Status: current — Active project document, governed by the authority ladder in
docs/foundation/FOUNDATION_CHARTER.md§3.
An Arabic-first, free and open-source vector editor — built in public. It opens instantly, and its working files are already PDFs.
Built in Rust, drawn directly on the GPU (wgpu + egui, no Electron, no web view). Windows-first. Built in public by a designer and AI pair-programming sessions — every decision documented, every stage hand-tested.
⚠️ Early days, on purpose. Varos is a working drawing tool under heavy construction — not yet a daily design tool (text is coming, see the roadmap below). We publish early because we build in the open.
- No loading. It opens, you draw. Every interaction answers instantly — the only animation in the app is your own work.
- Your working file is a PDF. A
.vrsfile is simultaneously a valid PDF: send it to a client or a print shop and it just opens — no Export step — then reopen it in Varos and keep editing. - Arabic that doesn't break. Every major design tool treats Arabic letters as an afterthought — disconnected glyphs, reversed direction, no real justification. We are building an Arabic text engine with proper shaping and real kashida justification as a core feature, not a plugin. This is the hill we chose.
- Free and open, permanently. GPL-3.0. Your work belongs to you; the tool can never be taken closed against you.
| Working today | Coming next | The vision |
|---|---|---|
| Shapes, pen & bezier editing | New floating-panel UI (built, being merged) | Full Arabic engine with kashida |
| Pathfinder (boolean ops) | Masks & clipping | Sandboxed WASM plugins over one schema |
| Layers with per-artboard sections, cross-board drag | Gradients & swatches | AI that manipulates the document via the schema — no hallucinated coordinates |
| Smart snapping & guides | Text system | Community template library |
.vrs save (= valid PDF) |
PNG/SVG export; SVG import | |
223 headless tests at the audited 2026-07-11 baseline; local fmt + clippy -D warnings + full-suite gates are green (GitHub triggers are enabled, but hosted runners remain blocked by account verification; see STATUS) |
# stable Rust (rustup.rs), then:
git clone https://github.com/<org>/varos
cd varos/varos
cargo run --release -p varos-appThe Cargo workspace lives in varos/. Architecture in one line: varos-core (pure logic, zero GPU/window deps — where most headless behavior tests live) → varos-render-wgpu (GPU tessellation & painting) → varos-app (window, input, UI). The compiler enforces the seam.
We're a small project with an unusually deep paper trail — start with CONTRIBUTING.md and the good first issue label. Design decisions live in docs/ with dates and reasons; the visual law is docs/UI_DIRECTION.md.
Areas that need owners: icons, translations, docs, Windows-on-iGPU testing.
Code: GPL-3.0. The Varos name and logo are trademarks of the project — see TRADEMARK.md. Anything you design with Varos is entirely yours.