A look around
Made in Livi Pen
Every piece below was built entirely through Livi Pen's command API, the same one the MCP server
exposes to agents, and exported by Livi Pen's own renderer. The source files are in
examples/.
Why Livi Pen
- Familiar. A familiar layout, tools, menus, panels and shortcuts: the Pen, Direct Selection,
Pathfinder, Smart Guides, Appearance, Swatches, Layers and more. You already know how to use it.
- Fast. Multithreaded SIMD rendering off the UI thread. 20,000 shapes render in about 27 ms at
full retina resolution while the interface stays at 120 fps.
- Robust. Exact curve booleans (no "cannot perform operation"), unlimited undo via structural
sharing, and property-tested file round trips.
- Open. A documented native format (
.livipen, JSON), first-class SVG, PDF (and
PDF-compatible .ai) import and export, PNG/JPEG/WebP export, Export for Screens, and SVGZ,
templates, GIF, TIFF and BMP on open.
- Agent-native. Every menu item, tool gesture, panel and dialog can be driven over a JSON
control channel and an MCP server, so Claude and other agents can draw, edit and export the
way a person does.
- Everywhere. One codebase for the desktop apps and the same UI in the browser.
Quick start
For posters and sewing patterns, see Print a large poster across multiple pages.
git clone https://github.com/sarayunova/livi-vector
cd livi-vector
cargo run --release -p livipen # desktop app
cargo run --release -p livipen -- examples/dusk-poster.livipen
cargo run --release -p livipen -- --control 7979 # + JSON control channel
cargo run --release -p livipen-cli -- mcp # MCP server (stdio)
cargo run --release -p livipen-cli -- run --in examples/ribbons.livipen --export out.pdf # headless batch
cargo run --release -p livipen-cli -- bench examples/neon-drive.livipen # render timing
cargo xtask bundle # dist/LiviPen.app (macOS)
cd apps/livipen-web && trunk build --release # web build → dist/web
cargo xtask ci # fmt, clippy, tests, layering, wasm, vendor names
For text and custom letter shapes, see Typography and Custom Lettering.
Japanese fonts come from storytold/craft-fonts, an optional
build input (releases always use it): CRAFT_FONTS_DIR="$PWD/../craft-fonts" cargo run --release -p livipen (an absolute path).
Without it, Japanese text uses the installed system fonts. See docs/development.md.
On machines with two graphics processors, Livi Pen renders on the power-saving (integrated) one by default on
Windows and macOS, and on the one the desktop runs on under Linux. To choose, use Preferences › Performance ›
Graphics Processor and restart. If a graphics processor can't show the window, Livi Pen starts again on the
next one. To pick one when starting the app, set WGPU_POWER_PREF=high (or low), or WGPU_ADAPTER_NAME to part of
its name, such as WGPU_ADAPTER_NAME=nvidia (see docs/development.md).
On native Wayland, winit 0.30 does not deliver dropped files. To open an SVG, use File › Open;
to place artwork in the current document, copy and paste the file in a file manager. For file
drag-and-drop, set Preferences › Performance › Linux Display Server to X11 (XWayland) and restart, or start
the app with WAYLAND_DISPLAY= livipen: the window then opens through XWayland, where drops work
(see docs/development.md).
On Linux with Wayland, under KDE Plasma 6.3 or later and under GNOME, Livi Pen doesn't respond to a drawing tablet's
pen yet (#491, #2028). Open the window through XWayland instead, where the pen works as a mouse and the app reads its
pressure: set the same preference to X11 (XWayland), or to X11 (XWayland) When a Pen Is Attached to use
XWayland only when a pen is attached as Livi Pen starts, and restart; or start the app with
WAYLAND_DISPLAY= livipen (see docs/development.md).
Use it from Claude Code and other agents
Register the MCP server with Claude Code:
claude mcp add livipen -- /path/to/livipen-cli mcp
To keep an agent to one project's files, give it folders to read and write (the same flags as PhotoCraft):
claude mcp add livipen -- /path/to/livipen-cli mcp --automation-read-root /work/project --automation-write-root /work/project
The details are in docs/mcp.md and docs/control-protocol.md.
For the experimental, unsupported 64-bit Windows 7 build, see Windows 7 instructions.
Status
Livi Pen is under active development. ROADMAP.md has the stage, the numbers by dimension
and what's next; docs/target-app-parity.md the full parity assessment and
docs/gaps.md the ranked list of what's missing.
Where we are (2026-10-10): alpha. About 88% of core menu items, tools, effects and formats exist
(92.5% of menu items do something), feature depth is ~75%, and we estimate ~65% ready for real work for a mainstream illustrator (~62% across all tracked features): everyday
vector illustration is close to usable: drawing and path tools,
Pathfinder and Shape Builder, paint, gradients, appearance and transparency, type with styles, threading and Hebrew/Arabic bidirectional layout, and
files (SVG, PDF and PDF-compatible .ai with PDF/X, legacy version 7 .ai keeping layers, groups and type, EPS, DXF, EMF/WMF, raster formats, PSD out and PSD/PSB in as their merged image, Print, Package).
Affinity documents (.af from Affinity 3, .afdesign, .afpub and, by their content, .afphoto from Affinity 1 and 2) open
and place natively: layers, groups, artboards and pages, curves and shapes, fills, gradients and strokes, clipping
and masks, text with each paragraph's indents, spacing and leading, tables (as text frames and lines), master
pages, shadows, glows, outlines and overlays, embedded Affinity documents and images, with what didn't come in
(adjustments, blurs, bevels, brushes…) listed in the import warning; a file whose native data can't be read opens as its embedded preview, saying why. Livi Pen
doesn't write Affinity files. Current .af validation includes 33 pinned files, native save/reload
and every-board SVG/PDF/PSD export, with fixes for Affinity 3 artboards, source-backed JPEGs and text runs.
Scope and limits; source audit and remaining gaps.
The interface
speaks English, German, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Finnish, Bulgarian, Greek, Czech and Georgian;
localization-parity.md has the details.
The scores are self-assessed from our code against public documentation;
target-app-parity.md explains how far to trust them.
What's missing:
- reliable exchange of .ai files (layer structure in real files; proprietary editing data isn't written);
- an interaction-fidelity pass covering every tool's modifiers and small behaviours;
- 3D and Materials beyond the initial live Revolve (Extrude & Bevel, Inflate, Rotate, materials);
- filter thumbnails and a preview area inside the Effect Gallery (the gallery itself and all 57 Photoshop-style raster filters, approximated, are in);
- CJK composition for vertical type (vertical type itself has initial support, with a Japanese interface);
- scripting, and the rest of Variables (image and graph kinds, dataset import);
- generative AI features.
Where we're going: next is the interaction-fidelity pass, .ai files from real users and start-up stability,
alongside the raster-effects package; then type, recent additions and 3D. The ranked list is in
docs/gaps.md.
Workspace: crates/{geom, color, doc, pathops, text, effects, three-d, trace, brush, render, svg, pdf, eps, cad, metafile, format, tools, engine, ui-egui, mcp, testkit}
and apps/{livipen, livipen-cli, livipen-web}. The egui frontend is its own crate, so
the UI can be swapped without touching the engine.
Agent and contributor rules (clean-room, the asset policy, no panics in shipped code, quality gates) are in
AGENTS.md; docs/development.md
explains how Livi Pen avoids crashing, and docs/releasing.md how releases are built,
signed and published. Every bundled asset is listed with its licence in ASSETS.md.
Downloads
Release builds are published on this repository's GitHub Releases page and on liviverse.com/livipen, with install steps for each system. To try Livi Pen without installing it, open the browser version. <ver> in the file names is the version number, and SHA256SUMS.txt lists a checksum for every file.
Windows
| Build | Installer | Portable |
|---|
| x64 (64-bit Intel/AMD) | livipen-<ver>-windows-x64.msi | livipen-<ver>-windows-x64-portable.zip |
| arm64 (Snapdragon and other ARM PCs) | livipen-<ver>-windows-arm64.msi | livipen-<ver>-windows-arm64-portable.zip |
| x86 (32-bit) | livipen-<ver>-windows-x86.msi | livipen-<ver>-windows-x86-portable.zip |
Installers and executables are code-signed.
macOS
| Build | File | Notes |
|---|
| App, universal (Apple silicon + Intel) | livipen-<ver>-macos-universal.dmg | Signed and notarized |
| Command-line tool, universal | livipen-cli-<ver>-macos-universal.zip | Signed and notarized |
Linux
| Format | x86_64 | aarch64 (ARM64) | Notes |
|---|
| AppImage | livipen-<ver>-linux-x86_64.AppImage | livipen-<ver>-linux-aarch64.AppImage | Runs anywhere; updates itself with AppImageUpdate (.zsync files) |
| Flatpak | livipen-<ver>-linux-x86_64.flatpak | livipen-<ver>-linux-aarch64.flatpak | Sandboxed; flatpak install --user <file> |
| Debian/Ubuntu | livipen-<ver>-linux-x86_64.deb | livipen-<ver>-linux-aarch64.deb | |
| Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE | livipen-<ver>-linux-x86_64.rpm | livipen-<ver>-linux-aarch64.rpm | |
| Tarball | livipen-<ver>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | livipen-<ver>-linux-aarch64.tar.gz | Unpack anywhere |
FreeBSD
| Build | File |
|---|
| x86_64 | livipen-<ver>-freebsd-x86_64.tar.gz |
Web (WebAssembly)
| Build | File | Notes |
|---|
| Static site | livipen-web-<ver>.zip | Runs in a modern browser; host it on any static server |
License and credits
Livi Pen is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option.
Copyright (c) 2026 Livi. Livi Pen is based on VectorCraft,
copyright (c) 2026 ArtCraft Team and the VectorCraft contributors. Required notices are in NOTICE.
Livi Pen is not affiliated with or endorsed by the ArtCraft Team.
Bundled fonts, icons, images and other assets keep their own open licenses; each one is listed
with its author, source and license in ASSETS.md. Release builds also embed the
fonts of craft-fonts (Japanese,
Simplified Chinese and Arabic faces; SIL Open Font License 1.1).
The app icon is Livi's own, under MIT OR Apache-2.0; its palette and files are in
assets/app-icon/.
