Shortcuts, tips & Pro
On the Mac, and on an iPad with a keyboard, a document is fastest from the keys. The Mac's menus list the commands with their shortcuts, and Settings › Keyboard shortcuts keeps the essentials. On iPhone the same actions live in the menus and the bottom bar.
Keyboard
| Action | Keys |
|---|---|
| New document · Open (from Home) | ⌘ N ⌘ O |
| Save · Export | ⌘ S ⌘ ⇧ E |
| Show or hide the pages · the inspector | ⌘ ⇧ 1 ⌘ ⇧ 2 |
| Add a page · duplicate the page | ⌘ ⇧ N ⌘ ⇧ D |
| Quick search · Elements · Insert text | ⌘ F ⌘ I ⌘ T |
| Undo · redo | ⌘ Z ⌘ ⇧ Z |
| Select all in view | ⌘ A |
| Cut · copy · paste | ⌘ X ⌘ C ⌘ V |
| Copy style · paste style | ⌘ ⌥ C ⌘ ⌥ V |
| Duplicate · delete | ⌘ D ⌫ |
| Edit the selection · deselect | Return Esc |
| Nudge 1 pt · 10 pt | Arrows ⇧ Arrows |
| Zoom in · zoom out · 100% · fit the page | ⌘ = ⌘ − ⌘ 0 ⌘ ⌥ 0 |
| Group · ungroup | ⌘ G ⌘ ⇧ G |
| Stack · unstack | ⇧ A ⌥ ⇧ A |
| Lock · unlock | ⌘ L |
| Bring to front · send to back | ⌘ ⇧ ] ⌘ ⇧ [ |
| Add a point · remove a point | ⌘ ] ⌘ [ |
| Present · Animate Pages | ⌘ ⌥ P ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ P |
| Next page · previous page · stop, while presenting | → ← Esc |
| Bold · italic · underline, while editing text | ⌘ B ⌘ I ⌘ U |
| Bigger · smaller, while editing text | ⌘ ⇧ = ⌘ ⇧ − |
Quick search is on the Mac and iPad. Return edits a selected text or drawing; Esc ends the editing first, then deselects.
While dragging
| Hold | Effect |
|---|---|
| ⇧ | Keep a move on 45° steps — straight across, straight up or diagonal; the same for a point you drag. On a corner handle: rotate. |
| ⌥ | Drag a copy: past a short distance, a copy stays where you started and the original keeps moving. On a handle: resize from the centre. |
| ⌘ | Move without snapping. On a corner handle: keep the proportions. On drop: never nest into a container. |
Tips & tricks
- ⌘A with one element of a group selected takes all of its siblings — the setup for Tidy Up or Stack.
- Duplicate the page, then move things. The copy is linked for Magic Move, so Present plays the difference as an animation.
- Hold still to nest, keep moving to pass over. The pause is the signal.
- Put a photo inside a freeform, or inside letters converted to freeform, to cut it to any silhouette.
- Convert a text to Freeform and you have a logo you can edit point by point.
- Quick search with no match makes a text element out of what you typed — the fastest way to add a label.
- Hover a Quick search bubble with a pointer to preview it before you add it (Settings › Quick search preview).
- Save Component on anything you will need again; it is in Elements › Saved on every device.
- Long-press and hold an element on touch — it is the right-click, and opens the same menu.
- ⌥ scroll zooms with a mouse; pinch on a trackpad. ⌘⌥0 fits the page back in the window.
- Export a selection from its own menu when you only need one part: the picture is cut to the selection, on a transparent background.
- ⌘C, then ⌘V in another app — a text pastes as text, anything else as a picture, so a design goes into a deck or an email without an export.
- The colour picker remembers your last seven colours and gradients, across documents, and the system picker has an eyedropper.
- Several texts → one: select them and choose Merge Text; several drawings, Merge Drawings.
- Drop an SVG on a page and it lands as vectors you can edit.
- Settings › Restore last viewed page reopens a document on the page you left it.
Free and Pro
Everything is there to try, for fifteen minutes a day; when they run out, editing waits for the next day or for Pro. Pro removes the daily limit and unlocks export — pictures, PDF, SVG and video — and Magic AI generation. It comes weekly, monthly or yearly, or as a single lifetime purchase, tied to your Apple ID.
- Always free: exporting a Pixara file, and the text actions — Correct, Rephrase, Elaborate and Summarize.
- AI images use credits instead of Pro: one credit per image, the first five free, then packs of 10, 25, 50 or 100.
- Magic AI has a daily limit on each device, for everyone; it resets at midnight.
- No account. There is no sign-up and no login anywhere in Pixara, and sync is Apple's iCloud.
Help & feedback
Settings › Help — Help › Pixara Help on the Mac — opens the guide. Settings › Chat with us — Help › Chat with Support… on the Mac, or Chat with Us in Home's ⋯ menu — is a conversation with the people who build the app, and the reply arrives in the app as a notification. Every message is read by someone who can act on it. Crafted with love in Europe. 🇪🇺
That is the tour. The best way to learn Pixara is to make a mess on a page: nothing here is permanent, and undo has your back.