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

[Flummic]

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

[I-d-as]

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

Render Canvas objects inside Canvas

Great idea! Even if it weren’t size adjustable, if it allowed you to zoom in thus revealing the detail of the “embedded” canvas, that would be good too. But, of course being able to scale up the preview of the embedded canvas would be even more helpful. Thanks.

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

Thanks!

[Flummic]

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!

[lysergico]

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.

[LycheeLeecher]

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

[igayara]

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

`
partial zoom-in for contextual overview

big zoom-in for more specific notes

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.

[mari_murphy]

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.