Alternatives to Pencil Project for all platforms with any license

Platforms

Desktop

Mobile

Web / Online

Show 15 less popular platforms

License

Pencil Project Comments

3.0 beta works well on Windows 10 64bit

Comment by nikolakovaevi
about Pencil Project · Jul 2016 · Helpful Not helpful 3 Helpful Report as spam

First of all, "official website" link is wrong. I wanted to update it but there are already pending changes.

Correct link is: http://pencil.evolus.vn/

Order of events:

  1. Evolus creates and updates a great tool up to version 2.0.5.
  2. Development seems to stall.
  3. Another chap forks and continues development using the same name and continuing version numbers: https://github.com/prikhi/pencil
  4. This chap (as of this writing) hasn't updated it in 4 months.
  5. Evolus introduces new version 3.0 still in beta and puts their code in github as well (link on their site)

Chap that forked should have changed the name and restarted version numbers not to confuse anyone.

I've tested 3.0 beta 2 and it works well in portable mode (installs in user local data) and doesn't need admin access. Save, open, export functionality works well even with multiple pages. You can't copy/paste out of it as it uses own XML data format. To integrate to other tools you must export (to PNG). I use it for quick sketches. When necessity calls for quality and precise drawings, I use LibreOffice Draw and GIMP.

Few bad things about 3.0 beta 2 is that install is super silent and quick because it doesn't meed permissions, so there is no uninstaller. In local user folder program/data is stored in ".pencil", "AppData\Local\Pencil" and "AppData\Roaming\Pencil". Shortcuts to be manually deleted as well.

[Edited by nikolakovaevi, July 15]

reply

Comment by ianmiller
about Pencil Project · Jul 2017 · Helpful Not helpful 1 Helpful Report as spam

Free and open source, save any group of objects as a template, link together objects and screens to create quick wireframe prototypes, and it has an open source model for icon sets/UI elements. What's not to love.

reply

Comment by yaziderman
about Pencil Project · Dec 2014 · Helpful Not helpful -3 Helpful Report as spam

Does pencil evolus support right to left languages?! Can we change the direction of the shapes, tables to be from right to left?!

reply
nikolakovaevi · Jul 2016

This is not a support site for products. I've personally tried RTL functionality in Pencil and seems fine to me. If you want to provide developer feedback I suggest you go to their site.