File Management & Formats

Piko stores projects in its own .pik format and supports importing images and exporting to common raster, vector, and document formats. This page covers everything related to opening, saving, importing, and managing your files.

Native format (.pik)

A .pik file is a standard ZIP archive that you can inspect with any ZIP tool. Inside you will find:

File / Directory	Purpose
`manifest.json`	Format version, creation and modification timestamps, object and page counts
`document.json`	Project name, page structure and ordering, document-level settings
`nodes/chunk-*.json`	Object data split into chunks of 100 objects each for efficient loading
`bitmaps/*.png`	Embedded bitmap textures stored as PNG images

File operations

Action	Shortcut	Behavior
New Document	`Ctrl` + `N`	Creates a blank document. Prompts to save if the current document has unsaved changes.
Open	`Ctrl` + `O`	Opens a `.pik` file through the system file picker.
Open Recent	—	Submenu listing the last 10 opened files.
Save	`Ctrl` + `S`	Saves to the same file. Shows the file picker on first save.
Save As	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `S`	Always shows the file picker so you can choose a new location or name.
Place Image	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `K`	Imports one or more images as bitmap objects.

Autosave

Piko automatically saves a snapshot of your document to the browser’s IndexedDB storage so you do not lose work unexpectedly.

A save triggers every 60 seconds, but only if the document has actually changed.
If Piko detects autosave data on launch, it shows a recovery prompt asking whether to restore or discard.
Autosave data is cleared after every successful manual save.

Recent files

Piko tracks the last 10 files you have opened so you can get back to them quickly via File > Open Recent.

File names are stored in localStorage; file handles are stored in IndexedDB.
Reopening a file moves it to the top of the list.
Select Clear Recent Files at the bottom of the submenu to reset the list.

Image import

You can bring images into your project in three ways:

Use File > Place Image or press Ctrl + Shift + K to open the file picker.
Drag and drop one or more image files directly onto the canvas.
Paste an image from the system clipboard with Ctrl + V.

Supported formats: PNG, JPEG, WebP, and any other image format your browser supports.

Placement behavior:

A single image is centered at the current viewport center or at the drop position.
Multiple images are offset by 20 px from each other so they do not stack.
Images dropped onto a frame are automatically parented into that frame.

Clipboard operations

Action	Shortcut	Behavior
Copy	`Ctrl` + `C`	Copies the selected objects and all of their descendants.
Cut	`Ctrl` + `X`	Copies the selection and then deletes the originals.
Paste	`Ctrl` + `V`	Clones copied objects with new IDs and a +20 px offset per successive paste.
Duplicate	`Ctrl` + `D`	Equivalent to Copy followed immediately by Paste.
Paste Image	`Ctrl` + `V`	If the system clipboard contains an image instead of Piko objects, it is imported as a bitmap object.

Paste details:

Pasted objects are placed into the current editing container, or into the document root if no container is active.
All properties are deeply cloned. A ” copy” suffix is appended to the object name.
Children inside containers are remapped to the new parent IDs.

Export formats

Piko can export your designs to the following formats:

Format	Type
PNG	Raster
JPEG	Raster
WebP	Raster
SVG	Vector
PDF	Document

For a full walkthrough of export settings, scale options, and format-specific details, see the Export guide.