Kanban Board

How to use the kanban board

1. Type your Columns separated by commas, for example To do, Doing, Done. Use two to six columns. Add a limit after a colon, such as Doing:3, to cap how much is in progress.
2. Write the Card text, add an optional short Label, choose a Column and press Add card. Press Enter in the text box to add quickly.
3. Move a card with its Left and Right buttons, or drag it into another column. Use Edit to change a card and Delete to remove one.
4. Press Print or Download PDF for a landscape page of the board. A column with many cards continues on extra pages with the headings repeated.
5. Tick Remember my entries in this browser to keep the board on this device between visits.

How a kanban board works

A kanban board shows work as cards moving through columns that match the stages of a process. The simplest board has three columns: work that has not started, work in progress and work that is finished. A card starts on the left and moves right as it advances, so one glance shows what is waiting, what is being worked on and what is done.

You can name the columns for any process. A writer might use Ideas, Drafting, Editing and Published. A household might use This week, Today and Done. A small business might track orders with New, Packing, Shipped and Delivered. The tool does not care what the stages mean, it only keeps the cards in the column you put them in.

Work in progress limits

A work in progress limit is a cap on how many cards can sit in a column at one time. Teams use limits to stop starting new work before finishing what is already underway. To set one here, type a colon and a number after a column name: Doing:3 caps that column at three cards.

The column shows its count as a number out of the limit, for example 2 of 3. When the count goes over, the heading adds the words over limit and the notes under the preview list the column, so the warning does not depend on color. The tool does not block you from adding a card, it only flags the column, because sometimes a limit is exceeded on purpose. A limit must be a whole number from 1 to 99.

Moving cards, saving and printing

Dragging works with a mouse or touch screen that supports it, and every card also has Left and Right buttons so the board can be used from a keyboard and read by screen readers. A moved card goes to the bottom of its new column. Renaming a column keeps your cards, and if you remove a column the cards that were in it move to the last remaining column.

A board holds up to 150 cards of up to 100 characters each. Everything runs in your browser. If you tick Remember, the board is stored in localStorage on this device only and never uploaded, which also means it will not appear on another device or after clearing site data. The printed board is a US Letter page turned sideways, with each card in a box and the count shown at the top of every column.

Assumptions and limits

• This is a single-person board. It has no sharing, assignments, due dates or history, and nothing syncs between devices.
• Limits are warnings only. The tool will let a column go over its limit and tells you when it has.
• The board is saved only in this browser when Remember is ticked. A private window, cleared site data or another browser starts with the sample cards.
• Characters the built-in print font cannot draw, such as emoji, print as a question mark. Card text is cut at 100 characters and labels at 20.

Formulas reviewed October 10, 2026. See the calculation methodology for how SumPanda rounds, tests and sources its formulas.

Frequently asked questions