# Adding to a Canvas

> The tools for text, notes, shapes and frames, and adding images and videos from your computer.

The toolbar down the left edge holds the tools: **Select** (V), **Frame** (F), **Text** (T), **Rectangle** (R), **Ellipse** (O) and **Note** (N), then **Add images or videos** (+), which offers **Upload from computer…** and **Browse assets…** (the Space's library). With a tool chosen, click to place something at its usual size (shapes are square or round), or drag to give it a size, watching it take shape as you drag (hold Shift for a square or circle). The tool returns to Select afterwards; Escape also returns to it.

- **Text** and **Notes** start typing straight away. Double-click any text, note or shape to type in it (double-tap on a touch screen, where the Canvas moves what you're typing in clear of the on-screen keyboard). Double-clicking empty paper does nothing. Press Escape or click anywhere on the Canvas to finish. Text left empty is removed.
- **Frames** sit behind what you place on them. Moving, duplicating, copying or deleting a frame takes what lies on it too. Double-click a frame's title to rename it.
- Selected, notes, shapes, text and frames show their own styles in the selection toolbar at the Canvas's top right, under Share. A note's colour is one click away, and its text size beside it. A shape has its outline (rectangle or ellipse) and fill, text its size, and a frame its fill and ready-made sizes (16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5, desktop, tablet and phone). Select several of one kind and a choice sets them all; where they differ, the toolbar shows a mixed swatch until you choose.

## Adding images

Drop image files onto a Canvas, paste an image (Ctrl/⌘ + V; pasted into the Assistant's prompt instead, it's a reference, not a node), or choose files with **Add images or videos** in the toolbar, then **Upload from computer…**. Dropped images land where you drop them; a pasted image lands under the pointer, or in the middle of the view. Several at once are laid out in a grid.

An image appears straight away at its true shape, as your own picture, with nothing to wait for: it uploads in the background. It is already an ordinary image: you can select, move, resize or delete it straight away, even mid-drag as the upload finishes, and it keeps exactly the place and size you left it at. Leaving the Canvas doesn't stop an upload, and closing or reloading the page while one is still sending asks you first. If an upload fails, the image stays in place and says so; hover it (or select it) and choose **Retry** while the page is still open, or **Remove** it. Each image is placed at its own pixel size, as it is at 100% zoom, whatever the zoom you're at, and stays sharp as you zoom in. Images from the library, and those the Assistant makes, are placed the same way.

Supported: PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP, up to 20 MB and 12,000 pixels a side (100 megapixels). A file that can't be added is named, with the reason, and never stops the others.

## Adding videos

Drop MP4 files onto a Canvas, or choose them with **Add images or videos** in the toolbar (or **Add → Image or video…** in the Canvas's menu). A video appears straight away at its true shape, as a quiet card saying **Uploading…** with a bar along its bottom showing how far its upload has got, then **Processing…** until its first frame loads. An upload is never shown as something being generated. It is already an ordinary video node you can select, move, resize or delete. When the upload finishes, the same node shows the video's first frame and plays like any other video (see [Making videos](/create/videos/)), and it is still there after a reload. Right-click it and choose **Export → Original video** to save the MP4 exactly as you uploaded it. If an upload fails, the video stays in place and says so, with **Retry** while the page is still open; delete it as any node.

Supported: MP4 with H.264 video, up to 100 MB. Other codecs, such as HEVC (H.265) from many phones, are refused with the reason before anything is uploaded: export the video as an H.264 MP4 and add it again.

Adding an image or a video is one step to undo. Undo history lasts while the Canvas is open.

Images and videos you add are kept privately in your Space: only people who can use the Space can see them.