Note Details
Obsidian Canvas is a core feature of Obsidian that provides an infinite, spatial workspace for arranging notes, images, links, and other media visually. Unlike the linear structure of traditional markdown documents, Canvas lets users place content cards freely on a two-dimensional surface, draw connections between them, and group ideas spatially. This makes it particularly well-suited for brainstorming, mind mapping, project planning, and any thinking process that benefits from seeing relationships at a glance.
Canvas files use the .canvas format (a JSON-based open format), which means they remain portable and inspectable even outside Obsidian. Each card on a canvas can embed an existing note from the vault, a URL, an image, or freeform text. Connections between cards are drawn as arrows or lines, creating a lightweight visual graph. This approach bridges the gap between the structured, text-centric workflow of a Zettelkasten and the freeform spatial thinking common in tools like whiteboards or design applications.
Common use cases include mapping out research landscapes, planning content architectures, laying out project timelines, and creating visual dashboards that link to deeper notes. Canvas complements Obsidian’s graph view by offering user-controlled spatial arrangement rather than algorithmic layout.