Interface Overview

Varve's editor is organized into distinct zones that together form a powerful, efficient design workspace. Each panel serves a specific purpose and can be toggled or resized to suit your workflow.

Shell Layout

The Varve editor uses a CSS Grid layout called the Shell. From top to bottom, left to right, the zones are:

  • Menubar — the top bar with File, Edit, View, Object, and other menus
  • Toolbar — the vertical strip on the left with all drawing and selection tools
  • Canvas — the central workspace where you create and edit your design
  • Layers Panel — the right sidebar showing your document's layer hierarchy
  • Inspector Panel — the right sidebar below layers for editing properties of the selected node
  • Status Bar — the bottom strip showing zoom level, canvas info, and toggle controls

Menubar

The menubar provides access to all of Varve's operations through familiar dropdown menus:

  • File — New document, Open, Save (Ctrl+S), Save As (Ctrl+Shift+S), Import (Ctrl+I), Export (Ctrl+E)
  • Edit — Undo (Ctrl+Z), Redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z), Cut (Ctrl+X), Copy (Ctrl+C), Paste (Ctrl+V), Duplicate (Ctrl+D)
  • View — Zoom controls, toggle snap, toggle pixel grid, toggle panels, canvas mode switching
  • Object — Group (Ctrl+G), Ungroup (Ctrl+Shift+G), Arrange (bring forward/send backward), Lock, boolean operations
  • Tools — Quick access to all drawing and editing tools

Toolbar

The toolbar on the left side of the editor contains all of Varve's tools. Each tool has a keyboard shortcut for quick switching:

  • V — Select tool (move, resize, rotate)
  • R — Rectangle tool
  • E — Ellipse tool
  • L — Line tool
  • A — Arrow tool
  • P — Pen tool (bezier paths)
  • Shift+P — Pencil tool (freehand drawing)
  • T — Text tool
  • H — Hand tool (pan canvas)
  • Z — Zoom tool

See the full keyboard shortcuts reference and Vector Tools for detailed usage.

Canvas

The canvas is your primary workspace. It supports standard design tool interactions:

  • Zoom — Mouse wheel to zoom in/out, anchored at cursor position. Ctrl+0 to fit, Ctrl+1 for 100%
  • Pan — Hold Space and drag, or middle-click drag to pan the canvas
  • View rotation — Available through View menu or status bar controls
  • Grid overlay — Toggle pixel grid and layout grid overlays from View menu or status bar
  • Snap — Smart snapping to edges, centers, and grid lines. Toggle with , key or View menu

The canvas uses a floating origin system that maintains numerical precision even at extreme zoom levels or when working with very large documents.

Layers Panel

The layers panel (right sidebar, top) displays your document as a hierarchical tree of nodes. Key features:

  • Tree view — Expandable/collapsible hierarchy showing parent-child relationships
  • Multi-select — Ctrl+click for disjoint selection, Shift+click for range selection
  • Drag and drop — Reorder and reparent nodes by dragging between tree entries
  • Filter/search — Type-ahead filtering to quickly find layers by name
  • Inline rename — Double-click or press F2 to rename any layer
  • Context menu — Right-click for group, duplicate, delete, arrange, and copy/paste operations
  • Visibility and lock toggles — Eye icon to hide/show, lock icon to prevent editing

Inspector Panel

The inspector panel (right sidebar, bottom) shows detailed properties for the selected node. It is organized into tabs:

  • Properties — Position, size, rotation, corner radius, flip. Adapts to the selected node type
  • Export — Per-node export presets and options
  • Spec — Measurement and specification readouts for developer handoff
  • Intelligence — Design audit, spacing harmonization, and auto-naming tools

The inspector includes specialized sections that appear based on selection context: fill editor, stroke settings, effects (shadows, blurs, glows), typography controls, frame presets, and more.

Status Bar

The status bar at the bottom of the editor provides at-a-glance information and quick toggles:

  • Zoom percentage with unit selector (px, pt, mm, cm, in, pc)
  • Pixel grid toggle
  • Snap toggle
  • Fit selection to viewport button
  • Canvas mode indicator (Full / Outline / Preview)

Canvas Modes

Varve supports three canvas display modes, accessible from the View menu or status bar:

  • Full — All fills, effects, and overlays rendered (default)
  • Outline — Fills and effects stripped, uniform stroke-only display for focusing on structure
  • Preview — All overlays hidden for a clean preview of the final design

Next Steps

Continue with the Your First Project tutorial to put this knowledge into practice.