

Resize

Every panel has 8 resize zones — 4 edges (one axis) and 4 corners (both axes) — that light up on hover. They snap to the work area's bounds and to neighboring panels' edges, same as a drag-move.

Panel corner and edge resize handles
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Corner handle

Resizes width and height together, anchored from the opposite corner.

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Edge handle

Resizes a single axis — top/bottom for height, left/right for width.

Pop a section into its own window

Sub-sections inside a panel — Color & Palette, Brush, View and the like — can be undocked on their own. Press and hold a section's header; it arms after ~0.4s (turns green) and fully detaches at 3 seconds, or drag while armed to pull it out immediately.

A Color and Palette section detached into its own floating panel
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↩ Re-dock

Click the return arrow to send the section back to its parent panel, right where it was pulled from.

Panel menu (kebab or right-click)

Access panel controls via the "..." kebab button to the right of the title bar (visible on header hover), or right-click the header itself (without dragging). Both open the same common commands.

Panel right-click context menu
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Toggle Header

Hides the title bar to save space. Shift+click applies the same state to every open panel at once.

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Toggle Toolbar

Hides or shows the panel's icon-button row (if it has one). Shift+click applies to all panels. Panels without a toolbar (Tools, Tool Settings, Preview) don't have this option.

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Fit to content

Trims empty space so the panel matches its content at the current width.

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Edit Hotkey…

Opens the Hotkey Editor to assign or change this panel's own show/hide chord.

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Restore Defaults

Resets this one panel's position, size, dock and collapsed state back to the app default.

Toolbar shortcuts — the kebab menu always mirrors any icon buttons from the panel's toolbar row too (e.g., Layers panel's "Add layer", "New folder", "Duplicate", etc.), right after a separator — clicking them runs the same action as clicking the button directly. The right-click menu mirrors them only while Toggle Toolbar has hidden that row (so nothing becomes unreachable); with the toolbar visible, right-click shows just the common commands since the icons are already on screen.

Show or hide any panel

File menu → Panels… lists every panel with a checkbox — the fastest way to bring back something that's been closed.

Panels… menu listing every panel with visibility checkboxes and hotkeys
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Checked + hotkey

Animation is currently visible; its accelerator (Alt+4 here) shows whenever one is bound — assign one from the panel's own right-click menu.

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Unchecked

Atlas browser is hidden; ticking the box brings it back onto the canvas without hunting for it.

Gestures & shortcuts

Header
  • Drag — move (detaches from any snap)
  • Click, no drag — collapse / expand
  • Right-drag — also moves the panel
  • Right-click, no drag — panel context menu
Section header (inside a panel)
  • Click — collapse just that section
  • Hold ~0.4s — arms (turns green)
  • Hold 3s, or drag once armed — detaches to a free window
Edges & corners
  • Drag a corner — resize both axes
  • Drag an edge — resize one axis
  • Both snap to the work area and neighboring panels
Show/hide hotkeys
  • Alt+1 — Tools
  • Alt+2 — Tool Settings
  • Alt+3 — Layers
  • Alt+4 — Animation
  • Every panel and detached section can get its own chord via Edit Hotkey…