Sharing & Exporting

Canvas exports to PDF, and hands the file to a share sheet that can send, print, or save it.

What gets exported

Every page in the canvas, as a single PDF, one PDF page per canvas page, in order. Each page includes its drawing, its text notes, and its template (lined, grid, or dots).

This trips people up: the share button doesn't export only the page you're looking at. If you've been using extra pages for rough working, they'll be in the file alongside the page you actually meant to send. Tidy up before sharing if that matters.

Pages export on a white background at the size they were drawn, whatever theme the app is in.

The file is named after the budget and the paycheck date, or budget for a budget canvas, plus the date and time of the export.

How to share

Tap Share in the canvas app bar. The app renders each page, assembles the PDF, and opens the share sheet, where you can send it wherever you normally send files, print it, or save a copy.

The sharing gate

Sharing requires a subscription. Without one, the share button's tooltip reads Upgrade to share, and tapping it opens the upgrade screen with the message Sharing a canvas requires a subscription plan.

In practice, since Canvas as a whole is a Thrive feature, you'll only meet this if a subscription has lapsed. See What's Included with Thrive.

What it's useful for

Sending a plan to a partner. Shared finances are easier to discuss over a drawing than over a spreadsheet, and a PDF of a marked-up paycheck is a genuinely good conversation starter.

Taking it to an advisor. If you work with anyone on your finances, a canvas annotating a real pay period communicates your situation faster than describing it.

Keeping a record. The canvas itself stays in the app, but exporting gives you a copy that lives outside it. That's useful for a decision you'll want to remember the reasoning behind. The budget canvas makes a good single export when you've been sending pages to it from each paycheck.

Before you share

The export is exactly what's on the canvas, and canvases contain real figures: your income, your bills, your debts. Anything you dropped in from the Bills panel is on the page as plain text.

Worth a look before it leaves the app, particularly if you're sending it somewhere shared or semi-public. There's no redaction step.

Printing

Print from the share sheet like any other PDF. Printed canvases are a reasonable way to work through a plan away from a screen, particularly if you've used text notes for the numbers. Handwritten figures at phone size don't always survive the trip to paper.