Basic drawing sheet items are:

Therefore:

These basic items can be repeated.

Repeated text also accepts an increment value for labels (has meaning only if the text is one letter or one digit).

Each position, start point and end point of items is always relative to a page corner. This feature allows you to define a drawing sheet which is not dependent on the paper size.

For rectangles and segments, which have two defined points, each point has its reference corner.

Items which have a position defined by just one point (text and poly-polygons) can be rotated:

Normal: Rotation = 0

Rotated: Rotation = 20 and 10 degrees.

Items can be repeated:

This is useful to create grid and grid labels.

Text can be simple strings or can include keywords.

Keywords are replaced by actual values when the drawing sheet is used in a schematic or PCB design. They behave like text variables in the Schematic and Board Editors, except the values are either automatically set by the editor or set by the user in the Page Setup dialog of the respective editor.

The keyword syntax is ${KEYWORD}. The keyword, including the surrounding ${}, will be replaced by the keyword’s value.

For example, Size: ${PAPER} displays "Size: A4" when the paper size is set to A4.

When the Preview display mode is active (), the title block is displayed like in the Schematic and PCB Editors, with keywords replaced with the corresponding values. You can configure the displayed values in the Page Preview Settings dialog ().

When the Edit mode is active (), the title block is displayed without replacing keywords.

Text can be multi-line.

There are 2 ways to insert a new line in text:

Here is an example:

Setup

Output

In the Page Setup dialog, text controls do not accept multi-line text.

The \n 2 character sequence should be inserted to force a new line inside a text object.

Here is a two line text object, in the Comment2 field:

Here is the actual text:

However, if you really want the \n inside the text, enter \\n.

And the displayed text:

When using the Schematic Editor, the full schematic often uses more than one page.

Usually drawing sheet items are shown on all pages, but you can also set each item to be shown only on the first page or on all pages except the first page. To change which pages an item is shown on, use the dropdown in the the item’s Item Properties panel. Options are show on all pages, first page only, and subsequent pages only.

Text items have a maximum size constraint. You can set a maximum height and maximum width, which together form a bounding box defining the maximum size of the text object.

If the text object is bigger than the maximum size in a given dimension, the text object will be dynamically compressed in that dimension in order to fit within the bounding box. This will result in the text being visually distorted. If the text fits within the bounding box, the text will not be compressed.

When either parameter is set to 0, KiCad will not enforce a maximum size in that dimension.

Some text with the maximum height and width set to 0:

The same text compressed because the maximum width is set smaller than the width of the text:

The image below shows the main window of the Drawing Sheet Editor.

The main part of the screen is the editing canvas for the open drawing sheet.

The right pane is a properties editor for editing the selected item. It only appears when an item is selected in the canvas.

The top toolbar allows for easy access to the following commands:

The status bar is located at the bottom of the Drawing Sheet Editor and provides useful information to the user.

Coordinates are always relative to the corner selected as the reference corner in the reference corner dropdown in the menubar.

An item can be selected:

When selected, this item is drawn in a lighter shade of color and the properties editor will be displayed for the selected item.

When right clicking on the item, a pop-up menu is displayed. The pop menu contents depend on the type of object selected.

To add a new item, use the appropriate button in the right toolbar and then click on the canvas. The item will be added to the canvas and selected, and the properties editor for the new item will open. You can edit the item’s properties in the properties editor, then click Apply to modify the new item.

The available items are lines (), rectangles (), text (), and bitmaps ().

You can also add new items from the right-click context menu.

Logos must first be created by the Image Converter tool, which creates a page layout description file. You can use the Append Existing Drawing Sheet command to insert the logo (a poly polygon) contained in the new drawing sheet.

When you add lines, rectangles, or text, the item will be added to the canvas, selected, and shown in the properties editor. You can edit the item’s properties in the properties editor, then click Apply to apply the changes.

You can also move the item in the canvas after it has been placed by dragging it or using the Move command (kbd:[M]). Lines and rectangles can be moved as a shape, but you can also move their points individually.

Lines and rectangles typically use the same corner reference for both the start and end points. If this is not the case, the item’s geometry will change when the sheet size or margins are changed.

To add a logo, a poly polygon (the vectored image of the logo) must be first created using the Image Converter tool, which is available in the main KiCad Project Manager window. Polygons cannot be created by hand.

The Image Converter tool creates a drawing sheet file which contains only one item: a poly polygon representing the source image. This drawing sheet file is appended to the current design, using the Append Existing Drawing Sheet command.

Once a poly polygon is inserted, it can be moved and its parameters edited.

You can add an image bitmap using many common bitmap formats (PNG, JPEG, BMP, etc.).

Bitmaps can be repeated but not rotated.