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Image

An Image is a picture on your Canvas: a photo, a screenshot, a diagram from a paper, a GIF. Use Images when the thing you're thinking about is visual — and put Cards and Connections around them to say what they mean.

Welcome!

Add an Image

WayHow
PasteCopy a picture and press ⌘V on the Canvas.
Drag and dropDrag image files from Finder, or a picture from a web page, onto the Canvas.
UploadRight-click a blank spot → Image (upload), then pick a file.
From the Browser or a bookDrag a picture out of the Right Panel's Browser or an EPUB in Files. It keeps a link to where it came from.
Giphy / Pinterest linksPasting a Giphy or Pinterest URL adds the picture itself, not a Link.
Already in LinoQuick add (⇧A), drag a tile from the Artifacts Gallery, or Add to Canvas in the Right Panel.

Every Image is placed in its own proportions — Lino measures the picture so it is never stretched. If the same picture is already on this Canvas, Lino takes you to it instead of adding a second one.

Captions

A caption is the line of text under an Image. It is also the Image's name in the Gallery, in References and for Lino AI.

  • Add one: hover just below the Image until Double-click to add caption appears, then double-click and type. ↵ saves, esc cancels.
  • Edit it: double-click the caption.
  • Show or hide it: hover the Image and click the caption button in its header (Hide caption / Show caption). The button appears only when there is a caption.
  • A picture added from a file starts with a cleaned-up file name as its caption (no extension, no camera or screenshot numbers).

AI captions (Pro)

With a Pro plan, Lino AI can name each new picture and write down what is in it, including any text it contains.

  • For every new Image: Settings → Capabilities → AI captions for new Images (on by default for Pro). Pictures you drop, paste, import or save from Quick Entry get a caption and a description. While it works, the caption shimmers ("Writing caption…"). If you type your own caption meanwhile, yours is kept.
  • For one you already have: right-click it → Caption with AI ("Names it and notes what's in it"). Select several Images and choose Caption N with AI to do them all. This replaces the current caption; ⌘Z undoes it, one step per picture.
  • Without Pro, the menu row shows a Pro badge.
  • AI captions are not available for Images that are hidden from AI. Each caption uses AI credits.

The description is kept in the Image's Description property. Lino AI also writes one the first time it reads a picture for you, so it can search and talk about your pictures in words. A description you write yourself is never overwritten.

Edit an Image: crop, comment, draw

Double-click the Image (the hint says Double-click to annotate). A toolbar appears:

ButtonWhat it does
CropDrag the edges to crop. Then Apply crop, Cancel, or Reset crop to go back to the whole picture.
CommentClick a spot on the picture to pin a comment there. Drag a pin to move it.
Select (V)Select and move what you've drawn.
ShapesRectangle, Diamond, Ellipse, Arrow, Line. Click again for more shapes.
Draw (D)Freehand pen.
Text (T)Type text onto the picture.
Eraser (E)Erase drawn marks.
Right PanelOpens the Image in the Right Panel.

When you select a drawn mark, extra controls appear for Stroke, Fill, stroke width, text size and arrow style. While you crop or comment, the drawing tools are switched off.

Click anywhere outside the Image to stop editing. Crop and drawings belong to the Image, so they show wherever the Image appears.

Show or hide your drawings

Once an Image has drawings on it, its header gets a Hide annotations / Show annotations button. Hiding keeps the drawings; it only stops showing them.

Where it came from

The Image's top-left corner shows where it came from:

  • a site icon (or a globe) for a picture from the web — click it to open the source page;
  • a book icon for a picture from an EPUB — click it to open the book at that spot.

Hover the mark to see the license and author when they are known. Uploaded and pasted pictures show no mark.

Beside it is the Properties button. An Image's properties include Caption, Description, Annotated, License, Author, Source, Width, Height, Contributors, Created, Updated and Hide from AI, plus any properties you add yourself.

In the Right Panel

Click the panel button in the Image's header to open it in the Right Panel. There you get the picture at a larger size with the same crop, comment and drawing tools, and its More menu (Hide from AI, Copy as a reference, Copy as PNG, Download, Caption with AI, Delete). Add to Canvas / Show in Canvas sits beside Close.

Copy and export

  • Copy as PNG — puts the picture on your clipboard.
  • Download — opens export options: format PNG or JPG (and GIF for animated pictures), a size multiplier, and Include annotations. Select several Images to download them together (Download N Images).

Both are in the right-click menu, on the Gallery tile and in the Right Panel.

Images inside Cards

Type @ in a Card and pick an Image, or paste a picture into the Card's text. It shows as a picture block that is the same Artifact as the Image on the Canvas. See References.