In Operation
We start our web browser and point it to http://localhost:8080
The project provides some demo artwork. We’re showing the Valley of Spires.
Graphite lets you create graphic designs and shape-based vector artwork. To help with creation, there are the usual primitive geometry shapes available such as rectangles and ellipses. These can be modified with the Path tool. And we can create shapes with the Pen tool.
The software also supports raster image editing but this is, currently, rather rudimentary. We can import images, manipulate them using the node-based compositor, and apply nondestructive effects like colour adjustment filters.
Other features include:
- Graph-based layer stacks.
- Fully graph-driven documents.
- Layer and grid snapping.
- Import SVG but this is very limited. Most of the SVG files we tried to import failed to load.
Summary
Graphite is a useful web-based tool for graphic design.
Bear in mind the project is in a very early stage of development and missing lots of important functionality. Hopefully as it transitions to beta status, it’ll mature significantly.
The document format is not finalized, and the software has very limited raster support. Regardless, Graphite is already useful software for creating impressive vector artwork. As it matures it may even challenge Inkscape.
The project has attracted over 5k GitHub stars. The project has some really useful functionality planned in the near future, such as WebGPU accelerated rendering, a Rust-based vector renderer, and a desktop app with built-in AI models. This is definitely a project we’ll be watching closely.
Website: graphite.rs
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Keavon Chambers, Dennis Kobert, Hypercube, and contributors.
License: Apache License 2.0
Graphite is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction and Installation
Page 2 – In Operation and Summary