Layerz Canvas User Guide

Layerz Canvas is a macOS app that puts vector design, keyframe motion and screen capture in one document. Design → capture the screen → add keyframe motion → export an MP4, in a single flow.

This guide is updated as the app evolves and describes implemented features only.

Contents

1. Getting started
2. Vector editing (shapes, pen, text, selection, transforms, paths)
3. Inspector (editing properties)
4. Layers, alignment and groups
5. Animation (timeline and keyframes)
6. Screen capture and video
7. Export (images and video)

Getting started

Documents

• The app opens with an empty document (one artboard). An empty canvas shows a short hint.
• Files are saved as .lcanvas packages; changes are autosaved. If another app or a script changes an open document on disk, it reloads on its own as long as there are no unsaved edits (with edits pending, you're asked which to keep at the next save).
• Use File ▸ New / Open / Save to manage documents.

Several artboards (Frames)

• The Frame menu creates a new artboard from a size preset (1920×1080, 1080×1080, 1080×1920 and more). New frames are placed to the right of the existing ones.
• With the Frame tool (F) in the toolbar, drag on empty canvas to create an artboard at any position and size; drag inside an existing frame to create a nested frame (a container with a background and clipping). See Vector editing.
• Exactly one artboard is active (the editing target) at a time. Clicking inside an artboard activates it (an accent border appears around it), and the layer panel, timeline and inspector switch to it.
• Each artboard shows a label at its top-left (name · size · whether it animates). Click the label to select the Frame itself and edit its name, size preset, size (W/H) and background colour in the inspector. Choosing a built-in size (1920×1080, 1280×720, 1080×1080, 1080×1920, 1440×1024) resizes the frame; a size not in the list shows as Custom. Press Delete with a Frame selected to remove it (the last one cannot be deleted).
• New shapes go into the artboard where the click or drag started.
• Every artboard has its own timeline and playhead. Enable animation per artboard (Enable Timeline) and set keyframes there. Each artboard remembers its playhead; scrubbing and playback affect the active one only.
• The layer panel groups layers by artboard (one section each). Clicking a section header selects that frame; clicking a layer activates its artboard.
• A selected Frame has resize handles on the canvas and can be dragged by its interior to move (its layers move along). A click without a drag deselects.
• Export (image or video) works on the active artboard (video needs a timeline on that artboard).

When you first launch

The first launch opens the Welcome to Layerz Canvas window: a short tour in the order design → motion → media (video, images, sound) → screen recording → export, with the export page listing the formats and what is free versus Pro. Until Pro is bought, one more page closes the tour: what Pro adds, with See Plans… to open the purchase sheet (or just Start Designing). Turn on Show at launch at the bottom to see it on the next launch too, and reopen it any time with Help ▸ Welcome to Layerz Canvas….

Start Designing brings an open document forward, or creates a new one if none is open. The Open Sample button (or Help ▸ Open Sample Document) opens the built-in sample as a new document: text, shapes, gradients, shadows, a group and a four-second timeline with position, opacity, size, colour and rotation keyframes plus a layer that appears part-way through, so you can play it and edit the keyframes. The sample always opens as an untitled copy, so edit it freely.

Settings (Layerz Canvas ▸ Settings…, ⌘,)

• General — appearance (System / Light / Dark), the welcome tour at launch, anonymous usage statistics (feature counts only; no document contents, file names or personal data; turning it off stops collection immediately), the frame size for new documents (preset or custom), and grid defaults (show, snap, spacing; applied to windows opened from then on).
• Recording — the options the recording bar starts with (microphone, system audio, auto-zoom), auto-zoom magnification, cursor highlight, a countdown before recording (none / 3 / 5 / 10 s), and hiding the app's windows while recording.
• Export — the video format, frame rate, scale and quality, the image format and scale, and the folder the export panels open with. Each export saves the options it used here, so the next panel opens the same way.
• Pro — your current plan and renewal date, buy and restore buttons, and the subscription management link.

The Help menu has Layerz Canvas Help (⌘?), which opens this guide in the macOS Help Viewer (works offline; the Help menu's search field searches its contents), plus the welcome window, the sample document, Layerz Canvas Website (https://www.layerz.app/canvas) and Contact Support… (opens an email to support@layerz.app with the app and macOS versions filled in).

Window layout

• Top: toolbar — a tall toolbar merged with the title bar. At the far left the sidebar toggle, in the middle the drawing tools, to their right the ＋ add menu (Record Screen / Import Image / Import Video / Import Audio — the same items as the Capture menu), and at the far right the inspector toggle (ⓘ) (always the last item, even while the inspector is open). Hide it with View ▸ Show/Hide Toolbar (⌥⌘T) and rearrange it with Customize Toolbar….
• Left: layer panel (sidebar) — every layer in the document (front-most at the top). It runs to the top of the window and folds away with the toolbar's sidebar button or View ▸ Show/Hide Sidebar (⌃⌘S).
• Centre: canvas — where you draw and edit, with the timeline bar at the bottom.
• Right: inspector — properties of the selection. Fold it with the ⓘ button or View ▸ Show/Hide Inspector (⌃⌘I).
• Drag the panel edges to resize them (positions are remembered). The toolbar's separators follow the panel edges.

Drawing tools (toolbar centre)

Pick a tool in the segmented control in the middle of the toolbar, as on iOS (shortcuts V · R · O · L · P · T · F).

Basics

• Drag to create — rectangles, ellipses and text are drawn by dragging on the canvas. Images, video and sound files are dropped onto the canvas or added from the toolbar ＋ menu.
• Select, then move — click with the Select tool and drag.
• Multiple selection — drag a marquee on empty canvas or Shift-click to add.
• Duplicate — ⌘D duplicates the selection.
• Delete — the Delete key.

See the chapters for details.