JSON Canvas to PNG converter
No file handy? Load a small example board.
🔒 Your files are parsed, rendered and packed into ZIPs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
A PNG is the safest way to share a JSON Canvas board with people who will never open a .canvas file. Slide decks, documents, issue trackers, chat apps and email all accept PNG images, and nobody needs Obsidian or any other canvas app to look at one. Drop your .canvas file above and the board is drawn in your browser first, so you can check that it is the right one before you download anything. Then press Download PNG. The image includes the text cards, the group frames, the colors and the connecting arrows with their labels, laid out exactly as the file describes them. The conversion runs on your own device: the file is read locally, rasterized on a canvas element and saved straight to your downloads folder. It is never uploaded, and the original .canvas file is not modified. It works the same for boards saved by Obsidian and for boards exported by any other app that writes JSON Canvas 1.0.
Choose 1× or 2× resolution
The resolution menu next to the file picker sets how many image pixels each canvas unit becomes. At 1× a board that is 1,600 units wide becomes a PNG about 1,600 pixels wide, plus a small margin around the edges. At 2×, the default, the same board becomes about 3,200 pixels wide, which keeps small text sharp on high-density screens and when the image is scaled down inside a document.
Before you download, the viewer shows the exact output size for the scale you picked, so a huge file never comes as a surprise. Pick 2× for slides, documentation and anything that may be zoomed. Pick 1× when the image only needs to be readable in a chat message, or when you want a smaller file.
Size limits for very large boards
Browsers cap how big a single image can be, so the converter does too: a PNG can be at most 8,192 pixels on its longest side and 16 megapixels in total. A board that goes over the limit at 2× usually fits at 1×. If it is still too large, the viewer says so and points you to the alternatives instead of producing a broken image.
For very large boards, SVG is often the better choice. It has no pixel limit, stays sharp at any zoom level, and is usually a smaller file for diagram-style content. You can export the same board in both formats and keep whichever works better where you are pasting it.
Convert many boards at once
Select or drop several .canvas files and each one gets its own preview and download buttons. Once two or more boards are ready, the Download all ready PNGs button packs them into one ZIP file. The PNGs are generated one at a time to keep memory use low, files with the same name are renamed instead of overwritten, and boards that failed to open are left out. One ZIP can hold up to 50 boards and 128 MiB of PNG data, and it is assembled in your browser like everything else.
Converting an Obsidian Canvas to PNG
Obsidian saves each canvas as a .canvas file in your vault, so you can convert it without opening Obsidian at all: find the file in your vault folder and drop it here. This is handy when you want an image of a board for someone who does not use Obsidian, or when you are on a computer where Obsidian is not installed.
Text cards, groups, colors and arrows all carry over. Markdown in text cards is simplified: headings show in bold and other formatting appears as plain text. Cards that embed a note, image or PDF from your vault store only that file’s path inside the .canvas file, so they appear in the PNG as placeholders labelled with the path. If those embeds matter, take a screenshot inside Obsidian instead, or paste the note’s text into a text card before converting.
Where a PNG works best
PNG is the format to pick when the destination simply needs a picture:
| Destination | Why PNG works there |
|---|---|
| Slides (PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides) | Every slide tool accepts PNG, and a 2× image stays sharp on a projector. |
| Documents and wikis (Word, Google Docs, Notion, Confluence) | It pastes as a normal image with no plugin or embed. |
| Chat and email | It shows as an inline preview on phones and desktops. |
| Issue trackers (GitHub, GitLab, Jira) | Drag the PNG into a comment to show a plan or an architecture sketch. |
How it works
- 1Choose or drop your
.canvasfile(s). - 2The board is parsed and drawn instantly — in your browser.
- 3Export it as a PNG or SVG image. Nothing is uploaded.
FAQ
Is the PNG transparent?
No. The PNG has a white background, the same as the preview, so it reads well on both light and dark pages.
Does converting upload my canvas?
No. The file is read, drawn and encoded as PNG in your browser, and the file itself never leaves your device.
Why is my PNG mostly empty space?
The image covers every card on the board, so a single card placed far away from the others makes the whole image larger. Move or delete stray cards in your canvas app and convert again.
Can I convert a canvas to JPG or PDF?
Not directly. Download the PNG and convert it with any image app, or export SVG and print it to PDF from your browser to get a vector PDF.