Trackpad & Mouse
On the web, the canvas treats your scroll wheel and trackpad differently than a normal web page: the most important thing to know is that scrolling zooms, always centered on your pointer. Panning is a deliberate gesture of its own.
Navigating the canvas
Zooming and panning work from any tool, so you rarely have to switch to Pan just to move around.
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| Scroll wheel / two-finger scroll | Zoom in and out, centered on the pointer |
| Trackpad pinch | Zoom (the browser's page zoom is suppressed on the canvas) |
| Hold Space + drag | Pan temporarily; release Space to return to your tool |
| Middle-mouse drag | Pan, from any tool |
| H | Switch to the Pan tool |
| Right-click | Context menu for whatever is under the pointer |
Zoom presets (fit, 100%, 200%) are keyboard shortcuts, not pointer gestures.
Modifier keys while dragging
Modifiers change what a drag means. On macOS, Cmd plays the role Ctrl plays on Windows.
| While you… | Modifier | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Move an object | Shift | Constrain the drag to one axis |
| Move an object | Alt | Duplicate: the copy moves, the original stays |
| Resize from an edge handle | Shift | Scale uniformly instead of one axis |
| Resize from a corner handle | Shift | Free (non-proportional) scale |
| Start dragging a corner handle | Cmd/Ctrl | Crop instead of scale. See Crop & Resize |
| Rotate | Shift | Snap to 15° steps |
| Drag a marquee | Shift | Add to the current selection of objects |
| Click an object | Cmd/Ctrl | Toggle just that object in and out of the selection |
| Use the Selection tool | Shift / Alt | Shift adds to the selected area, Alt subtracts from it |
Brush quick-adjust
With the Brush or Eraser active, hold Ctrl and drag with the right mouse button: horizontal movement changes brush size, vertical changes opacity. Hold Shift during the drag and the vertical axis adjusts hardness instead. A small HUD shows the values as you drag.
While either tool is active, right-clicking on its own opens a compact brush panel at your pointer instead of the canvas context menu.
For the full keyboard list, see Web Shortcuts. On iPad, navigation is touch-first: see Touch Gestures.