Right-click to start. Tools open in a ring around the cursor. Shapes, drawing and selection each have their own.
Design is fun again. Type, shaders and motion on one canvas. AI can help. You decide.
Right-click anywhere. Tools open in a ring around the cursor. Select a layer and its controls open beside it.
Controls come to you. Select something and its settings open beside it. Close them, and the canvas is all that's left.
Edit where you look. Text gets typography. Shapes get fills and size. Images get adjustments. Several layers get alignment.
One gesture, one undo. A drag, a resize or a slider move lands in history as a single step.
Prefer panels? Menu → Traditional UI brings back the docked inspector, layers and toolbar. Your document and undo history come with you.
You lead. The bots help. ascente has a built-in MCP server, so Claude, Cursor, Gemini and local models can work on the same canvas you do. What they make are ordinary layers you can change, keep or throw away.
Ask for the boring part. Twenty variations of a layout, a grid of type specimens, every colourway of a poster. Then pick one and make it yours.
Bots like it here. Agents can list layers, add text and shapes, stack shaders, run multi-step recipes and export a picture of the canvas to check their work.
Nothing is baked. Every change an assistant makes is an editable layer with live effects, and undo works on it like anything else.
Off by default. Connecting an assistant takes a minute of setup. You choose the provider and what it can see.
A darkroom for every image. Lightroom-style grading on any image layer: light and tone, HSL, colour grading, curves, grain and bloom. Bring your XMP presets with you.
Guerneville, night. Highlights −42, shadows +32, greens −72 saturation, warm highlights in colour grading, grain 24. Photo by Fabio Sasso on Unsplash. .ascente ↓
Select a photo and Dark Room opens. A live histogram, the sliders you know from Lightroom, and the canvas updates as you drag.
Everything can move. Keyframe any property, from type on a path to a stroke drawing itself, on a timeline that plays at your display's refresh rate.
The timeline stays out of the way. Open it when something needs to move. Easing curves, auto key and markers are there when you need them.
Made in ascente. Every image on this page is an editable project file. Download one and take it apart.
Shaders you can stack. Liquid metal, dithering, halftone, fluted glass, grain, VHS and more run live on the GPU. Every value is editable and can be keyframed.
Liquid metal. Chrome that bends with the shape under it. Set the tint, the dispersion and the contour, then pause it on a frame.
What's inside. The tools a graphic experiment usually needs, in one place.
Vectors and blends. Pen paths, stars, ellipses, and blends along curved spines that keep sharp corners and holes. Expand a blend into editable layers.
Start from a template. Fluted glass, analogue CRT and broadcast-glitch layouts, ready to pull apart.
Masks and blend modes. Any layer can mask the one below it. Every layer has its own blend mode and opacity.
Bring work in. Figma .fig, Sketch, SVG, PDF-compatible Illustrator files, and common image formats.
Send it out. PNG, JPEG, WebP and SVG. Save the editable project as an .ascente file.
Any screen. Phone, tablet or desktop. Needs a browser with WebGL. Heavy shader stacks run best on a recent GPU.
Questions? Answers.
What is ascente?
A design editor that runs in the browser. It puts vectors, type, images, GPU shaders and motion on one canvas. It's an Abduzeedo project.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Use a modern browser with WebGL. The workspace adapts to phones, tablets and desktops. Large canvases and heavy effects run best on more capable devices.
Can I bring in an existing design?
Yes. ascente opens common image formats, SVG, Figma .fig files, Sketch files and design Markdown. PDF-compatible Illustrator files come in as flattened pages, and EPS import supports a subset of vector paths. Features without an equivalent in ascente can be lost.
How do I save my work?
Save an .ascente project from the menu to keep an editable copy. Export an image or SVG to use the finished design somewhere else.
Can an AI assistant work on my canvas?
Yes. ascente includes an agent API and an MCP bridge, so compatible assistants can inspect and edit the canvas. Connecting one takes setup. You choose the provider and what to share.
Where is my work kept?
Editing happens in your browser, and projects save to your device. Cloud storage, remote imports and AI assistants use the services you connect. This page uses no cookies or analytics. The editor can load external fonts and shows an ad in its menu, so those services may receive connection data.
Can I use my Lightroom presets?
You can import supported Lightroom XMP develop settings in Dark Room. ascente translates the adjustments it supports. RAW processing, camera profiles and local masks aren't included.
