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Customizing the Canvas with Display Options

Customize how content appears on your Kit Canvas with powerful display controls.

Edward Boatman avatar
Written by Edward Boatman
Updated today

Display options let you customize how each content block appears on your Canvas. Adjust size, alignment, colors, and more to create Kits that look polished and match your brand.

With effective use of display options, you can build beautiful kits that create visual hierarchy, guide visitors through your content, and highlight important assets.

Only Kit Editors can customize display options.

Accessing display options

Select content on your Canvas, then open the Action Menu (right-click or click the overflow menu). The Display Panel appears at the top with quick-access controls.

You can also search for display options by typing in the Action Menu search bar.

Size

Control how large content appears ranging from 6 across to full-width. Use the slider in the Display Panel, or search for "size", "bigger", or "smaller" in the Action Menu.

A few notes on sizing:

  • Alignment - When the alignment option is set to left or right, size controls the width of the image. The content block will still span the full width of the Canvas.

  • Full Width - Some blocks may revert to the image above layout when set to full width for best appearance.

  • Wrapping: Content blocks of varying sizes can fill the same row within the canvas and will always fill the available width on the canvas. If the next content block cannot fit in the remaining space, it will wrap to the next line.

Best practices for sizing:

  • Use larger sizes for important assets you want to highlight.

  • Set the size to fill the width. (e.g. for 3 items, set the size to 3 across)

  • Use headings or notes to separate distinct groups of content. It's likely your team will appreciate the context, or you can add a horizontal rule (---) in a note to create visual separation.

Alignment

Control where images appear within content blocks:

  • Image Left - Image on the leading edge, content flows right

  • Image Above - Image on top, content below

  • Image Right - Image on the trailing edge, content flows left

Background colors

Preview background

The background behind Asset previews. Useful for:

  • Making transparent images visible (e.g. light icon on a dark background)

  • Matching your brand colors

  • Creating contrast for light or dark Assets

Options: Default, Clear, Light, Dark, Checkered, or a custom color.

Note that the preview background will be applied anywhere that asset is used (other kits, galleries, and the library). This is typicaly best used for visibility of a specific image rather than layout appearance.

Card background

The background of content blocks on the Canvas:

  • Use with notes to highlight important information

  • Style assets, guides or galleries

Options: None, Neutral, Info, Warning, Success, or custom colors.

Tip: you can customize the preset colors in the theme editor. See Custom Branding for more details.

Metadata

Toggle whether Asset metadata (filename, dimensions, file type) appears below the preview:

Captions

Captions allow you to create a single unified bock with an image and text that stays together when moved around the canvas. Along with the size and alignment options you can create a variety of layouts to suit your needs.

Allow Downloads

In some cases you may want to present an asset on the canvas without users being able to interacti with or use it. These can bring visual interest to the page in the same way you might do if building a web page or brand document.

Autoplay

For motion Assets (videos, animations, GIFs) you can enable autoplay so they start playing automatically when the Kit is opened. This can bring energy and life to the kit, especially for brands with motion elements.

Tip: Consider limiting autoplay to shorter clips. Autoplay does not allow audio, pausing, or scrubbing. When disabled, viewers can click to start play and have full access to controls.

Applying to multiple items

Select multiple items to apply display options to all of them at once. This makes it easy to:

  • Set a consistent size across a row of Assets

  • Apply the same background color to related items

  • Show or hide metadata for an entire Page

Learn more

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