Frames & layout

An infinite canvas is wonderful for thinking and useless for delivering. Frames are how a sprawl of ideas becomes a post, a page, or a deck.

Everything on this page is free.

Frames

Press F and drag, or pick a ready-made size:

• Instagram Post and Story
• Facebook
• Twitter / X
• YouTube
• A4
• Custom — type any dimensions

Anything you drop inside a frame is clipped to it and travels with it. Drag a frame and its contents come along. Frames also give exports a defined edge, which matters when you send work to print.

Select a frame and its toolbar lets you change the preset, set exact pixel dimensions, or turn on auto layout.

Auto layout

Auto layout turns a frame into something that arranges itself. Switch it on and the frame reflows its contents into a row or a column with consistent spacing, and resizes to hug them.

Add an item and everything reflows. Remove one and the gap closes. Resize a child and the frame adapts. It is the difference between nudging eight cards into alignment by hand and having them stay aligned forever.

The controls appear inline on the frame's toolbar:

• Direction — row or column.
• Alignment — how children line up on the cross axis. The icons and labels follow the direction you chose.
• Gap and padding — space between items, and space inside the frame's edge.
• Aspect ratio — free, or a fixed ratio like 1:1 or 4:5.

Set free, the frame hugs its contents tightly. Set to a ratio, it grows to that shape around the contents and centres them. It never shrinks below what's inside and never crops — this is framing, not cropping.

Aligning and distributing

Select two or more objects and a toolbar appears with the standard controls:

• Align — left, right, top, bottom, or centred against each other.
• Distribute — even spacing horizontally or vertically.

Two more buttons on the same toolbar do the containing work:

• Frame — wrap the selection in a plain frame, sized to fit.
• Auto Layout — wrap the selection in a frame that arranges itself.

Both keep everything exactly where it appears on screen; they just give it a container.

Stacking order

New work always lands on top. To change what sits above what:

The same commands are on the right-click menu, and the layers panel lets you drag things into order directly.

Grouping

Ctrl G groups a selection so it moves as one; Ctrl Shift G ungroups it. Groups are for handling, frames are for delivering — use a frame when the result is a deliverable with a size, and a group when you just want several things to travel together.

Next: Organizing your canvas.