Best Open Source Graphic Design Tools in 2026

Applications for creating visual designs, illustrations, icons, and graphics for print and digital use.

The most popular pick this year is Excalidraw with 122,999 GitHub stars, but all 6 options below are worth considering depending on your needs.

6 open source graphic design tools — ranked by GitHub stars. Browse all

Excalidraw

Open-source virtual whiteboard for creating hand-drawn style diagrams and sketches.

Alternative to:

Miro

Penpot

Open-source design and prototyping tool for cross-domain teams — a self-hostable alternative to Figma.

Alternative to:

Figma

open-pencil

AI-native design editor with real-time collaboration, component system, and Figma-compatible file format.

Alternative to:

Figma

miniPaint

Online image editor with layers, filters, and effects that runs entirely in the browser. An open source Photoshop alternative with no ads or account required.

Alternative to:

Adobe Photoshop

SnapOtter

Self-hosted image manipulation platform with 45+ tools, local AI, and pipelines. A privacy-first open source alternative to Canva, TinyPNG, and remove.bg.

Alternative to:

Canva

OpenShots

Turn raw screenshots into polished, shareable visuals. Free, open-source, and completely offline with Tauri.

Alternative to:

TinyShots

How we rank these tools

Tools are ranked by GitHub stars as a proxy for community adoption and trust. Stars reflect how many developers found a project valuable enough to bookmark — a reasonable signal for quality in the open source world. We only list tools that are actively maintained and open source.

Looking for tools you can run yourself? Browse self-hosted graphic design tools →