A free online whiteboard that works like a real one
This online whiteboard gives you an endless white surface to think on. Pick up the pen and scribble, highlight a passage, box things in, join them with arrows and label them with text — on a laptop with a mouse, on a tablet with a stylus, or on a phone with your finger. There is no account, no download and no time limit.
Every stroke is stored as a vector shape rather than as pixels, which is why you can undo a hundred steps, zoom in without blur, erase one object without disturbing its neighbours and export a crisp PNG at twice the screen resolution. The drawing autosaves in your browser as you go, so you can close the tab mid-thought and find the board exactly as you left it.
Nothing is uploaded: the canvas, the autosave and the exports all run on your device. That makes it a comfortable place for interview whiteboarding practice, teaching a child long division over a video call, sketching a floor plan or thinking through a system design before you open the Flowchart Maker.
How to use the Online Whiteboard
- Choose a tool from the top row: Pen, Highlight, Eraser, Line, Arrow, Rect, Ellipse or Text. Each has a single-letter shortcut (P, H, E, L, A, R, O, T).
- Pick a colour from the swatches or the custom colour picker, and set the stroke width with the slider.
- Draw directly on the board. Hold Shift while drawing a line to snap it to 45°, or while drawing a rectangle or ellipse to keep it square or round.
- Scroll to zoom, pinch on a touch screen, or hold Space (or choose Pan) and drag to move around. “Fit” brings the whole drawing back into view.
- Made a mistake? Press Undo, Ctrl+Z, or switch to the Eraser and drag over the object to remove it.
- Press “Export PNG” to download the picture — with a white background and grid, or transparent — or “Save .json” to keep an editable copy you can reopen later.
Online Whiteboard features
Smooth pen and highlighter
Strokes are smoothed with quadratic curves through the midpoints of your pointer samples, so fast handwriting stays rounded instead of jagged. The highlighter is a wide, semi-transparent stroke that never darkens where it overlaps itself.
Object eraser
The eraser removes whole shapes it touches — a stroke, an arrow, a box or a text label — rather than rubbing holes in them. One drag that removes several objects is a single undo step.
Shapes, arrows and text
Lines, arrows with a filled head, rectangles, ellipses and multi-line text labels, all in the current colour and width. Shift constrains angles and proportions.
100 steps of undo and redo
Buttons, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z and Ctrl+Y all work. Clearing the board is undoable too, so a stray tap on Clear is never a disaster.
Zoom, pan and backgrounds
Zoom from 20% to 800% with the wheel, pinch or buttons; pan with Space, the Pan tool, a middle-button drag or two fingers. Switch between a grid, dots or a plain white board.
Touch and stylus ready
Pointer events handle mouse, finger and pen alike, and the board blocks page scrolling while you draw so a tablet never scrolls away mid-stroke.
Keyboard shortcuts
Click the board once so it has focus, then use these keys. On a Mac, use ⌘ in place of Ctrl.
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| P · H · E | Pen · Highlighter · Eraser |
| L · A | Line · Arrow |
| R · O · T | Rectangle · Ellipse · Text |
| V, or hold Space | Pan the board |
| Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Shift + Z / Ctrl + Y | Undo / Redo |
| Shift while drawing | Snap lines to 45°, keep rectangles square and ellipses circular |
| Enter / Shift + Enter / Esc (in a text box) | Place the text / new line / cancel |
Where the drawing is stored, and how to keep it
The board is saved to your browser’s local storage for this site a quarter of a second after every change, along with your zoom position and background choice. It stays there until you clear it or delete the site’s data, but it is tied to this browser on this device.
To keep a drawing permanently or move it elsewhere, press “Save .json”: the file holds every shape with its coordinates, colour and width, so “Open .json” gives you a fully editable board later. For sharing, “Export PNG” renders the drawing at 2× resolution, cropped to its contents. Untick “Include white background” for a transparent PNG you can drop onto slides.
Tips for a tidy board
- Use the yellow highlighter at a wide stroke width to colour-code groups of ideas.
- Draw boxes first, then arrows between them; the eraser removes an arrow without touching the boxes it points at.
- Zoom in to 200–300% for neat handwriting on a trackpad, then press “Fit” to see the whole page again.
- For a diagram someone else must edit or turn into code, draft it here and rebuild it in the Flowchart Maker or the Mermaid Diagram Editor; for a brainstorm that grows into an outline, use the Mind Map Maker.
- Keep written notes beside the board in the Online Notepad, which autosaves the same way.
Online Whiteboard FAQ
Is this online whiteboard free, and do I need an account?
Yes, it is free with no sign-up, watermark or limit on drawings. Open the page and start drawing.
Does the whiteboard save my drawing?
Yes. It autosaves in your browser after every change and reloads the board when you come back. For a permanent copy press “Save .json”, and for a picture press “Export PNG”.
Can I use it with a stylus or on a touch screen?
Yes. It supports pen, finger and mouse input through pointer events, prevents the page from scrolling while you draw, and lets you pinch with two fingers to zoom and pan.
Can several people draw at the same time?
No. This is a personal, offline-capable board; nothing is sent to a server. To share your work, export a PNG or send the .json file, which the other person can open and continue editing here.
How do I erase just one thing?
Choose the Eraser (E) and drag across the object. It removes the whole stroke or shape it touches. To remove everything, press Clear — and Undo if you change your mind.
Why is the PNG larger than what I see on screen?
Exports are rendered at twice the on-screen resolution and cropped to the drawing, so they stay sharp when printed. Very large boards are capped at 8,192 px on the longer side.