Canvas treats every connected display as a first-class citizen. Whether you have a MacBook screen and an external monitor, or a massive 4-display workstation, Canvas allows you to orchestrate your wallpapers exactly how you want them.
Independent Display Mode
By default, Canvas operates in Independent Mode. The app will detect all connected displays and present them as separate targets in the user interface.
- You can set a completely different live wallpaper for each monitor.
- Each monitor has its own pause state. If you maximize a window on Monitor A, Canvas will pause the video on Monitor A to save resources, but the video on Monitor B will continue playing smoothly.
Spanning Mode
If you have an ultra-wide video (e.g., 32:9 aspect ratio) and two side-by-side monitors, you can use Spanning Mode.
- Select the primary monitor in Canvas.
- Toggle the Span across displays switch.
- Canvas will intelligently calculate the geometry of your macOS display arrangement and slice the video rendering to stretch perfectly continuously across the physical gap between your monitors.
Hardware Considerations
Running multiple 4K video streams simultaneously will naturally use more memory bandwidth. Apple Silicon Macs (M1/M2/M3) have incredibly powerful media engines capable of decoding multiple video streams with ease. However, if you are running Canvas on an older Intel Mac, we recommend using 1080p files if you plan to run unique videos on 3 or more displays simultaneously.