Pixara on an iPad, a newsletter open

Start here

Pixara is a native design app for Mac, iPad and iPhone: posters, social posts, presentations, documents, logos and mockups. A document is a stack of pages — an A4 sheet, an Instagram post, a slide, any size you type — and everything on a page can be moved, restyled and animated.

The first five minutes

  1. Create a document. The create button on Home opens a menu. New Document asks for a size — fifteen presets from Instagram Post to A4, Presentation and Business Card, or any size you type. Photo Album starts from a picture, and so do Camera and Scan Document on iPhone and iPad. Or tap a template: their folders are on Home, in the sidebar on Mac and iPad and as chips on iPhone. On the Mac, Pixara then asks where to save the file, like Pages.
  2. Tap to select. The first tap picks the element on the page under your finger — the whole card or group. The next tap goes straight to what is under it, however deep. Double-tap a text and you are editing it. Long-press empty space and drag to select several.
  3. Add something. The basics — group, rectangle, circle, text, image, drawing, path — sit in the creation bar at the bottom of the screen; on iPhone they are the first page of the bottom bar. Everything else is in Elements — the + tab of the inspector on Mac and iPad (⌘I), + Insert on iPhone. Faster, on Mac and iPad: Quick search, the bubble in the bottom-left corner (⌘F). Type "star", tap the match.
  4. Look around. Pinch to zoom and drag empty space to pan; on the Mac, scroll, and ⌥ scroll zooms with a mouse. A document always opens fitted to its page, and ⌥⌘0 fits it again.
  5. Add pages. The pages panel — on the left on Mac and iPad (⇧⌘1), a strip above the bottom bar on iPhone — adds a page with its add tile (⇧⌘N), and duplicates, deletes and exports pages from their menu.
  6. Never save. Documents save themselves as you work, and the ones in iCloud Drive sync to your other devices. Undo keeps your last two hundred steps while the document is open — ⌘Z, or the arrow in the toolbar.
The Mac editor: the page in the middle, the inspector on the right; Quick search and the creation bar along the bottom.
The Mac editor: the page in the middle, the inspector on the right; Quick search and the creation bar along the bottom.

The cheat sheet

Same ideas, three devices. If you remember one table, make it this one.

Action Mac iPad iPhone
Select Click Tap Tap
Reach what's inside Click it again Tap it again Tap it again
Go up a level Double-click Double-tap Double-tap
Select several Drag on empty space · ⌘-click adds or removes one Long-press empty space, then drag · with a trackpad, just drag Long-press empty space, then drag
Move Drag — no need to select first Select, then drag · with a trackpad, just drag Select, then drag
Duplicate ⌘ D ⌥ drag The small toolbar · ⌥ drag with a keyboard The small toolbar
More actions Right-click Long-press and hold · right-click with a trackpad Long-press and hold
Edit text Return, or double-click the text Double-tap the text Double-tap the text
Pan Scroll Drag empty space Drag empty space
Zoom ⌘ = ⌘ − ⌘ 0 ⌥ ⌘ 0 Pinch Pinch
Add a page ⇧ ⌘ N The add tile in the pages panel The add tile in the pages strip
Deselect Esc, or click empty space Tap empty space Tap empty space, or ✕
Undo ⌘ Z ⌘ Z toolbar Toolbar arrow
Redo ⇧ ⌘ Z ⇧ ⌘ Z toolbar Toolbar arrow
Present ⌥ ⌘ P Share › Present Share › Present Share › Present

Where things live

Mac

Pages on the left (⇧⌘1), the inspector on the right (⇧⌘2) with Elements, Design and Layers tabs. The creation bar at the bottom, Quick search bottom-left. Menus and shortcuts for everything else; the chevron goes back to Home.

iPad

Top bar: back, pages, undo, redo, Share, and the inspector tabs — Elements, Design, Layers. In landscape the inspector opens by itself. Apple Pencil draws; a trackpad behaves like the Mac.

iPhone

Top bar: back, ✕ while something is selected, undo, redo, Share. The bar at the bottom holds + Insert, the creation tools, the page settings and the selection's properties; the pages strip sits just above it.

The rest of this guide

Still stuck? Settings › Chat with us — Help › Chat with Support… on the Mac — is a conversation with the people who build Pixara. Or get in touch from the website.