RASTR | Canvas-based Photo Editor
RASTR is a cross-platform desktop photo editor and graphic design application written in JavaScript and based on the HTML5 canvas element.
Performance
As is the nature with HTML5 canvas, it’s not exactly quick. My goal is to eventually port the core image processing code over to either C++ or Rust (if I’ve bothered to learn Rust by then). My goal with this was to build a nice set of tools and handle image processing in a manner that doesn’t require decoding of every possible image format separately. In that respect, I think this project is serving it’s purpose.
Some other ideas include using WebGL or WebAssembly for the CPU-intensive bits. Another option is to utilize a library like GPU.js to allow parallel processing on the GPU for the heavy parts. Both options would allow me to retain the Electron-based UI which I’m certainly in favor of.
Building
If you’re brave enough, you can clone the repo and install the NPM packages. There is currently no build script in place to create a binary but you can run npm run electron:serve to launch the app in developer mode. This section will be updated as the relevant config is changed.
