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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

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24 alternatives to ZenPaint, a pixel-perfect MacPaint recreation for the browser

I've been recreating the original MacPaint in the browser on and off for a few years. It's still alpha quality, but I'm finally ready to share it more widely. The goal was pixel-perfect accuracy, so I spent a lot of time with Atkinson's original QuickDraw source code, emulators, and my iBook G3 to get details like font rendering and the shape tools exactly right. Some technical notes: - Font rendering was surprisingly tricky; understanding the original pipeline's quirks took lots of experimentation, and avoiding canvas smoothing/aliasing required careful handling. - Written…

ZenPaint is a browser-based recreation of the original MacPaint application, built for pixel-perfect accuracy. The tool recreates classic MacPaint features including font rendering and shape tools by studying… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1
    Paint▲326

    A simple Microsoft Paint inspired web app

    2025 · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Your new basic font, use it everywhere, adjust to your needs

    2023 · fixel.macpaw.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    It requires no registration, no installation, and no configuration. Just run it on any computer and start drawing freely.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Hey HN! We're Ben and Izak, founders of Repaint (YC S23). Repaint is like Figma, but for creating real websites. It has panning, zooming, and dragging elements around. The settings closely follow html/css. We think an open canvas is a big improvement over other website builders. Everything is easier: styling, consistency, responsiveness… But making it work was hard! We thought HN would appreciate the tech behind it: - A custom WebGL rendering engine (w/text, shadows, blurs, gradients, & opacity groups) - A partial implementation of the css spec - A custom text editor & text shaper…

    2024 · repaint.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5AV

    I made this because building UIs in a lexical medium like code is super annoying. I have to pre-render what I’m making in my head, and then jump between the browser and IDE to test. I was inspired by the developer console in chrome and safari since I end up editing css there because it’s ironically more convenient. Hope it’s useful!

    2022 · dev.aspect.app · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    https://lisagui.com/info.html This is a web OS I wrote in vanilla JS that looks like the Apple Lisa Office System (1983-85), with other contemporaneous influences and additional improvements and features. It's currently in alpha and isn't remotely bug free. I had been holding off on posting this here until it was somewhat presentable and useful. Please note; the Lisa conforms more literally to the desktop metaphor than most modern GUIs - some of the important differences are mentioned in the readme. This is a complete recreation of the UI in JS; it all renders to a single…

    2025 · alpha.lisagui.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    An in-browser canvas tool for making retro art.

    2014 · make8bitart.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Build, edit and manage fonts on your Mac

    2021 · glyphsapp.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    Airdraw▲269

    Hey Everyone! I wanted to show my passion project I made a few years back and recently turned into a web app. Airdraw is an app that takes in your hand gestures and converts it into real time drawing capabilities. There are tons of stuff I want to build with this, but most importantly just put it out into the world! Hope you all enjoy :) Tested on my MacOS with Chrome, Safari, and FF I included a link to the original GH project I wrote here - https://github.com/arefmalek/airdraw and a link to the blog where I explained how I made it here -…

    2023 · airdraw.io · its alternatives →

  10. 10ZJ
  11. 11

    Render 3D models (OBJ, glTF, GLB, STL, .vox) as ASCII art — in the browser, in React or Vue, or straight in your terminal. A three.js-style API with no WebGL and no canvas: just text in a single <pre>.

    Jun 2026 · glyphcss.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Hey HN! I want to show my new open-source project ArtistAssistApp. ArtistAssistApp - the web app to paint better with ease. Tools for realistic color mixing based on real paints, tonal value drawing, simplified sketching, and more. Import your own photos, select any desired color directly from the image, and learn how to mix it with your paints. The web app provides a step-by-step guide on how to precisely mix that color using your own paints using atomic or optical mixing. Atomic mixing is the physical mixing of colors together, while optical mixing is the result of placing a transparent…

    2023 · artistassistapp.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13MF
  14. 14

    I built React Photo Studio, a free image editor that runs entirely in the browser with React and WebGL. Right now only the brush tool is functional for drawing, while the rest of the interface is a prototype awaiting development. Everything is client side, no backend. I would appreciate feedback on usability and code structure, and I welcome pull requests. Live demo https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reactphotostudio.app Code https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;chase-manning&#x2F;react-photo-studio

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15
    Pixellate▲102

    A simple and easy-to-use pixel art creator with offline mode

    2021 · pixelated.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  16. 16MW
  17. 17
  18. 18

    A beautiful React UI library for easy modern development

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Hello internet folks! I'm happy to share the first TestFlight release of Glyph3D, a 3D text visualizer for macOS and iOS. It's free, supports pretty much any utf8 data, and is a pretty interesting way to navigate your repositories or data directories without the limitations of standard text windows! Download and bookmark for macOS and iOS: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tikimcfee&#x2F;LookAtThat&#x2F; - You should be able to download public repos from GitHub and render them. - Play with opening and closing windows. I've disabled many of the in-flight features to keep user confusion down,…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Pablo is a Chrome extension that copies the HTML and CSS behind any element you hover. It captures computed styles, fonts (with @font-face and Google Fonts links), CSS keyframes, and animation props from GSAP and Framer Motion. The output is structured so it pastes cleanly into Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex when you want to rebuild a component in your own stack. Manifest v3, no host permissions, no backend. Free. https:&#x2F;&#x2F;usepablo.dev Happy to answer questions about how the extraction works, and would love to hear about sites where the output breaks.

    May 2026 · usepablo.dev · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Drop your mockup on the live page. Catch the misaligned padding, the mismatched color, the wrong font size. Ship once, not three times.

    2019 · welldonecode.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Hey all! I'm happy to announce we've finally released our 2nd macOS app, Draw Over It, a tiny desktop app that enables drawing, highlighting, or annotating directly on top of anything on your Mac. I've always wanted something like this for instant and unobtrusive sketching and annotation for pair programming and demos. I always found the standard web-based diagram and drawing tools a bit too cumbersome. So we built a simple overlay that could appear over any window or app with one shortcut. It doesn't collect any user data and doesn't require any system permissions - it's sandboxed. It all…

    Oct 2025 · draw.wrobele.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    We built a free browser tool for the wplace.live community that converts any image into pixel-perfect art using Wplace’s official 64-color palette. Features Exact color matching with Wplace’s palette (from lospec) Highlights free vs paid pixels (Wplace has tiered pricing) Real-time preview with grid overlays Floyd–Steinberg dithering for smoother gradients All processing is local – no uploads, no tracking Why we made it Wplace is a collaborative pixel canvas, but placing art manually is slow and error-prone. This tool helps creators preview, plan, and optimize their art before placing it on…

    2025 · wplacepixelart.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    有赞云为用户提供电商云,零售云,App开店,数据通,大客定制,助力企业在全行业场景的个性化经营,有赞应用市场,汇聚业内丰富的工具,满足各类功能场景需求。

    2017 · youzanyun.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →