Layout and per-ratio copy

#Auto align

Arranging objects in Layout

The right-hand rail in Layout lists the scene's objects under Object Type: Headline, Subheadline, Supporting, CTA, Logo, Disclaimer and Overlay, plus Subtitles when the scene has them. Each row has an eye to show or hide the object and a lock. Click an object on the stage and its settings open in a panel beside it. The panel reads top to bottom, type first: the copy itself, then Type (font, weight, case, size and rotation), Spacing (line height, tracking, max lines, leading trim and padding) and Style (alignment, anchor, fill, colour, shadow and opacity).

• Drag an object anywhere, even partly off the frame.
• Resize with the four corner handles; hold Shift to keep the proportions. Rotate with the rotate handle; Shift snaps to 15°, and double-click resets it.
• Nudge with the arrow keys, 1 pixel at a time or 10 with Shift. A burst of nudges is one undo step. Esc deselects.
• Snap (in the header) pulls objects to the centre lines, the safe area edges and any ruler guides while you drag. Hold Alt to drag freely for one move. Rulers (Cmd/Ctrl+R) add guides of your own (see Rulers and guides).
• On a narrower window or an iPad the header keeps the modes over your ad and never draws one control on another. Less-used controls fold into More (the three dots), in this order: Rulers and Keyboard shortcuts, Log out, Install and Full screen, then Snap, the time watch and the credit balance. Before Snap folds, the modes drop their names and keep their icons. A folded control does the same thing from More.
• No overlaps: when you let go, an object that lands on another is moved to the nearest free spot, with a gap that scales with its size. If there is no room, a toast tells you it was scaled to fit or moved as close as it fits.

What Auto align does

Once objects are roughly where you want them, Auto align (under the Object Type list) cleans up the small misalignments that make a layout look accidental. It is a tidy, not a re-layout:

1. Objects whose left edges, centres or right edges are already close are snapped to one shared line.
2. Vertical gaps that are already close to even are set to the same size. A gap that is clearly different is treated as a deliberate break and kept.
3. No object moves more than a small nudge, a few percent of the frame. An object that would need more stays where it is.
4. Anything it moves is kept inside the safe area.

It only touches visible, unlocked objects on the ratio you are editing. Pressing it a second time changes nothing, because the result is already settled. It is one undo step, and guide lines flash briefly to show what lined up.

Tips

• Lock an object you have placed exactly, such as a logo in a corner, and Auto align leaves it alone.
• Rough the layout in first, then press Auto align on each ratio. It is quick to run once per format.

#Rulers and guides

Rulers (the ruler icon in the header, or Cmd/Ctrl+R) put a pixel ruler on each edge of the frame. Drag inward from a ruler to place a guide; drag a guide to move it, and drag it off the frame to remove it. While you drag, the guide shows its position in pixels and as a percentage. Esc cancels a drag, and every add, move or removal is one undo step.

Guides belong to the project, one set for each aspect ratio. Every scene in a format shows the same guides and snaps to them, in Canvas and in Layout, so a guide placed on the first scene is already there on the last, and moving it on any scene moves it on all of them. Each format keeps its own set: guides on 9:16 never appear on 1:1, 4:5, 16:9, 1.91:1 or a custom size. Snap uses them only while it is on, and Alt still drags freely.

Guides are editor aids only. They are saved with the project and kept when you duplicate it, but they never appear in a preview render or an export. A project saved before guides moved to the project (v1.1027.0) had a set per scene: it opens with all of them combined per format, and guides within a pixel of each other count as one, so nothing you placed is lost.

#Layout links

A linked scene set (States) often shows the same headline or CTA in the same place. A layout link keeps that object the same across the scenes you choose, with no scene in charge:

1. Select a scene and click the link icon on the object's row, for example Headline. The first scene you link starts the group; its tooltip says Layout linked in this scene only.
2. Link the same object in the other scenes that should share it. Each scene that joins takes the group's current layout, style and words, and keeps its own colour. Linking never empties an object: if the group has no words yet and the joining scene has some, the group takes them, and if no linked scene has the object at all, the group takes the joining scene's object, place and style included.
3. Now move, resize, rotate, restyle or retype the object in any linked scene: every linked scene follows at once, and one undo puts them all back. A headline you add to Scene 1 appears in every linked scene, and words you type in Scene 3 change Scene 1 too. The link icon is lit in every member, and the object's panel says how many scenes share it, for example Layout linked in 3 scenes.
4. To hide a linked object in one scene only, click its eye in that scene. It stays linked and keeps following the group, and shows again when you click the eye back. A scene that joins the group takes the group's eye once; after that each scene's eye is its own. When the linked scenes play as one ad, the object disappears only while the scenes with the eye off are on screen.
5. Click the link again in a scene to take just that scene out. It keeps the layout and words it had, now its own: change them to make that scene unique. The rest of the group stays linked. Link it again and it takes the group's layout and words back.

What is shared is everything about the object: position, size, rotation, alignment, anchor, font, weight, case, size, tracking, line height, opacity, fill, shadow, the lock, and the words with their line breaks, word colours and the headline's strings. What stays in each scene is the eye (show or hide) and colour: the object's colour, the CTA's text and background colours, the fill's colour, the logo colour, the overlay colour and the colour of each headline string. Pick a colour in one linked scene and only that scene changes.

Links follow the ratio rules of an unlinked scene. Size, rotation and type are per ratio, so a resize on 9:16 changes 9:16 in every linked scene and leaves 16:9 as it was. A position is shared by the ratios that have not been given their own, exactly as in one scene, and every linked scene gets the same result whichever one you move it in.

A layout link is not the same as linking scenes into a set: the scene set decides which scenes play as States of one ad, and a layout link decides which of those scenes share an object. Links work within one scene set, so a scene on its own has nothing to link to yet. Projects saved before layout links became groups open with Scene 1 in each group it used to lead, so they look exactly as they did.

Before v1.1077.0 a link shared the layout but each scene kept its own words. A project saved then opens with no words lost: in each group, the scenes that say the same thing stay linked (most of them, or the earlier scene on a tie), a scene with no words takes the group's, and a scene with different words leaves that link where it was, keeping its words. Its link icon is off; turn it on to take the group's words.

#Per-ratio copy

An ad in Wildfield is designed once and delivered in every format you switch on. The formats are:

• 1:1 Square, 1080 × 1080
• 4:5 Portrait, 1080 × 1350
• 9:16 Vertical, 1080 × 1920
• 16:9 Landscape, 1920 × 1080
• 1.91:1 Wide, 1200 × 628

You can also add custom sizes from 100 to 8000 pixels a side. Switch between formats with the pills in the header, and turn formats on or off in the Formats menu. A new project starts with 9:16.

Words are shared, line breaks are not

The words of the headline, subheadline, supporting text, CTA and disclaimer are the same in every format. What changes per format is where the lines break, because a sentence that fits on two lines in 16:9 may need four in 9:16.

• Change only the line breaks, and the change belongs to the ratio you are editing.
• Change the words, and every ratio gets the new words, with their manual line breaks cleared so each one reflows.
• Colouring a word keeps the line breaks.

Edit the copy in the object's settings panel on the stage, or in the Input fields.

Size and position per ratio

Position is shared across ratios as a relative place in the frame, so an object stays in roughly the same spot when you switch format. Its size, rotation and styles belong to each ratio, so the headline can be bigger in 9:16 than in 16:9. Subtitles, the CTA and the disclaimer have a Size row (20% to 400%). The headline, subheadline and supporting text fit their box, so you size them by dragging a corner. Alignment (left, centre or right) is one choice across every ratio.

Safe area

The Safe Zone button in the header shows the area kept clear of the platform's interface, such as the caption and buttons on a story. Its menu has presets: Instagram (the default), TikTok, Custom (your own inset for each edge, up to 45% of the frame) and None. Layout keeps objects inside the larger of that safe area and a small margin.

Worked example

One headline across 16:9 and 9:16.

1. In 16:9, type the headline "Summer menu, served all day". It fits on one line.
2. Switch to 9:16. The same words are there. Add a line break after "menu," so it reads on two lines; this break belongs to 9:16 only.
3. Drag the headline's corner to make it larger in 9:16, where there is more height.
4. Back in 16:9, the headline is still on one line at its original size.
5. Change "all day" to "till late". Both ratios update, and 9:16's break is cleared, so check its line breaks again.

#Logo

The Logo object shows the design system's logo (see Design System). If the brand has no logo yet, a placeholder stands in, dark or light to suit the background, so you can still lay the scene out.

Click the logo on the stage for its settings:

• Size, from 20% to 400%, set per ratio, so the logo can be smaller on a tight 1.91:1 banner than on a 9:16 story.
• Rotate, Align inside its box, and Anchor to the top, middle or bottom of the box.
• Colour: a swatch from the brand palette, or Default for the logo's own colours. Also set per ratio.

Recolouring works on a logo with a transparent background, such as an SVG or a PNG cut-out. A logo on a solid background is shown as it is, so upload a transparent version to the design system for the most flexibility.

#Overlay

The Overlay is a wash of colour over the background that helps copy read on a busy picture. Select it for its settings:

• Fill covers the whole frame evenly.
• Top and Bottom fade the colour in from that edge, and you can use both at once. Top fade and Bottom fade set how far each reaches, from 8% to 85% of the frame. You can also drag the fades on the stage.
• Colour is a swatch from the brand palette, or black.
• Opacity runs from 0 to 100% (50% by default).

The Object Type row shows which is on: Fill, Top, Bottom, Top + Bottom or Off. For an angled or shaped wash, add a Gradient layer in Canvas mode instead (see Gradients).

Tips

• A black Bottom fade at 60% behind a CTA is the most reliable way to keep white text readable on any photo.
• Use a brand-colour Top fade on 9:16 stories so the headline has a tinted band to sit on.

#Disclaimer

The Disclaimer is the small print: terms, pricing conditions, legal lines. Its default text lives in the design system, so every ad for the brand carries it automatically.

• The default text is edited in the disclaimer's settings and saved to the design system for every ad on the brand.
• A scene can override it with its own text in the rich field below ("Blank = use the default above"). Line breaks in that override belong to each ratio, like the rest of the copy.
• It is styled with Size, Line height, Tracking, Align, Anchor, Fill and Colour, and its text is kept between 7 and 26 pixels so it stays small print.

A new disclaimer sits near the bottom of the frame, and you can drag it anywhere like any other object. Keep it inside the safe area on stories, where the platform's own interface covers the bottom of the screen.

Worked example

A retail brand where every ad must carry "Offer ends Sunday. T&Cs apply." and one ad needs extra terms.

1. Open the disclaimer's settings and type the standard line as the default. Every project on the brand now shows it.
2. On the one scene with a finance offer, type the longer finance terms in the override field.
3. In 9:16, add a line break so the override reads on two lines above the safe area. The 16:9 version keeps it on one line.