Introduction
What is Design on Web?
Design on Web is an embeddable design editor SDK for building Canva-like editors directly in the browser. It gives you a full-featured visual editor — shapes, text, images, templates, and export — that you can drop into any web application with minimal setup.
Under the hood, the rendering engine is powered by Fabric.js v6, providing a performant HTML5 Canvas with object manipulation, grouping, and serialization built in.
Key Features
- Shapes and objects — rectangles, circles, lines, polygons, and custom SVG paths
- Text and typography — rich text editing with fonts, colors, effects, and alignment
- Images — drag-and-drop upload, cropping, filters, and background removal
- Icons — built-in icon library with search
- Templates — load, save, and share reusable design templates
- Export (8 formats) — PNG, JPEG, SVG, PDF, PSD, TIFF, JSON, and WebP
- Plugins — extend the editor with custom tools, panels, and export formats
- Multi-page — design documents with multiple pages/artboards
- Version history — undo/redo with full state snapshots
- i18n — internationalization with pluggable locale packs
Architecture Overview
Design on Web follows a 3-layer architecture that separates concerns and allows you to pick exactly the level of abstraction you need:
- Core Engine — the rendering engine, state management, command system, and plugin host. Framework-agnostic and usable from vanilla JavaScript.
- UI Components — pre-built React components for toolbar, panels, dialogs, and canvas viewport. Themeable and composable.
- Framework Bindings — thin wrappers for React (and vanilla JS) that wire the engine to the component tree with minimal boilerplate.
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Pick your level
You can use the high-level React component for a quick embed, or drop down to the Core Engine API for full control over every object on the canvas.
Packages
| Package | Description |
|---|---|
@design-on-web/shared | Types, constants, utilities, and i18n infrastructure shared across all packages. |
@design-on-web/core | Editor engine powering the canvas — commands, store, events, and plugin system. |
@design-on-web/ui | React UI components: toolbar, side panel, property panel, layer panel, and more. |
@design-on-web/react | React wrapper providing the DesignEditor component for quick integration. |
@design-on-web/vanilla | Vanilla JS / CDN entry point — no framework required. |
@design-on-web/export-psd | PSD export plugin (Adobe Photoshop format). |
@design-on-web/export-pdf | PDF export plugin with multi-page support. |
@design-on-web/export-svg | Enhanced SVG export plugin with filter and effect support. |
@design-on-web/export-image | TIFF export plugin for high-quality raster output. |
Next Steps
- Installation — install the SDK packages
- Quick Start — render your first editor in under 5 minutes