Automatically export canvas to image

Plugins ideas
1

Currently canvases are nigh useless in conjunction with regular notes, because when embeded into documents text doesn’t render.

There’s an option to export them to images, but it has to be done manually and you also have to pick the folder manually. It turns something that could be automatic or at most two clicks into five or six plus burdensome directory burdensome.

Could someone make a plugin that automates one or both of these things? Having an option to just saving the image export to the same folder and filename as the canvas would be good, but it’d be even better that it just happened automatically when the canvas saves.

3 Likes
2

Hi there,

I’ve started working on this. It’s my first time making Obsidian plugins, but from what I’ve seen this problem seems pretty solvable. As I currently understand it, you want a plugin that has these features:

  • A command that, when selected, exports an image of a canvas to a pre-selected folder, which could be the current directory by default.
  • A setting that, when activated, allows the image of a canvas to be exported automatically (to the pre-selected folder) whenever the canvas is saved.

Let me know if that seems correct or if you’d like any additional features.

1 Like
3

Hey mate,
Advanced Canvas plugin does this. I was mindmapping a book the other day, and wanted to export just a selection as image. So installed it to try, and it did it perfectly.

Plus it also connect backlinks to your items and notes on canvas (which for me, was extremely useful)

1 Like
4

Here are some additional non-image canvas conversion / canvas export plugins which may also help:

Plugin Name Author Description Github Link
Canvas2Document slnsys Convert a complete Canvas to a long form document, integrating all cards, notes, images and other media content into a single markdown file. GitHub - slnsys/obsidian-canvas2document: Plugin for Obsidian to convert a complete Canvas to a long form document
Webpage HTML Export Nathan George Export html from single files, canvas pages, or whole vaults. Direct access to the exported HTML files allows you to publish your digital garden anywhere. Focuses on flexibility, features, and style parity. GitHub - KosmosisDire/obsidian-webpage-export: Export html from single files, canvas pages, or whole vaults. Direct access to the exported HTML files allows you to publish your digital garden anywhere. Focuses on flexibility, features, and style parity.
5

Hi, I’m not able to do that automatically even using Advanced Canvas. I would do that since embedding a canvas in a note doesn’t show the content. I would like to use an image as a workaround. I can export it but there is not an option to automatically update the exported image after an update.