Sketches

A sketch is a white board of fixed size inside a project. You draw on it with Apple Pencil or your finger, like on a whiteboard in the office. You draw on iPad and iPhone; the Mac shows your sketches.

Create a sketch

1. In a project, choose New › New Sketch…, or tap New Sketch… under Sketches in the sidebar.
2. Choose Landscape or Portrait and a size, from A7 · Note to A0 · Whiteboard. A3 · Poster is preselected.
3. Keep the suggested name (such as “Poster 1”) or type your own, then choose Create.

The size can’t be changed later. If you need more room, create a second sketch. A small badge at the bottom right of the board shows the size, for example “Poster (A3)”. A sketch’s context menu in the sidebar offers Rename… and Delete Sketch.

Draw

The toolbar at the top is built like on every canvas: Select on the left, the drawing tools in the middle, the zoom percentage and Full Screen on the right. The drawing tools are three marker widths, four colors (black, blue, red, green), the sponge, which wipes whatever it touches, a button to wipe the whole board, and Undo and Redo. Wiping the board can be undone too. The percentage opens the zoom menu with Zoom In, Zoom Out, Actual Size and Fit; you can also pinch.

Select turns on the lasso: draw around strokes to select them, then drag them or use the menu that appears to cut, copy, duplicate or delete them. Choosing a marker ends the selection.

Finger or pencil: on iPhone you draw with your finger. On iPad, iKanban follows the iPad setting Only Draw with Apple Pencil. When it’s on, only the pencil draws and your finger scrolls and zooms. When it’s off, both draw.

Sketches save automatically, a second after each change and when you leave them.

Clean shapes and arrows

• Shapes: draw a line, circle, oval, square or rectangle and hold still at the end of the stroke for a moment. A preview appears; when you lift, the stroke becomes a clean shape. Lines snap to 0°, 45° and 90°. If you keep moving after holding, the stroke stays freehand.
• Arrows: draw a line, then draw a tip like ”<” or “V” at one end and hold. You can also draw line and tip in one stroke. A tip at the other end makes a double arrow.
• One Undo takes back the clean shape together with your stroke.

Fill a shape

Open the fill menu on a closed shape. If only Apple Pencil draws, tap the shape with your finger; otherwise hold your finger or pencil still on it. Choose one of the four colors, Remove Fill or Delete Shape. A new color replaces the old fill, and the sponge wipes fills like any other stroke.

Apple Pencil gestures

Open Settings (the gear at the top of the sidebar). In the Apple Pencil section, choose what Squeeze and Double-Tap do: Switch Marker / Eraser, Switch Last Two Colors, Undo, Redo, Show Toolbar or No Action.

By default, squeeze switches between marker and sponge, and double-tap switches between your last two colors. With Squeeze Behavior set to Only While Squeezing, the sponge stays active only while you squeeze. Squeeze needs Apple Pencil Pro; double-tap works with Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (2nd generation).

Draw on the pinboard

Drag a sketch from the sidebar onto a pinboard, choose Pin to … in its context menu, or use Insert › Sketch › on the pinboard. On iPad and iPhone, double-tap the pinned sketch (or choose Draw Here) to draw right on the wall with a compact toolbar. Done ends drawing. See Pinboards.

Full screen, export and the Assistant

The Full Screen button gives the whole screen to the board. See Full Screen and Windows.

With nothing selected, the inspector shows the sketch’s size and last change, and two actions:

• Export the board as a PNG: Export PNG… on Mac; on iPad and iPhone, Prepare PNG for sharing, then Share PNG….
• Board to Assistant reads your handwriting and turns it into card suggestions. See The Assistant.

On Mac: you see every sketch, can scroll and zoom (⌘+, ⌘−, ⌘0 or Fit in the zoom menu), export it and send it to the Assistant. Drawing isn’t possible on Mac.