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# Features and roadmap. The current version of Graphite provides tools for designing vector art with Bézier curves, similar to desktop applications like Inkscape, Illustrator, and Affinity Designer.
## Graphite today. Graphite is a lightweight vector graphics editor that runs in your browser. Its nascent node-based compositor lets you apply image effects and co-create amazing art with AI.
Vector editing
Node graph image effects
AI-assisted art creation
Open source and free forever
Launch Graphite
## Graphite tomorrow. All the digital content creation tools a professional needs— in one streamlined package:
Looks and feels like traditional WYSIWYG design apps
Sleek, intuitive interface built by designers, for designers
Real-time collaborative editing
Windows/Mac/Linux/Web/iPad
The full Graphite vision wholly embraces procedural workflows:
Fully non-destructive editing with node-driven layers
Infinitely scalable raster content with no pixelation
Integrates leading-edge AI models and graphics algorithms
Procedural pipelines for studio production environments

Upcoming Tech: How it works

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## Layers & nodes: hybrid compositing. Graphite combines the best ideas from multiple categories of digital content creation software to form a design for the ultimate general-purpose 2D graphics editor. It is influenced by the central editing experience of traditional layer-based raster and vector apps. It takes inspiration from the non-destructive workflows of VFX compositing programs used in Hollywood. And it borrows the creative superpowers of procedural asset creation applications in the 3D industry. Classic layer-based image editing is easy to understand and its collapsable folders help artists stay organized. A variety of interactive viewport tools make it easy to manipulate the layers by drawing directly onto the canvas. On the other hand, node-based editing is like artist-friendly programming. It works by describing manipulations as steps in a flowchart, which is vastly more powerful but comes with added complexity. The hybrid workflow of Graphite offers a classic tool-centric, layer-based editing experience built around a procedural, node-based compositor. Users can ignore the node graph, use it exclusively, or switch back and forth with the press of a button while creating content. Interacting with the canvas using tools will manipulate the nodes behind the scenes. And the layer panel and node graph provide two equivalent, interchangeable views of the same document structure.
## Raster & vector: sharp at all sizes. Digital 2D art commonly takes two forms. Raster artwork is made out of pixels which means it can look like anything imaginable, but it becomes blurry or pixelated from upscaling to a higher resolution. Vector artwork is made out of curved shapes which is perfect for some art styles but limiting to others. The magic of vector is that its mathematically-described curves can be enlarged to any size and remain crisp. Other apps usually focus on just raster or vector, forcing artists to buy and learn both products. Mixing art styles requires shuttling content back and forth between programs. And since picking a raster document resolution is a one-time deal, artists may choose to start really big, resulting in sluggish editing performance and multi-gigabyte documents. Graphite reinvents raster rendering so it stays sharp at any scale. Artwork is treated as data, not pixels, and is always drawn at the current view resolution. Zoom the viewport and export images at any size— the document's paint brushes, masks, filters, and effects will all be rendered at the native resolution. Marrying vector and raster under one roof enables both art forms to complement each other in a holistic content creation workflow.
## Development roadmap. Short-to-medium-term feature development is tracked at a granular level in the [Task Board](https://github.com/GraphiteEditor/Graphite/projects/1) on GitHub. Graphite uses a continuous release cycle without version numbers where changes can be tracked by [commit hash](https://github.com/GraphiteEditor/Graphite/commits/master). The stable release at [editor.graphite.rs](https://editor.graphite.rs) deploys a [recent commit](https://github.com/GraphiteEditor/Graphite/releases/tag/latest-stable) from the past several weeks, while [dev.graphite.rs](https://dev.graphite.rs) hosts the latest commit.

— Pre-Alpha (complete) —

— Alpha Milestone 1 (ongoing) —

— Alpha Milestone 2 —

— Alpha Milestone 3 —

— Beta —

— 1.0 Release —

— Future Releases —