@quickdrawjs/core

The framework-free heart of Quickdraw — an MIT-licensed infinite-canvas whiteboard engine. Zero dependencies, zero build step: plain ESM that runs in any modern browser.

If you're using React or React Native, you probably want @quickdrawjs/react or @quickdrawjs/react-native instead — they wrap this engine.

Install

npm install @quickdrawjs/core

Quick start

import { createQuickdraw } from '@quickdrawjs/core'
import '@quickdrawjs/core/quickdraw.css'

const board = createQuickdraw({
  container: document.getElementById('board'),
  theme: 'light', // or 'dark'
  grid: 'lines',  // 'none' | 'lines' (default) | 'ruled' | 'dots' | 'crosses' | 'iso'
})

// the document store emits a diff after every change
board.editor.store.listen((diff, source) => {
  console.log('changed', diff)
})

// later
board.destroy()

That's a complete whiteboard: pen with pressure/velocity ink, highlighter, shapes, arrows with bendable curves, text, sticky notes, images (paste/drop/pick), eraser, laser pointer, selection with resize/rotate, pan/zoom/pinch, undo/redo, PNG export, a responsive floating toolbar, light and dark themes, grid backdrops, and full keyboard shortcuts.

Theme, grid, and the board menu

Both live on the editor and in the ⋮ board menu, so users can switch them without you building any chrome:

board.editor.setTheme('dark')     // emits 'theme'
board.editor.setGrid('dots')      // 'none' | 'lines' (default) | 'ruled' | 'dots' | 'crosses' | 'iso', emits 'grid'
board.editor.clearBoard()         // one undoable step (⇧⌘⌫)

// mirror in-board switches into your own app state
board.editor.on('theme', () => setMyTheme(board.editor.theme.id))
board.editor.on('grid', () => setMyGrid(board.editor.grid))

If your app owns its own theme chrome, drop the in-board switches:

createQuickdraw({ container, themeToggle: false, gridControl: false })

A small "Quickdraw" mark sits in the board's corner. Keeping it helps people find the project; watermark: false removes it — no purchase required.

The grid spacing adapts to the zoom (doubling and halving around a 40px page step, majors every fifth) and travels into PNG exports that keep the paper.

Headless / custom UI

createQuickdraw is just new Editor(...) plus the stock toolbar. Use the editor bare and bring your own chrome:

import { Editor } from '@quickdrawjs/core'
import '@quickdrawjs/core/quickdraw.css'

const editor = new Editor({ container, theme: 'dark', grid: 'dots' })
editor.setTool('draw')
editor.setStyle('color', 'blue')
editor.on('selection', () => console.log([...editor.selection]))

The document

The store is a flat map of immutable records. Every mutation happens in a transaction and emits a diff — { added, removed, updated: {id: [from, to]} } — which is also the wire format for sync and the shape of undo history:

const snapshot = editor.store.getSnapshot()   // serialize (JSON-safe)
editor.store.loadSnapshot(snapshot)           // restore

// real-time sync: ship diffs both ways
editor.store.listen((diff) => socket.send(JSON.stringify(diff)), { source: 'user' })
socket.onmessage = (e) => editor.store.applyDiff(JSON.parse(e.data), 'remote')

Remote diffs don't enter local undo history, so collaborative undo stays sane.

Export

const blob = await editor.exportImage({ background: true, scale: 2 })

See the repository README for the full API, data model and guides.

License

MIT