Plugin Better Embedded Canvas

In summary, the Better Embedded Canvas plugin for ObsidianMD enhances the user experience by allowing full previews and interaction with embedded canvases.

Headlines

Improved User Interaction. Navigate the embedded canvas using panning and zooming for a better experience.
Enhanced Aesthetic and Functionality. Features like height adjustment and PDF compatibility align it with the canvas view.
Support for Advanced Canvas. Integrating with the Advanced Canvas plugin increases versatility and functionality.

Things

People: KotaIndah55, tgrrrr19
Places: r/ObsidianMD
Numbers: 56 upvotes, 11 comments
Things: Plugin, Embedded Canvas, PDF Export, Markdown Files
Concepts: User Interaction, Aesthetic Improvement, Versatility, Functionality

Hi everyone!

I made a small plugin that gives embedded canvas a full preview of its content. Main features:

Give embedded canvas the same look as canvas view.
Navigate using panning and zooming to move across the canvas.
Adjust the height of the embedded canvas in the note.
Work on both page preview and canvas.
Display embedded canvas on exported PDF.
Support Advanced Canvas plugin.

Probably, it's not a big deal, but it fulfills my need for a long time ago. Still, I support Obsidian having this feature natively. Feel free to give me feedback or open an issue.

Github repo: https://github.com/kotaindah55/better-embedded-canvas
Available on Obsidian Community Plugins: https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/better-embedded-canvas

Comments

oyes77 · 2026-05-27 · 10 points

Wdym not a big deal, this is quite big if it's stable imo, give yourself more props!

Apprehensive-Sky2317 · 2026-05-28 · 5 points

Super cool! It works really well, and I totally agree that this should be a native feature. The only thing I’d suggest is making it non-interactive by default. So you’d have to click once to 'activate' it before using it. Also, adding a cursor change over the title would be great, so you know it's clickable to open the file. Really nice job, man!

stratejya · 2026-05-28 · 2 points

Wait, can we add canvas to any note here? Thats cool! Thx.

I have asked that before in discord. Its working smoothly. May be 2 options added:

Zoom state lock: Currently auto zoom (out) is on.

Embedded canvas dimensions: vertical and horizontal . like 16:9 or 4:3, 9:16 etc.

AppropriateCover7972 · 2026-05-27 · 2 points

Nice, anyone care to make my canvas idea happen?

add numbers to canvas elements

sync canvas elements with a connected markdown file (same elements, just not the canvas structure around it)

sort the elements with the numbers assigned in the canvas version, so you have a linear document version of your canvas like in Affine (it's incredibly useful)

There are already plugins to port content back and forth, but none that care about the order and none that sync for some reason (a hook on changes is sufficient since this is a single user Operation)

Anyone care to make it? I am going into hospital tomorrow, I can't :/

tgrrrr19 · 2026-05-28 · 1 points

hmm you can just have each element in canvas as a md note, then embed each of those notes into a single note with ![[]] ?

AppropriateCover7972 · 2026-05-28 · 1 points

That would make it very cumbersome to make it. It's supposed to be automatic

tgrrrr19 · 2026-05-28 · 1 points

This is super cool! I had this feature as a request for my plugin, but thought this was impossible 😅
https://github.com/TGRRRR/Canvas-link-to-group/issues/2

Would be super cool if you could add support for my plugin to center on a specific group with this syntax
`![[Example.canvas#group]]`
https://community.obsidian.md/account/plugins/canvas-link-to-group

Revolutionary_Ad3453 · 2026-05-28 · 1 points

Can I make fractal with recursion

MarikBentusi · 2026-05-28 · 1 points

Aw man, I always wanted something like this, but had assumed it would be too tricky to implement because of how Obsidian currently embeds canvas. This is really useful! Thank you muchly!

sarbeans9001 · 2026-05-28 · 1 points

oh this is so good, canvas embeds not working properly in notes has been driving me crazy for ages. installing this tonight, thank you for making it!

Maleficent-Bet-6226 · 2026-05-28 · 1 points

I've been looking foward to this since I first installed Obsidian.

Svel89 · 2026-05-28 · 0 points

i know that this is not directly to the topic, but i am new to canvas and would like to know if there is a possibility to select a textfield and move all text fields that are going away from it with it without selecting them all. In my old mindmap tool this was possible.
And thank you for adding features to canvas! :)