Canvas: Infinitely zoomable & linkable nested cards, inspired by "Infinity Maps"

Feature requests
1

Use case or problem

A while ago I stumbled over Infinity Maps – The visual & spatial knowledge work tool which is a great tool to map information/knowledge by using the selfbranded “iMapping-Method”.

I’m stunned how close Obsidian Canvas already comes to the possibilities offered by Infinity Maps and I think that it would be awesome to dive a little deeper in a similar direction!

Proposed solution

I would absolutely love to see the following features in canvas (check out the links provided above for further information):

  • Allow us to scale the card-size (text-size) by Canvas-Zoom-Level → this would allow us to create nested sections of knowledge within/underneath a broader overview-section simply by zooming in further → Infinity Maps calls this form of Hierarchy on the canvas a “multilayered workspace with nested cards and subcards”
  • Allow us to link to different sections on the canvas: You click and the canvas reorientates itself to focus on the linked section. → This would allow us to quickly navigate a huge canvas by jumping from one end to the other if needed(useful) → Ideally those links are usually invisible, but can be visualized as some type of “overlay-connection-lines” when pressing a toggle

This could really change the way we organize/visualize information in Obsidian especially when we combine it with our trusty markdown-notes! I love where we are heading!

Side-note: I know that we can already nest one canvas-file into another (which is totally awesome!), but we can not read the information of the nested canvas and clicking on it will take us to that original canvas - therefore my suggestion is (imo) valid :slight_smile:

12 Likes
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I am so happy to hear this is already a design technique. I was thinking about this the other day in the same context.

I have to imagine many people would love this. Who knows how likely it is to be implemented. But we can hope!

Thanks!

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Hi @I-d-as ! thanks for pointin me towards the other request - I’ve voted for it, so we can hopefully get closer to the “Infinity Maps”-Vision step by step!

In my mind this would be like a dream come true if I could combine my trusted markdown notes with the visual possibilities of the iMapping-Technique! Like you said, we can hope and see where we end up - I’m looking forward to this journey!

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Totally agree, this is a great idea. It’s the very first thing I tried to do that didn’t work that felt like it should be there intuitively.

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I was just about to ask for a very similar thing! I would love this

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Joined the forums to request something like this as well. I miss having more tools at my disposal to visually organize information in Canvas. I’d like to have an organized overview with general/management notes, and then the ability to zoom-in for more detailed or specific notes, without clutter.

Here’s a silly sketch-out of something I would want to achieve:

zoom-out for overview

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partial zoom-in for contextual overview
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big zoom-in for more specific notes

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Just the ability to organize my notes through visual hierarchy in Canvas.

Proposed solution: Add a % scaling or font-size parameter you can tweak on a per-note/card basis.

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Since you can nest canvases in notes and vice versa, this would make whole new ways of organizing information in Obsidian possible.
For example mock-ups for websites:

  • represent buttons with cards (with links to take you to another view)
  • utilize the possibility to scroll through nested notes
  • group cards to resemble divs (-> make it look better)

There would be quiet a few things that you could do with that. I pray to the devs this comes out.

1 Like