explaingit

tanshilongmario/inkpainting

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

34JavaScriptAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A free browser tool that simulates traditional Chinese ink and water painting, no install or account needed.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((InkPainting))
    What it does
      Simulates ink painting
      Brush and paper physics
    Tech stack
      HTML5
      Canvas 2D
      Vanilla JS
    Use cases
      Digital ink practice
      Mobile sketching
    Audience
      Artists
      Hobbyists

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Practice traditional Chinese ink painting techniques digitally without buying real brushes and paper.

USE CASE 2

Create ink-style artwork and export it as a PNG image to share online.

USE CASE 3

Try it on a phone or tablet with a touch-friendly layout for on the go sketching.

USE CASE 4

Study or fork the code as an example of a from-scratch canvas drawing engine with no build tools.

What is it built with?

HTML5CSS3JavaScriptCanvas 2D APIlocalStorage

How does it compare?

tanshilongmario/inkpaintingquyanhfex/messenger-recall-toolrotejin/tomari-guruguru
Stars343434
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyeasymoderateeasy
Complexity2/53/52/5
Audiencegeneraldevelopergeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

InkPainting is a browser-based drawing tool for creating traditional Chinese ink paintings. There is nothing to install and no server required: you clone the repository, open the main HTML file in any modern browser, and start drawing. Everything runs locally in the browser using standard web technologies. The tool simulates how physical Chinese ink and paper actually behave. It offers four brush types, each with its own character: a precise wolf-hair brush, a looser sheep-hair brush, a dry-tip scatter brush, and a pipe brush for flooding ink. Eight levels of wetness control how the ink flows and spreads. Wet ink soaks into the paper and bleeds outward, dry ink stays fixed and resists being washed away by a water brush. Eight classic color options cover ink black, flower blue, cinnabar, pollen yellow, and others. The paper itself is also simulated. Four types of Xuan paper are available, each with its own texture and ink-absorption behavior. You can add inscriptions in vertically arranged Chinese text and apply seals in carved or raised styles. A local gallery lets you save works in progress and export finished pieces as PNG files. Mobile support is included. On a phone or tablet, panels slide in from the sides and a bottom toolbar replaces the desktop sidebar layout. Touch drawing is handled with standard pointer events. The entire painting engine is a single JavaScript file of roughly 2,000 lines with no external dependencies beyond two Google Fonts. Works are saved to browser local storage, with no cloud account or login required. The README is written in Chinese. The project is MIT licensed.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through cloning TanShilongMario/InkPainting and opening it in my browser, then explain what each brush type does.
Prompt 2
Show me how to run a local Python web server so I can test InkPainting on my phone over Wi-Fi.
Prompt 3
Explain how the ink diffusion effect works so I could adapt a similar fluid simulation for my own canvas project.
Prompt 4
Help me add a new brush type or ink color to InkPainting by walking me through the main JavaScript file.

Frequently asked questions

What is inkpainting?

A free browser tool that simulates traditional Chinese ink and water painting, no install or account needed.

What language is inkpainting written in?

Mainly JavaScript. The stack also includes HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript.

What license does inkpainting use?

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is inkpainting to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is inkpainting for?

Mainly general.

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