MIT Free & open source — every feature, forever

Design anything.
Pay nothing. Keep everything.

OpenCanvas is a free, open-source design editor you run yourself: photo frames, crop, 28,342 icons, brand kits, multi-page designs and professional exports. No subscriptions, no premium tier, no account. Your designs never leave your device.

Get started in 2 minutes Watch the 1-minute tour
  • No account needed
  • Runs on your own machine
  • No tracking, no ads
  • English & Arabic interface
  • $0 every feature, forever
  • 70 ready-made design sizes
  • 28,342 open-source icons
  • 470+ shapes, lines and photo frames
  • 30 Arabic font families
  • 1,200+ automated tests
Why OpenCanvas

Everything the paid design platforms do — free, on your own machine.

Online design tools are great until you hit the paywall: the frame you wanted is Pro, the transparent export is Pro, the brand kit is Pro. OpenCanvas takes the opposite approach: build it in the open, give every feature to everyone, and let you keep your work.

Free. Actually free.

No trials, no watermarks, no “Pro” crown on the feature you need. Everything in the editor is available to everyone.

Host it yourself

Install it on your laptop with one line, or on your own server with Docker for your team, school or company.

Your designs stay with you

Designs and uploads are saved on your own computer. No account, and no one looking at your work. Want a backup? Connect your own R2 or S3 bucket, never ours.

Open source, MIT

Read every line, change anything, fork it, translate it, build a business on it. The MIT license makes it truly yours.

Ehab Kahwati

Creator of OpenCanvas

Why I built this

We can build our own tools — and own them.

I believe software is something we have a right to: all of it, with every feature, for free.

Whatever tool exists online today, we can build one just like it, use it for free and keep our data private. We don't have to accept a monthly bill and someone else's cloud as the price of being creative.

I want us to be builders, not just consumers: people who make things that belong to us, instead of renting them one subscription at a time.

And for the first time, that dream is within reach. With the power of AI, a small team, even one determined person, can build what used to take an entire company. OpenCanvas is my proof. Now it's yours, too.

— Ehab Kahwati, creator of OpenCanvas

See it in action

Real features, recorded from the real app.

Pick a feature: every clip is recorded from OpenCanvas running in a browser. No mockups.

Templates that stay untouched

Start from bilingual starter templates, or save any design as a template and file it in folders with their own icons. Using a template opens a copy in a new tab, so the original never changes.

  • Folders with 16 icons and colors; drag templates between them
  • Save as template from any design or from the editor's File menu
  • Synced to your own cloud with everything else

Photo frames

Drag a photo onto a heart, a letter, a Polaroid, a gold frame or a phone mockup and it takes the frame's shape instantly. Drag another photo over it to swap.

  • 237 frames: shapes, Latin and Arabic letters, numbers, Polaroids, framed prints, collage grids and device mockups
  • The photo stays editable: reposition or replace it any time
  • Upload by drag and drop, with folders for your images

Crop like a pro

Double-click a photo to crop it: drag the image inside its frame, scale it from the corners and press Done. The original is never lost, so you can reset whenever you like.

  • Works on photos and on photos inside frames
  • Non-destructive: the full image is always kept
  • Finish with a double-click or the Enter key

Shapes, lines and 28,342 icons

Pick from 210 shapes (arrows, speech bubbles, banners, flowchart symbols, 3D solids and more), 27 lines and curves, and nine open-source icon libraries, flags included. Search in English or Arabic: “rocket” and “صاروخ” both work.

  • Every element is a vector you can recolor and resize
  • Recently used items are one click away
  • Hundreds more load only when you open them, so the editor stays fast

Effects and adjustments

Tune photos live with brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, warmth, black and white, sepia and vignette, and give any element gradients, strokes, shadows, blur and 16 blend modes.

  • Live sliders: see every change as you drag
  • Non-destructive: the original photo is always kept
  • Exports look exactly like the canvas

Multi-page designs

Build presentations, carousels and documents. Switch between a single page, thumbnails, continuous scroll and a grid of every page, then rename, reorder, hide, lock or duplicate any page.

  • Four page views, just like the big platforms
  • Page titles and per-page actions
  • Hidden pages are skipped on export

Brand kits

Keep your logos, colors and fonts in one place and apply them in a click. Create as many brand kits as you need: for yourself, your clients or each project.

  • Logos, palettes, fonts, photos, graphics and icons
  • Brand voice notes and brand templates
  • Folders to organize designs and uploads

Pro exports, no paywall

PNG, JPEG and WebP at any size, transparent backgrounds, compressed PNGs or a maximum file size; SVG with embedded fonts; PDF and print PDF; and multi-page ZIPs. The features others charge for are simply there.

  • Export every page or pick the ones you need
  • Save as .opencanvas to keep everything editable
  • Rendered on your device; nothing is uploaded

Rulers, guides and snapping

Add a 3×3 grid of guides in one click, drag new guides straight from the rulers, and watch elements snap into place. Precise layouts without the fiddling.

  • Presets for 12 columns, 3 columns and grids, with gutters and margins
  • Smart alignment to other elements and to the page
  • Guides are saved with each page

70 formats, ready to go

Instagram posts and stories, TikTok, YouTube thumbnails, presentations, A4 and US Letter documents, posters, business cards, whiteboards and more, or a custom size in pixels, millimeters or inches.

  • Browse by category and by platform
  • Search every format instantly
  • Print sizes export at exact 300 DPI dimensions

Arabic, done properly

A fully mirrored right-to-left interface, correct letter shaping, Arabic, English and numbers mixed on the same line, Arabic justification and 30 Arabic font families. Built in from day one, not bolted on.

  • Unicode bidi for mixed-direction text
  • Arabic lists and correct line breaking
  • Icon search in Arabic
And much more

A complete editor, not a demo

Rich text engine

Real text layout with wrapping, lists, letter and line spacing, effects and web fonts.

Layers and groups

Reorder, lock, hide, group and align. Every element stays a separate, editable layer.

Effects and adjustments

Gradients, strokes, shadows, blur, 16 blend modes and image adjustments.

Undo for everything

Every change is a validated command, so undo, redo and autosave always agree.

Saves as you work

Saved instantly to your browser. Close the tab mid-edit and nothing is lost; two tabs never overwrite each other.

Keyboard and accessibility

Shortcuts for everything, keyboard-only editing and WCAG 2.1 AA checks in every test run.

Open file format

Designs are structured, documented JSON, never flattened images. Your work is portable.

Ready for AI

Editing commands export as tool definitions, so AI agents can edit real designs instead of generating flat pictures.

Plugins, fonts and icons

Upload your own fonts and SVG icons, or install plugins that add commands, panels and icon packs. Plugins run in a sandbox with the permissions you approve.

Icon library

28,342 icons from nine open-source libraries

All free for commercial use. Every icon is a vector you can recolor and resize, searchable in English and Arabic; flags keep their colors and are found by their Arabic names too.

Screenshots
The OpenCanvas home screen with recent designs and the Create a design button
Your designs, folders and uploads, all stored locally.
The Templates page with template folders and starter templates
Templates: folders with icons and starter templates.
A brand kit page with a logo, colors from the logo and brand colors
Brand kits with logos, colors and fonts.
The OpenCanvas editor with a poster: a desert sunset in a heart frame
The editor, with every tool one click away.
The honest comparison

Why pay for what you can own?

Topic Typical paid design platforms OpenCanvas
Price Limited free tier; premium features need a monthly subscription Free. Every feature, forever
Locked features Transparent exports, brand kits, many frames and elements None. Nothing is locked
Where your designs live On the company's servers On your device
Account Required Not needed
Self-hosting Not possible Two commands, or Docker
Source code Closed Open, MIT license
If the service shuts down Your library may go with it Your files and the app stay yours

Being honest: the big platforms still have things we don't yet: huge template and stock photo libraries, real-time collaboration and video editing. They are all on our roadmap, and every contribution brings them closer.

Your computer, your cloud

Works offline. Syncs to your own R2 or S3 when you are online.

When you install, OpenCanvas asks one question: keep your work on this computer only, or also in your own cloud storage (Cloudflare R2 or Amazon S3). Choose the cloud and you get a backup that follows you, without giving your designs to anyone.

Saved on your computer first

Every change is saved at once on your computer, so you never wait for the internet.

Synced to your bucket

Designs, photos, PDFs, brand kits, fonts and plugins go to your own bucket, a few seconds after you stop editing: compressed, each file once, in few small requests. The keys stay on your computer.

No internet? Keep working

One status tells you where your work is: “Offline: saved on this computer”, then “Saved to your cloud” once the connection is back and the upload is done, all by itself.

Reinstall, get it all back

On a new computer, or after removing OpenCanvas, choose the same bucket and your whole library comes back. 

==> Where to keep your work

Where should OpenCanvas keep your work?

  1) On this computer only
  2) On this computer, and synced to your own cloud storage
     (Cloudflare R2 or Amazon S3)

Choose 1-2: 2
Checking the connection… connected.
✓ Found your OpenCanvas library from before (12 designs, 40 files).
  • Wrong key or bucket? It says what is wrong and asks again, or you skip and add it later with opencanvas cloud.
  • Edited the same design on two computers? Both versions are kept: nothing is overwritten.
  • Prefer this computer only? That is the default, and nothing ever leaves it.
Get started

One line to install

Paste one line in a terminal. It downloads everything OpenCanvas needs, runs it quietly in the background and opens it in your browser at localhost:4790. Everything stays on your computer.

  • Nothing to install first No Node.js, pnpm or Git: the installer brings what it needs
  • Starts with your computer Always ready in the browser, on port 4790 (3000 stays free)
  • Your computer, or your cloud too It asks once: this computer only, or also your R2 / S3 (how)
  • opencanvas stop Stops it until you run opencanvas start
  • Or Docker, for servers And the source code, for developers

1 Open Terminal (Spotlight: ⌘ Space, type “Terminal”) and paste 

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Devehab/OpenCanvas/HEAD/install.sh | bash

2 To stop it, start it again, update or remove it 

opencanvas stop
opencanvas start
opencanvas update
opencanvas uninstall

It opens http://localhost:4790 by itself. Bookmark it.

Contribute

Build it with us

OpenCanvas is built in the open. Whether you write code, design, translate or test, there is a place for you, and AI tools make your first contribution easier than ever.

  1. Fork and clone

    Fork the repository on GitHub, then clone your fork.

    git clone https://github.com/YOUR-NAME/OpenCanvas.git

  2. Create a branch

    One branch per change keeps reviews focused.

    git checkout -b feat/my-idea

  3. Run it locally

    The editor reloads as you change the code.

    pnpm install && pnpm dev

  4. Run the checks

    The same checks run automatically on every pull request.

    pnpm lint && pnpm typecheck && pnpm test

  5. Test end to end

    Playwright drives a real browser, with visual and accessibility checks.

    pnpm build && pnpm test:e2e

  6. Open a pull request

    Describe what changed and why, with a screenshot for UI changes. Read CONTRIBUTING.md and the Definition of Done first.

Report a bug Suggest a feature Translate the interface Improve the docs
Read the contributing guide Browse open issues
Under the hood

A real design engine, not a template viewer

Designs are structured documents. Every change is a validated, undoable command, and one renderer draws the editor, every export and the server-side tests. Collaboration and AI will build on the same foundation.

  • TypeScript
  • Next.js 16
  • React 19
  • Canvas 2D
  • Skia (Node)
  • IndexedDB
  • Tailwind CSS 4
  • Vitest
  • Playwright
  • Docker
  • core Document engine Document model, schemas, commands, history and text layout
  • renderer Renderer Canvas2D rendering in the browser and in Node
  • export Export PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, PDF and .opencanvas files
  • editor Interaction Selection, tools, snapping, keyboard and text editing
  • web The app Next.js dashboard and editor, local storage, English and Arabic
Roadmap

Where we're going

  1. Phase 1 · Done

    Editor engine

    The full design editor you see on this page.

  2. Phase 2

    Design platform

    Done: templates, font upload and sync to your own cloud. Next: sharing and vector PDF.

  3. Phase 3

    Video

    Timeline, animations, captions and MP4 export.

  4. Phase 4

    Collaboration

    Real-time co-editing, live cursors, comments and version history.

  5. Phase 5

    AI that edits

    An assistant that edits your real design, with any provider or a local model.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Is OpenCanvas really free?

Yes. It is open source under the MIT license, with no paid tier, no locked features, no watermark and no trial. You can use it for personal and commercial work.

Where are my designs stored?

In your browser's storage (IndexedDB), on your own device. Designs are not sent to any server, not even when you export. To back up or move a design, save it as an .opencanvas file.

Do I need an account or an internet connection?

No account at all. When you run OpenCanvas on your own machine, the editor, fonts and icons are all local, so it doesn't need the internet.

Can I host it for my team or company?

Yes. Deploy it with Docker on any server; the docs include guides for Coolify and Hetzner. Each person's designs stay in their own browser. Shared accounts and sync are planned for Phase 2.

Can I use my designs commercially?

Yes. Your designs are yours. The bundled icons use the MIT, ISC and Apache 2.0 licenses and the bundled fonts use open licenses (SIL OFL or Apache), all of which allow commercial use.

How does it compare to online design platforms?

The editing experience is familiar: frames, crop, elements, brand kits, page views and a Download dialog that works the way you expect. The difference is that OpenCanvas is free, open and local. The comparison above lists what is still missing.

Does it support Arabic?

Fully: a mirrored right-to-left interface, proper letter shaping and bidirectional text, Arabic justification, 30 Arabic font families and icon search in Arabic.

How can I help?

Star the repository, share it with someone who pays for design tools, report bugs, translate, or pick an issue. The Contribute section shows how to start.

Stop renting your creativity.

Install OpenCanvas, keep your designs on your own device, and help build the free design platform everyone deserves.

Get started Star on GitHub