Properties panel

The properties panel is where you edit whatever is selected on the canvas. It changes to match the object, or switches to part-level controls when nothing is selected.

Quick overview

1. Select nothing and the panel shows the current part's size and background.
2. Select an object and the panel shows Properties, Layout, and Layers tabs.
3. The Properties tab holds settings specific to the object type: fill and stroke for shapes, font for text, filters for images, and so on.
4. The Layout tab holds position, size, rotation, and alignment. See Move, resize, and transform.
5. The Layers tab holds the layers list for the current part. See Grouping and layers.
6. Open any color swatch to reach the full color and gradient picker.

Detailed reference

What shows up per selection

Selection	Properties tab shows
Nothing	Part size and background controls (solid, gradient, or image)
Shape	Fill, stroke, opacity, blend mode, and corner radius. See Shapes.
Text	Font family, size, weight and style, color, letter spacing, line height, alignment, and text effects like stroke, shadow, and case
Image	Filters, crop, background removal, and perspective fit. See Image editing.
Group	Member count and opacity, applied to the whole group
Frame	Frame info, plus buttons to edit its outline or convert it to a plain shape. See Selection tools.
QR code	URL, foreground and background color, and size. See QR codes and barcodes.
Chart	Chart type, data editor, and colors. See Charts.

The Layout and Layers tabs stay the same regardless of what's selected; only the Properties tab content changes.

Design fields (for the bulk builder)

Every selected object has a Design field dropdown near the top of the Properties tab, marked with a star. It tags the object with a role so the bulk builder knows which objects to swap when it generates many variations from a data set. Leave it on None (static) for anything that should stay the same across every variation.

Group	Example roles
Text	Title, subtitle, body, author or source, counter, button, hashtag, call to action
Visual	Background image, hero image, icon, logo, barcode value, barcode type
Decorative	Shape, badge, divider, overlay, watermark, frame
Other	Color accent, custom

The sparkle button beside the label opens an optional AI note, a short free-text hint that guides automatic content generation for that field. A grid layout can carry its own design field on each cell, so a single grid can map several data columns at once.

Fill, stroke, and opacity

Property	Applies to	Range or options
Fill	Shapes, text	Solid color or gradient, or none
Stroke	Shapes, text, pen paths	Color plus a width from 0 px up
Opacity	Every object	0 to 100 percent, a single unified control shown for any selection
Corner radius	Rectangles	0 px up, with a Circular preset that rounds to a full pill

Opacity is one shared control that applies to whatever is selected, including a whole group. There is no general per-object blend-mode control in this panel; blend modes appear only in specialized tools such as the perspective mockup for images. Stroke width and corner radius each offer a quick preset menu (for example 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 for stroke width) alongside the numeric field.

The color picker

Opening a color swatch anywhere in the app, whether it's a fill, a stroke, text color, brush color, or a QR code color, opens the same color picker.

Control	Description
Saturation and value field	A square field where the horizontal axis is saturation and the vertical axis is brightness. Click or drag anywhere inside to update the color instantly.
Hue slider	Sets the base hue for the field above it.
Hex input	Type an exact hex value directly. The field and slider update to match.
Eyedropper	Samples a color from anywhere on screen, including outside the color picker itself.
Document colors	Colors already used as a fill, stroke, or gradient stop somewhere on the current part, offered as one-click swatches.
Photo colors	If the part has a raster image, its dominant colors are extracted and grouped as swatches next to a thumbnail.
Preset palette	A set of default swatches always available.
Brand colors	Your brand kit colors, when the project has one.
Recent colors	A strip of colors you've used recently, across any of the tools above.

The gradient tab

Switching the color picker to Gradient turns it into a compact multi-stop editor:

Control	Description
Type	Linear, radial, angular, or diamond
Gradient rail	A single rail shows the live gradient. Click anywhere on it to add a stop, then drag stops to reposition them.
Stops list	Each stop has its own position, color, and opacity, plus a remove action
Flip / rotate	Reverses the stop order, or rotates the gradient by 90 degrees per click
Presets	Ready-made gradients you can start from and then adjust

A gradient is saved with its full stop layout, so reopening the picker on that fill later shows exactly what you left. See Backgrounds, patterns, and gradients for using a gradient as a part background.

Image-specific controls

Selecting an image adds buttons beyond the standard fill and stroke controls:

Control	Action
Filters	Opens brightness, contrast, saturation, blur, and one-click looks
Crop	Opens the crop tool, with aspect-ratio presets and a rule-of-thirds grid
Background removal	Runs an automatic cutout, or switches to a manual punch-out brush
Perspective	Opens perspective fit to warp the image onto a surface

See Image editing for the full detail on each of these.

Step by step

Tag an object as a bulk-builder field

1. Select the object you want to make dynamic.
2. In the Properties tab, open the Design field dropdown (it carries a star).
3. Pick the role that matches the object, for example Title for a headline or Hero image for the main picture. Choose None (static) to keep it fixed.
4. Optionally, click the sparkle button beside the label to add an AI note describing what should fill that field.
5. Repeat for each object that should change per variation, then open the bulk builder to map your data onto these fields.

Change an object's fill, stroke, and effects

1. Select a shape or text object. The Properties tab shows its fill and stroke.
2. Click the fill swatch to open the color picker, then pick a solid color, a gradient, or a color already used in the design.
3. Set a stroke color and drag the width up from 0 px for an outline.
4. For text, use the text effects controls to add a stroke, shadow, or case change. For a shape, adjust corner radius and opacity from the same panel.

Find the Layers tab and reorder objects

1. With an object selected, click the Layers tab at the top of the panel.
2. The list mirrors the stacking order of every object on the current part.
3. Drag a row to change stacking order, or click a row to select an object that is hard to reach on the canvas.
4. See Grouping and layers for locking, hiding, and grouping from this list.

Switch to part-level size and background controls

1. Click an empty area of the canvas, or press Escape, to deselect everything.
2. The panel switches from object controls to the current part's size and background.
3. Set the background to a solid color, a gradient, or an image, or open the size menu to choose a preset or type custom dimensions.
4. Select any object again to return to its Properties, Layout, and Layers tabs.

Common tasks

• Reuse a color already in the design: open any swatch and pick from Document colors instead of the full spectrum.
• Match your brand: open a swatch and pick from Brand colors (available when the project has a brand kit).
• Pull a color from a photo: use the eyedropper, or click one of the Photo colors extracted from a raster image on the part.
• Turn a rounded rectangle into a pill: set corner radius to the Circular preset.
• Dim a whole group at once: select the group and drag the single opacity control, it applies to every member.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Enter	Confirm a typed value in the hex field or a Layout field
Esc	Close the color picker without losing the current value
Tab	Move to the next field in the Layout tab

Tips

Check document colors first

Before opening the full spectrum, check Document colors. Reusing a color that's already on the part is the fastest way to keep a design coherent.

Gradients remember their stops

Because a gradient's stop layout is saved with the object, it's safe to close the picker mid-edit and come back to it later without losing your progress.

Troubleshooting

• The panel looks different from what you expected. It is context-sensitive. With nothing selected it shows the part's size and background; with an object it shows that object's type-specific controls. If you see filters where you expected fill and stroke, you have an image selected rather than a shape.
• An image has no fill or stroke option. Images carry no fill. Instead they expose a border (stroke) color and width, corner radius, and the filters, crop, background removal, and perspective buttons.
• The panel collapsed on its own. It auto-collapses when the current part is empty and auto-expands the moment you select an object. Use the chevron toggle on its edge to open or close it by hand.
• A whiteboard shows a different panel. On a board or whiteboard part the panel swaps in board-specific controls, hides the standard object sections, and hides entirely when nothing is selected.
• The Design field dropdown is gone. It appears only while an object is selected. Deselect and it is replaced by the part background panel.

Related

• Move, resize, and transform for the Layout tab in full
• Grouping and layers for the Layers tab in full
• Text effects for stroke, shadow, and case on text
• Image editing for filters, crop, background removal, and perspective
• Backgrounds, patterns, and gradients for the part-level background and gradients
• Bulk builder for turning tagged design fields into many variations