Undo, redo, fit, and recenter

Summary

Undo and Redo step backward and forward through your edit history. Fit resets zoom to show the whole artboard. Recenter and Fit to frame are additional view controls that appear once there's content on the artboard. Zooming is done with Ctrl + scroll on the artboard.

Use it when

• Use Undo/Redo to step back from a mistake or restore a change you stepped back from.
• Use Fit to return to a full view of the artboard after zooming in.
• Use Ctrl + scroll to zoom in for precise work, or out to see more context.

Before you begin

Nothing to prepare. Undo, Redo, and Fit are always visible in the canvas toolbar; Recenter and Fit to frame appear once there is at least one layer on the artboard.

Steps

1. Press Ctrl+Z or select Undo (↩) to step back one action.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Z or select Redo (↪) to step forward again.
3. Hold Ctrl and scroll on the artboard to zoom in or out — the percentage readout updates live.
4. Select Fit to reset zoom to show the entire artboard (100% in testing, for a Classic square artboard at this browser window size).
5. Select Recenter or Fit to frame (both appear once a layer exists) for further view adjustments.

What changes

• Not every action creates an undo step. Creating a new layer — drawing a shape, or placing an image — left Undo disabled immediately afterward in every test. Only modifying an existing layer — moving it, or deleting it — enabled Undo.
• Undo correctly reverses what it tracks: undoing a delete restored the deleted layer exactly; undoing a move returned the layer to its exact prior X position (confirmed: a layer moved to X 2.63 in returned to its original X 1.63 in after Undo).
• Redo correctly re-applies what was undone — redoing an undone delete removed the layer again.
• Ctrl + scroll zooms smoothly — one scroll step changed the readout from 100% to 110% in testing.
• Fit resets the zoom percentage but does not affect any layer's actual size or position — it's a view change only.

Print note

Undo, Redo, Fit, Recenter, Fit to frame, and zoom level are all editor/view state — none of them affect exported output. Zooming in or out, or resetting the view, changes only what you see while working.

Warnings and limits

• Don't assume every action you take is one Undo press away from being reversed. Specifically, creating a new layer is not itself undoable as a discrete step in this app's current behavior — if you draw a shape you don't want, use Delete rather than reaching for Undo, since Undo may be disabled or may step back through something else entirely if other edits came after.
• This article was not able to independently verify the precise panning behavior of Recenter versus Fit to frame versus Fit beyond confirming Fit resets zoom to a full-artboard view — distinguishing their exact pan/zoom targets (e.g., whether Fit to frame zooms tightly to a selected layer specifically) needs further confirmation. Treat their precise behavior as Needs product confirmation beyond what's stated here.

Desktop and mobile

Undo, Redo, and Fit are present in the canvas toolbar on both desktop and mobile. Recenter and Fit to frame were confirmed present on both once a layer exists on the artboard — they did not appear on an empty artboard in testing at either viewport.

Troubleshooting

Related topics

• Grid and realistic preview
• Duplicate, hide, lock & delete
• Size, position, rotation & opacity
• Artboard, stage, and tool rail

Verification note

Verified against Blotter Builder on 2026-07-20.

Source notes

Primary observations — all from the live application at https://blotterbuilder.tdl.fyi, 2026-07-20:

• Observed — Undo and Redo are disabled on a fresh, empty artboard.
• Observed — drawing a new shape left Undo disabled; placing an image (via Place image) also left Undo disabled immediately afterward.
• Observed — deleting an existing shape enabled Undo; selecting Undo restored the shape and enabled Redo; selecting Redo removed it again.
• Observed — dragging to reposition a shape (from X 1.63 to 2.63) enabled Undo; selecting Undo returned it to X 1.63 exactly.
• Observed — repeated the placed-image sequence directly: after Place image alone, Undo was disabled; after subsequently dragging the placed image to a new position, Undo became enabled. This clarifies and partially supersedes issue #11's original report (which found Undo disabled after both placing and dragging) — posted as a follow-up comment on that issue with this session's more careful reproduction.
• Observed — a Ctrl+scroll wheel event on the artboard changed the zoom readout from 100% to 110%.
• Observed — selecting Fit after zooming to 236% returned the readout to 100%.
• Observed — Recenter and Fit to frame did not change the zoom percentage in any test performed (including with a small, off-center shape selected at non-100% zoom); their effect could not be further isolated with the synthetic-event testing methods available this session (native drag-to-pan gestures did not register, and no native scrollLeft/scrollTop or CSS transform change was observed on the relevant containers when attempting to pan by other means).
• Observed — at 390 × 844, Undo, Redo, and Fit were present on an empty artboard; Recenter and Fit to frame only appeared after placing content, matching desktop.

Verification log