Artboards

What it’s for

The canvas itself is infinite and unitless. Artboards add bounded, named regions with real dimensions so you can compose multiple deliverables in one document and export each at a precise size — without cropping by hand. They’re drawn as light frames behind your artwork and never appear in the exported image (only the content inside the region is exported).

Add an artboard

Artboard tool — press Shift+O (or the frame button # in the toolbar, next to Crop):

• Drag on the canvas to draw an artboard of exactly that size. Hold Shift for a square. The live size shows next to the pointer.
• Click empty canvas to open the New Artboard dialog, with the frame placed where you clicked.

New Artboard dialog — pick a preset (Logo square / horizontal, App icon, Favicon, Web 1280, plus every social, video, presentation and print size) or type your own width × height in px (the ⇄ button swaps them for portrait/landscape). Set a Count to create several identical frames in a row, with a Gap between them — ready for side-by-side variations. Also on right-click empty canvas → Artboards → New Artboard…, and in the command palette.

Right-click empty canvas → Artboards also has one-click presets (Square 1080, A4 Portrait, Instagram Story, Web 1280), and right-click a selection → Create → Artboard from Selection fits a frame around it. New artboards without a position go to the right of existing ones in the same row, never on top of them.

Variations side by side

Design a logo once, then compare versions next to each other:

1. With the Artboard tool (Shift+O), click inside the artboard holding your design — or right-click empty canvas → Artboards → its name → Duplicate as Variations….
2. The dialog opens on Copies of “…”. Set how many copies and the gap, then Duplicate.
3. Each copy is a full, independent copy of the artwork: its own groups (selecting one variation never selects another), connectors re-bound inside the copy, curves moved with it.

Change colours, type or layout on each copy and judge them side by side; export each one on its own (below).

const Y = window.Yappy;
Y.addArtboard('Square 1080');      // 1080×1080 preset
Y.addArtboard('A4 Portrait', 1200, 0);
Y.addArtboard('selection');        // fit around the current selection
Y.createArtboards({ width: 1000, height: 1000, count: 4, gap: 60, name: 'Logo' }); // 4 in a row
Y.duplicateArtboard(id, 40, 3);    // 3 variations of a frame, artwork included

Move, resize & delete

Each artboard shows a small name chip (with its live width × height) at its top-left corner:

• Move — drag the name chip.
• Select — click the chip; the frame gains 8 resize handles (corners + edge midpoints). Drag a handle to resize.
• Delete — the red × on the chip, or press Delete / Backspace while it’s selected.
• Deselect — click anywhere off the artboard, or press Esc.

Export a region

Right-click empty canvas → Artboards → an artboard’s submenu → Export PNG (2× / 1×) to render just that region at the chosen scale. 2× gives a crisp, retina-resolution image.

const Y = window.Yappy;
const id = Y.addArtboard('Web 1280');
Y.exportArtboard(id, 2);   // download a 2× PNG of that frame

Rearrange, duplicate & fit

Rearrange All lays every artboard out in a tidy grid (auto columns, or pass a count + gap). Duplicate copies a frame and the artwork on it to the right. Fit to Artwork shrink-wraps a frame to the content sitting on it — perfect for a logo lock-up with even clear space. Paste on All Artboards drops the selection onto every other artboard at the same relative position (great for a watermark or logo).

Y.rearrangeArtboards(3, 40);   // 3 columns, 40px gap (omit args = auto grid)
Y.duplicateArtboard(id);       // frame + its artwork, placed to the right
Y.fitArtboardToArtwork(id, 20);// resize to content + 20px padding
Y.pasteOnAllArtboards();       // copy the selection onto every artboard

Scripting (API)

The full artboard workflow is scriptable from the global window.Yappy object — add frames, rename/resize them, list them, and batch-export.

const Y = window.Yappy;

// add, rename, resize, inspect
const id = Y.addArtboard('Square 1080', 0, 0);
Y.renameArtboard(id, 'Cover');
Y.updateArtboard(id, { width: 1200, height: 1200 });
Y.listArtboards();               // [{ id, name, x, y, width, height }, …]

// tidy + export every frame at 2×
Y.rearrangeArtboards(3, 40);     // 3 columns, 40px gap
Y.listArtboards().forEach(a => Y.exportArtboard(a.id, 2));

Y.deleteArtboard(id);            // remove one frame