Open CANVAS files in your browser
The boards of notes, links and arrows people plan on in Obsidian. Open one right here and move around it, without Obsidian. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your canvas opens as a board of its cards, groups and arrows, in their places and colors.
- Every card, group and arrow, in its colors
- Drag to pan • Pinch or Ctrl and scroll to zoom
- Find • Dim the cards that don't match
- Tree, Table or Text • The JSON itself
About CANVAS
Obsidian, the Markdown notes app, added Canvas in 2022, a board to lay out cards of notes, files and links and draw arrows between them, and in 2024 it opened the format as JSON Canvas. Other apps, like Kinopio, read it too.
A .canvas is JSON: nodes, each a text card in Markdown, a note or file of the vault, a web page or a group, with its place, size and color, and edges, the arrows between them, with the sides they leave and reach and their labels.
Filepeek draws the board as Obsidian lays it out: cards in their colors, their text in its Markdown, groups behind them with their labels, and arrows curving between their sides. Drag to pan, pinch or Ctrl and scroll to zoom, and Find dims the cards that don't match.
JSON Canvas
.canvas
Format
- MIME type
- application/json
- Made by
- Obsidian
- Released
- 2022
Inside the file
- Holds
- Cards, groups and arrows
- Built on
- JSON
- Cards
- Text, notes, files, links
- Made by
- Obsidian
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens JSON Canvas boards in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers show them as JSON.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open CANVAS
- WindowsObsidian
- MacObsidian
- iPhone and iPadObsidian
- AndroidObsidian
Questions
How do I open a .canvas without Obsidian?
Drop it on this page. The board shows with every card and arrow in its place.
Why do some cards only show a file name?
A card can point at a note or a file of the Obsidian vault, which isn't inside the .canvas. Filepeek shows its name, and Obsidian opens it in the vault.
Can I see the JSON itself?
Yes. The Tree, Table and Text buttons show the JSON, where a value can be changed and saved.