Settings & Preferences

Opening Settings

Access settings from the menubar: File > Settings (or press the keyboard shortcut if configured). The settings dialog has several focused sections:

• Appearance — Theme, workspace layout, grid, and snap preferences
• Drawing Input — Finger ownership, wheel policy, sensitivity, and optional mouse-wheel continuation
• Performance — Interactive preview quality, diagnostics, and platform capability checks
• Export — Default export format, scale, ICC profile, bleed, and text outlining
• Updates — Update consent, channel, and install-on-quit preferences on supported desktop builds
• Plugins — Install local packages, review access, search descriptions and commands, pin frequently used plugins, manage failed or disabled packages, and recover updates. The manager stays available in safe mode. See the plugin guide.

The section list has a filter: type part of a section name to narrow the list, and the dialog follows the first match so the relevant panel is already open when you stop typing.

Updates

The Updates section controls whether Varve checks for newer desktop releases. ChooseManual to check only when you ask, Automatically check and notify me to receive availability notices, or automatic downloads when you explicitly want verified update files downloaded in the background. Installation and restart remain separate actions.

These controls do not override package ownership. Debian/RPM installs, development builds, unsupported architectures, and read-only or translocated app copies remain manual-only. See the Updates guide for the package matrix and privacy details.

Appearance Settings

Theme

Varve ships with Light and Dark themes, each audited for WCAG AA contrast compliance. The website and editor present these as peer choices rather than an on/off switch. The desktop editor also includes High Contrast for accessibility.

• Light — Clean white-based interface with teal accent
• Dark — Dark background with lighter-on-dark hierarchy (front-lit: higher surfaces are brighter)
• High Contrast — Maximum contrast mode for accessibility, with distinctive colors per layer type (e.g., purple for image layers)

All themes use OKLCH color space for perceptually uniform color ramps. The 12-step neutral and teal ramps ensure consistent contrast across every surface and text combination.

Canvas Grid

• Pixel Grid — Toggle the pixel-level grid overlay on the canvas
• Layout Grid — Toggle layout grid overlay for alignment reference

Pointer snapping (Inspector → Document → Snapping)

Pointer-snap preferences live with the editor viewport, not in the document file. Open the Inspector's Document panel and expand Snapping to change them without changing the artwork.

• Enable snapping — Turn magnetic pointer assistance on or off for eligible canvas tools
• Tolerance — Set magnetic acquisition distance from 1–32 CSS pixels; zoom does not change the size of the hand movement
• Object geometry — Include visible object edges and centers in the active editing scope
• Pages and frames — Include page and containing-frame bounds
• Guides — Include ruler and authored layout guides
• Reset snapping — Restore these viewport preferences without changing document geometry

Document-grid snap and integer pixel snap remain explicit controls in the separateDocument Grid section. They are not substitutes for magnetic pointer snapping, and Arrow-key nudges never use the magnetic tolerance.

Nudging & Movement

Set independent Small nudge and Big nudge amounts. Arrow uses the small amount and Shift+Arrow uses the big amount. Values may be positive fractions, are stored in canonical geometry units, and are displayed using the General unit preference. Reset restores the factory defaults without changing document geometry. Keyboard nudges are exact and do not invoke magnetic snapping or reparenting.

Alignment & distribution

The Align & Distribute bar keeps the reference and mode explicit. Choose selection bounds, a containing frame, a page, or a key object; then choose equal gaps, equal centers, fixed gap, or Tidy Up. Fixed gap is available for two eligible objects, while automatic equal-gap and equal-center distribution require three. See thePrecision Placement guide for the exact geometry contracts.

Canvas Mode

The default canvas mode on startup: Full (all fills and effects), Outline (structure-only), or Preview (clean display).

Workspace layout

Choose Automatic, Tablet, or Desktopin Appearance settings, or from View > Workspace layout. Automatic responds to the available CSS viewport width and pointer capabilities the browser reports; Varve does not detect a detachable keyboard or ChromeOS tablet-mode switch. This preference controls panel presentation and touch-target sizing independently of Drawing Input and density. It takes effect after active contacts and text composition finish so changing it does not interrupt an edit.

Mirror tablet controls

The Appearance switch places the Layers, Inspector, and Resources launchers on the opposite side of the canvas for left-handed or alternate reach. It is saved separately from the layout choice and does not change desktop panel docking.

Navigation and rendering settings

Drawing Input

The default wheel policy uses an unmodified wheel for canvas pan and Ctrl/Cmd+wheel for pointer-centred zoom. Choose Always pan orAlways zoom when your mouse, trackpad, or WebView reports a gesture differently. The sensitivity control changes the normalized CSS-pixel travel and accepts fractional values from 0.25× to 4×.

Optional detented mouse-wheel continuation is deliberately separate from trackpad momentum. Trackpad and ambiguous pixel streams remain direct-only so the editor does not add a second momentum tail. These preferences affect the view only: they never change artwork, selection, dirty state, or undo history.

Performance

Automatic (recommended) lets the renderer choose a bounded movement quality from observed frame pressure. After input stops it requests an authoritative frame; the warm refinement targets are 500 ms for ordinary work and 1 s for heavy work after required assets are ready. These are targets, not guarantees; cold image or font readiness can extend the wait and is not quantified in the published evidence.Full resolution while navigating keeps the full device-pixel target during input and may reduce responsiveness on constrained hardware. A worker preview may briefly be reprojected while a replacement is pending. Neither choice changes saved artwork or the independent quality of export and print output.

The diagnostics and platform capability report are opt-in and local. They show the active backend, frame age/cadence, queue state, preview tier, and fallback reason without collecting artwork or persistent hardware identifiers.

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How binary settings behave

A compact switch is reserved for a setting that is genuinely on or off, such as Show guides or Enable snapping. Canvas renderer is a peer choice: Canvas2D is the default, WebGPU is used when a usable device is available, and experimental WebGL2 currently handles eligible simple shapes and uncropped stretch image fills with Canvas2D replay for the rest. The active path can still be Canvas2D when a backend is unavailable or the artwork does not qualify. Supporting copy appears beside controls that have a consequence or dependency.

Peer choices such as theme, color space, and canvas mode use a radio group, segmented control, or select. Checkboxes remain for multi-select lists and mixed values. Settings keep their existing persistence scope, and staged dialog changes still wait for Apply or Save.

Export Settings

Default Format

Choose the default export format: PNG, SVG, or PDF. This preselected option appears first in the Export dialog.

Scale

Default raster export scale: 1x, 2x, or 3x. Higher scales produce larger images suitable for Retina/HiDPI displays.

PDF Export Defaults

• ICC Profile — Default color profile for PDF output (sRGB, Adobe RGB, Fogra39, GRACoL, SWOP)
• Bleed — Default bleed width in mm for print documents
• Outline Text — Whether to convert text to vector paths by default in PDF output
• Rendering Intent — Perceptual, Relative Colorimetric, Absolute Colorimetric, or Saturation
• Color Profile — Document color space for PDF (RGB or CMYK)

On desktop, PDF export rasterizes text whose weight differs from 400 or whose style is italic to preserve the canvas appearance. Rasterized text is image-based, not selectable or searchable; the Outline Text setting controls path conversion for text that stays on the native vector route.

Naming

Configure the output file naming template. Use variables like {name}, {format}, {scale} to create consistent naming patterns.

Automatic backups and recovery

Autosave interval (min) controls how often Varve writes an internal local copy while you edit. The setting accepts 1–60 minutes and defaults to 5 minutes. For a document with an app-library record, autosave updates that internal record and creates a recovery point; an untitled document is stored as a recovery point.

An autosave is not a write to the file you chose, and it does not mark that file as saved. Use File > Save (or Ctrl/Cmd+S) to write to the current destination; the first save asks you to choose one. Check the status bar for Saved, Modified, or a save error before closing important work. Recovery points are a fallback, not an archival backup. See File Formats for the save destinations and compatibility rules.

Loading and Task Feedback

Varve keeps feedback proportional to the work. Short actions use a small indeterminate indicator with a concise task label, while structured lists and grids preserve their shape with skeleton placeholders. Downloads, imports, exports, and other measurable operations show real progress and offer cancellation where supported.

• Save and auto-save — Stay quiet during normal background work; a failure is surfaced with a clear recovery path.
• Model and asset downloads — Show actual progress rather than an endless spinner.
• Panel refreshes — Keep the existing content in place and use a contextual loading state instead of blocking the whole editor.
• Startup — The branded startup loader is separate from in-editor task feedback and exits when the home surface is ready.

These choices are especially important for Varve's local-first workflow: offline editing should feel immediate, fast actions should not flash a loader, and optional network or on-device model work should make its state and progress explicit.

Resetting Settings

If you need to start fresh, the settings dialog includes a "Reset to Defaults" button. This restores all settings to their factory defaults without affecting your documents.