12 open-source vector and design apps
Open Source Vector & Design Software
The most popular open-source vector and design apps for Windows, macOS and Linux on GitHub are CustomTkinter, Pencil and Open Pencil. appsgit lists 12, including free alternatives to Balsamiq and Adobe InDesign, each with its platforms, license and install commands.
Updated Oct 8, 2026
Open Source Vector & Design Software
CustomTkinter
TomSchimansky/CustomTkinter
A modern and customizable python UI-library based on Tkinter.
Vector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSPencil
evolus/pencil
The Pencil Project's unique mission is to build a free and opensource tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use.
Vector, design & publishingLinuxOpen Pencil
open-pencil/open-pencil
AI-native design editor. Open-source Figma alternative.
Vector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSLinuxMockoon
mockoon/mockoon
Mockoon is the easiest and quickest way to run mock APIs locally.
OfficialVector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSLinuxVtracer
visioncortex/vtracer
Raster to Vector Graphics Converter.
OfficialVector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSLinuxHandyControl
HandyOrg/HandyControl
Contains some simple and commonly used WPF controls.
Vector, design & publishingWindowsGodSVG
MewPurPur/GodSVG
A vector graphics application for structured SVG editing, available on all major desktop platforms and on web.
Vector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSLinuxVectorcraft
storytold/vectorcraft
An open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Illustrator, built in pure Rust.
Vector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSLinuxPencil
pencil2d/pencil
Pencil2D is an easy, intuitive tool to make 2D hand-drawn animations.
Vector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSLinuxHandyControls
ghost1372/HandyControls
Contains some simple and commonly used WPF controls based on HandyControl.
Vector, design & publishingWindowsWorkbench
sonnyp/Workbench
Learn and prototype with GNOME technologies Workbench lets you experiment with GNOME technologies, no matter if tinkering for the first time or building and testing a GTK user interface.
Vector, design & publishingLinuxScribus
scribusproject/scribus
Scribus is a desktop publishing app for page layout: brochures, magazines, newsletters and print-ready PDFs.
OfficialVector, design & publishingWindowsmacOSLinux
What are the best open-source vector and design apps?
By GitHub stars, CustomTkinter is the most popular (13,583 stars), followed by Pencil and Open Pencil. People often use these instead of Balsamiq and Adobe InDesign. Each page lists the platforms, license and last commit.
Which of these run on Windows, Mac and Linux?
10 of the 12 open-source vector and design apps listed here run on Windows, 8 on macOS and 9 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is CustomTkinter. 4 can be installed with a package manager such as Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey.
Are these open-source vector and design apps free?
Yes. All 12 use an open-source license (OSI-approved or FSF-free), so you can use, copy and change them for free.
How are these open-source vector and design apps chosen?
Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such.