Canvas Export

An Obsidian plugin that exports .canvas files to multiple formats:

• HTML (light and dark themes) — fully self-contained, clickable links
• Excalidraw (.excalidraw) — editable diagrams
• Mermaid (.mmd) — text-based flowcharts
• D2 (.d2) — declarative diagrams
• PDF — print-ready via Electron

Usage

Open a .canvas file, then use the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+P):

• Canvas Export: Export to HTML (light)
• Canvas Export: Export to HTML (dark)
• Canvas Export: Export to Excalidraw
• Canvas Export: Export to Mermaid (.mmd)
• Canvas Export: Export to D2 (.d2)
• Canvas Export: Export to PDF
• Canvas Export: Export current canvas... — multi-format picker modal
• Canvas Export: Re-export with last settings

You can also right-click a .canvas file in the file explorer and select Export Canvas....

If the output file already exists, you'll be prompted to overwrite, save with a numbered name, or skip.

What gets exported

Canvas files follow the JSON Canvas spec and can contain four types of nodes: text, groups, file embeds, and link embeds. Not all of these translate equally to every format.

All formats

Format-specific notes

HTML (light/dark)

• Fully self-contained single-file output — no external dependencies
• Markdown links become clickable <a> tags with target="_blank"
• Bare URLs are auto-linked
• Canvas dimensions are preserved exactly (absolute positioning)
• Both themes use the same layout; only colors differ

Excalidraw

• Outputs raw .excalidraw JSON (opens in Obsidian's Excalidraw plugin in compatibility mode, or in excalidraw.com)
• Single-link text nodes: the link URL is attached to the rectangle element (clickable in Excalidraw)
• Multi-link text nodes: URLs are shown inline in the text (e.g. label (https://...)) since Excalidraw only supports one link per element
• Markdown formatting is stripped to plain text
• Groups rendered as dashed rectangles with labels

Mermaid

• Outputs a flowchart TD diagram
• Groups become subgraph blocks
• All text is stripped to plain text with URLs shown inline
• Node colors applied via style directives
• Edge labels preserved

D2

• Outputs a direction: down diagram
• Groups become nested containers with optional styling
• Nodes inside groups use qualified IDs (e.g. group.node)
• Link nodes get a .link property
• Colors applied via style blocks

PDF

• Renders the light HTML theme to PDF via Electron's printToPDF
• Page size matches the canvas dimensions
• Requires desktop Obsidian (Electron)
• If PDF generation fails (e.g. Electron API unavailable), a warning is shown but other formats still export

Settings

• Group title size (%) — font size of group labels relative to body text (default: 150%)
• Output subfolder — leave empty to export alongside the canvas, or specify a subfolder name

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

1. Open Settings -> Community plugins -> Browse
2. Search for "Canvas Export"
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create .obsidian/plugins/canvas-export/ in your vault
3. Copy the three files into that folder
4. Enable the plugin in Settings -> Community plugins

Desktop only

This plugin uses Electron APIs for PDF export and is desktop-only.

Author

Robin Moffatt (@rmoff)

License

Apache License 2.0