This is the first blog post I am uploading on here, so this will be a sort of test to see how things work. But I need something to write about so I’ll pick a hobby project from some time ago.

Sketching with infinite canvas

I write and sketch out my thoughts a lot when working on novel things. I usually use pen and paper because it feels intuitive and it gives me a break from staring at a screen. But it has many downsides such as a finite drawing area, cumbersome erasing and the need to replace ink and paper all the time. It would be interesting to have a digital sketch program that has an infinite canvas.

There are numerous programs that does this nowadays such as Milton , Concepts , Mischief (now seemingly discontinued). But as an interesting challenge and learning experience I decided back in 2017 to write such a program myself using only Win32 and OpenGL.

I have used this now and then over the course of some years. It is interesting to see the natural path the sketches have taken over time, which seemingly boils down to mostly moving downwards and sometimes to the right. But there is some resembelence of a tree which at leasts shows some tangents while thinking about a problem. The thing that keeps me using this program is its simplicity and efficiency to just open up, move somewhere new and start scribbling away aimlessly.

By far the best features of the program is its instant load-time and automatic saving to one default file, reducing all overhead to a minimum so the focus is just on drawing. The program does its job but it is not even close to being polished enough for general use, there are a lot of rough edges that would need to smoothed out. If you want to try it out, it can be accessed from here .