27.1k stars · Apache-2.0 · no numbered releases at all; the only GitHub tag is a moving one called latest-stable, which read 4 February 2026 when checked. The project's own blog's newest post is September 2025 · Track this in Scout
A browser-based 2D graphics editor whose node-based engine keeps every step of a drawing editable afterwards.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
A 2D graphics editor written in Rust and compiled to run in the browser. Its drawing engine is node-based, which means the picture is a chain of operations rather than a finished bitmap, and any operation in the chain can be edited afterwards. It handles vector drawing, raster painting and procedural generation in the same document, and desktop builds for Windows, macOS and Linux are at release candidate stage.What it is good for. Anyone who makes repeated visual work and is tired of redoing it. Thumbnails, social images, diagrams with a house style. The problem it removes is the second version: because the steps are kept, changing the colour or the text does not mean redrawing the picture. Penpot (Edition 12 #4) remains the right answer for interface design work you intend to hand to a developer. This is the right answer for illustration and generated artwork.
- Nothing to install. You open a web page and start drawing, and your work stays on your own machine.
- Every step is editable forever, which makes a family of similar images cheap after the first one.
- Apache-2.0, and there is no paid tier at all.
- The project calls itself alpha. Expect missing features and file formats that may change.
- It cuts no numbered releases. The only tag on GitHub is a moving one called
latest-stable, which read 4 February 2026 when we checked, and the newest post on the project's own blog is from September 2025. The project is well short of the eighteen-month line and is not being called dormant, but we could not prove more recent work from here. - A browser tab has limits. Very large documents will be slower than a desktop program.
penpot/penpotAimed at interface design for teams, with components and developer handoff, so it is the better tool for product screens and the worse one for illustration.
Track this in Scout- excalidraw/excalidraw
A whiteboard with a hand-drawn look, far simpler and far faster for a rough sketch, with none of the editable-steps idea.
Track this in Scout - SVG-Edit/svgedit
A plain vector drawing editor that also runs in the browser and can be embedded in your own page; its newest release is from December 2023.
Track this in Scout
# Nothing to install. Open the site and go to the editor: # https://graphite.art # To run your own copy you need Rust and Node.js: git clone https://github.com/GraphiteEditor/Graphite.git cd Graphite/frontend npm install npm start # The exact build steps, which do change, are in the README: # https://github.com/GraphiteEditor/Graphite#readme
