Infinite Canvas is a freeform space in Pencil that brings all the work, assets, and templates for a project into one visual surface, with all your editors, agents and assets just one click away. Instead of navigating tables and lists to piece a project together, you arrange it spatially, the way you actually think about it.
This article covers what Canvas does, and the habits that keep it useful as a project grows.
What Canvas gives you
A unified project space, with direct links into Pencil's editors and agents from every item.
Nested canvases that let you break complex projects into structured sub-spaces (think of them as folders that also let you edit, chat, and collaborate in real time).
Freeform organisation: move, group, and arrange items however the project calls for it.
Zoom and navigation, for moving between the big picture and fine detail.
Labels and search across libraries, so anything on a canvas is easy to find.
Real-time collaboration, with teammates visible as they move around the surface.
Sections, Sticky notes, and Text areas for grouping, annotation, and richer written context.
What can I add to a canvas?
The Add Content button gives you three tabs:
Editors for creating new work directly on the canvas: Ads, Display Ads, Videos, Images, Text, Sheets, and Email.
Files for bringing existing material in: Choose from Pencil, Upload from computer, Import .pencil file, Import AE package.
Utilities for structuring the surface itself: Section, Sticky note, Text area.
You can also place a canvas inside another canvas, nesting as deep as the project warrants.
How should I structure a canvas?
Treat the top-level canvas as the project overview and nest everything below.
A pattern that works for most enterprise teams:
Top level: the campaign as a whole. Hero creative, the brief, key approvals, master brand references.
Second level: one sub-canvas per market, channel, or audience.
Third level: one sub-canvas per format or asset family. For example: statics together, video together, OOH together.
If a canvas starts to feel crowded, push a layer deeper.
How should I lay items out?
Group by stage, not by date. Concepts on the left, in-progress in the middle, approved on the right. It matches how everyone scans the canvas, and it lets a stakeholder zoom out and read project status without asking.
Keep critical references on the perimeter. Anchor the brief, brand kit, and mood references to one edge so they stay findable as the centre fills up.
Leave whitespace. Deliberate gaps make a busy canvas readable.
How can we work together on a canvas?
Canvas is shared across your workspace; anyone with access can open and edit the same canvas at once. Cursors are visible as you move, and Sticky notes double as a lightweight back-channel for questions, flags, and quick exchanges in real time.
That slot puts collaboration between the solo concerns (layout) and the utilities section (which then has somewhere to land for the Sticky-notes-as-comms angle). It also sets up the Sticky notes paragraph nicely without duplicating it.
When should I use Sections, Sticky notes, and Text areas?
Use Sections to group items into clearly labelled, colour-coded zones: "Concepts", "In review", "Approved". Sections give structure to a canvas without locking the layout.
Use Sticky notes for quick callouts, reminders, and questions. They're the fastest way to add a thought or flag without opening anything.
Use Text areas for longer-form context: a creative principle, a constraint to keep in mind, an explanation of what a zone of the canvas is for. Anyone landing on the board gets the detail without leaving it.
A few habits that pay off later
Name canvases descriptively. "FY26 Q3, LATAM launch, vertical statics" beats "Canvas 4".
Use labels consistently. A label only earns its keep when the same word means the same thing everywhere it appears.
Revisit and prune. Once a project ships, clear out draft items that no longer matter. A canvas you can read at a glance six months later is worth the five minutes to tidy.