secret doc for Leaflet R&D

This doc is a record of our early experiments, now archived β€” for current updates please sign up for our mailing list!

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If you're reading this, we've invited you to try our new app Leaflet!

This doc is our little behind the scenes project notebook / dev log. Please email anytime with thoughts or q's :)

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testing notes

what we're working on

We have a lot of the basics in place, but some things still WIP!


what we're working on

We have a lot of the basics in place, but some things still WIP!


current features

instantly make a new doc at https://leaflet.pub

share a view only link or an edit link to invite collaborators

multiplayer editing (presence / live cursors TBD)

block types: text, image, nested page, external link

rich text support + toolbar for text formatting

custom themes β€” colors & background images

list / outliner handling β€” with folding!

homepage β€” to access your recent docs (per-device)

mailboxes β€” a simple way to send updates from any doc, where people can subscribe by email

canvas pages β€” spatial canvases that can live alongside linear documents, for more freeform visual layouts


core design principles / goals for the app

we want Leaflet to be:

really fast / performant; instant page loads

a great text editing experience that nails the basics

minimal, good defaults, do the core things really well

feedback wanted

Here are some things we'd especially love to hear your thoughts on:

overall layout & page system: did you try adding linked cards & multi-column view? how does it feel?

feedback wanted

Here are some things we'd especially love to hear your thoughts on:

overall layout & page system: did you try adding linked cards & multi-column view? how does it feel?

theming & expressivity: is it fun? other things you'd want?

basic text editing experience: bugs? things you miss from other text editors?

future directions: what's missing? what would you be most excited for us to add? (see also ideas for what's next!)

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note: we'll collect some interesting things we hear (+ our thoughts) in the Leaflet R&D idea bucket doc we made :)

ideas for what's next

Some directions we're thinking about for extending & improving Leaflet; we'd love to hear if any of these sound cool!

annotation, comments, social docs: making annotations more fun and expressive (e.g. stickers?), presence features, etc.

ideas for what's next

Some directions we're thinking about for extending & improving Leaflet; we'd love to hear if any of these sound cool!

annotation, comments, social docs: making annotations more fun and expressive (e.g. stickers?), presence features, etc.

programmable docs: like a simple document API so you can run little scripts e.g. on val.town or replit to create & edit docs

more page types: e.g. collections, or portals to other sites (we added canvas pages recently!)

more block types: e.g. audio, video, embeds, file uploads, tables or key-value blocks…even custom blocks!

user accounts & homepage: a way to save all your docs in one place, switch between them, persist identity

granular sharing / permissions: e.g. other roles like comment-only, or a way to make certain sub-pages in a doc editable

pro features: e.g. custom domains, more upload types, etc.

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WIP resources

Leaflet R&D idea bucket
This is where we collect & digest ideas as you all test the app!
https://leaflet.pub/f8816749-1aed-4ab9-b22d-c50432f377da
Leaflet example library
Welcome to the Leaflet Library β€” a gallery of great documents as examples and inspiration.
https://leaflet.pub/bfed2569-f9c0-4c2a-a281-9f57bc372082

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bg img: Flowers and Leaves, Theo van Hoytema - Rijksmuseum