Whiteboard. Sketch it, keep it local.

How to use the Whiteboard

This whiteboard lets you sketch with a pen, lines, arrows, shapes, text and sticky notes on a canvas in your browser. Every mark is kept as a separate object, so you can select, move, recolor or delete it later and undo your steps. The board saves itself in your browser and exports as a PNG image or a JSON file.

Step by step

1. 1
   Pick a tool

   Click a tool in the toolbar: Select and move, Pen, Line, Arrow, Rectangle, Ellipse, Text, Sticky note or Eraser. The keyboard shortcuts are V, P, L, A, R, O, T, N and E. Hover a button to see its name.

2. 2
   Style your marks

   Click a Stroke swatch or use the color picker next to it for any color, and drag Width between 1 and 24 (it starts at 3). Tick Fill to give rectangles and ellipses a light tint of the stroke color.

3. 3
   Draw on the board

   Drag on the canvas to draw. Hold Shift to snap lines and arrows to 45 degree steps, or to draw perfect squares and circles.

4. 4
   Add text and notes

   With Text, click where you want it and type; a wider Width gives bigger text. With Sticky note, pick a Note color, click to place the note and type. Press Esc or Ctrl+Enter, or click away, to finish. To edit a text box or note later, switch to Select and move and double-click it.

5. 5
   Select, move and delete

   With Select and move, click an object to select it and drag to move it. Changing the stroke color, width or fill then applies to that object where it fits: width to pen strokes, lines and shapes, fill to rectangles and ellipses, and a Note color to a selected note. Press Delete or Backspace to remove it, or switch to Eraser and click or drag over objects.

6. 6
   Undo, redo and clear

   Use Undo and Redo, or Ctrl+Z, and Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y. Clear all asks you to confirm with Clear board, and Ctrl+Z brings everything back.

7. 7
   Save or share

   Press Download PNG for an image of the board, or Export JSON to save an editable copy. Import JSON loads that file back and replaces what is on the board.

What gets saved

• The counter under the board shows how many objects it holds. Each pen stroke, line, arrow, shape, text box or note is one object.
• Download PNG saves the visible board at twice its on-screen size, on the light background with its dot grid, named with the date and time, such as whiteboard-20261014-0930.png.
• Export JSON saves every object with its position, color and text, so Import JSON can rebuild the board in another browser or on another device.

Tips and common mistakes

• The board saves itself in this browser only. A private window, another browser or clearing site data starts empty, so export JSON as a backup.
• Undo keeps the last 120 steps and lasts until you reload. The board itself survives a reload, but the undo steps do not.
• There is no zoom or scrolling. The board is the size of the area on screen, and anything drawn past its edge is cut off in the PNG.
• Text left empty is removed when you finish editing, while an empty sticky note stays as a blank note.
• Eraser deletes whole objects, not parts of a stroke. To fix part of a drawing, remove the stroke and draw it again.

Privacy and limits

Everything runs in your browser. The board is saved in this browser's localStorage under dh-whiteboard-v1 after each change and is never uploaded. Exports are created on your device, and Import JSON reads the file locally.

Back to the tool

Everything a whiteboard should do.

• Draw freehand with the pen tool at any stroke width and color, including a custom color picker.
• Add shapes: rectangles, ellipses, lines and arrows, with optional fill. Hold Shift for perfect squares, circles and 45°-snapped lines.
• Place sticky notes in six colors and type directly on the canvas.
• Type floating text anywhere, and double-click any text or note to re-edit it.
• Move, recolor and delete any object with the Select tool, the toolbar or the Del key, with full undo/redo history.
• Export your board as a crisp 2× PNG image or as JSON to back up and reopen later.

Frequently asked questions.

More free tools.

Browse the full free-tool library →