# Pencil (open-source design and publishing app)

> Pencil is a free, open-source design and publishing app for Linux. The Pencil Project's unique mission is to build a free and opensource tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use. It has 9,873 GitHub stars and is released under the GPL-2.0 license, and people use it instead of Balsamiq.

Pencil V3 is a rewrite of Pencil that aims to fix major performance and scalability issues of the application. The new version is under heavy development and we are expecting GA builds in June. The following list summarizes important changes in the new version:

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/evolus/pencil |
| Platforms | Linux |
| Interface | desktop GUI |
| GitHub stars | 9,873 |
| License | GPL-2.0 (open source) |
| Replaces | Balsamiq |
| Language | JavaScript |
| Website | none listed |
| Official | no |
| Category | Vector, design & publishing |
| Latest release | v3.1.1 (Jan 1, 2023) |
| Last commit | Jun 2, 2026 |

## Install

### AUR (Arch Linux)

Package page: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pencil

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Canonical page: https://appsgit.com/desktop-apps/pencil
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