Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 13:31

Evolus Pencil - The Free Software UI/UX Designer and Diagram Drawing


Evolus Pencil is a free/open source GUI prototyping and diagramming/flowcharting software from Vietnam. It is a cross-platform desktop application, can be fully used without registration nor subscribtion. It is very easy to use, powerful and snappy to make complex user interface mockups and it provides prebuilt elements ("stencils") you can use by drag and drop. We overview Pencil here from its third generation version 3.1.1. Happy reading!


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About Pencil


Pencil from Evolus, a company in Vietnam, is a free/open source UI/UX prototyping software as well as diagram drawing licensed under GNU GPLv2+. Its purpose is to design graphical user interface (GUI) for desktop, web and mobile applications. It has a long history dated back in 2008, then 2015 and continuing to today with a full rewrite since version 3 and the latest version is 3.1.1 released Sunday 1 January 2023. Technologically, it is developed using Electron JS and has not been available in Debian and Ubuntu software repositories.

Features

  • Easy GUI Prototyping
  • Built-in Shape Collections
  • Diagram Drawing Support
  • Exporting to Different Output Formats (PNG, HTML, ODT, PDF, SVG)
  • Easily Find Cliparts from the Internet
  • Inter-page linking

 

Video Tutorial

Please note that Evolus does not publish any official video about Pencil. However, there are Pencil video tutorials made by the community. Visit the playlist. As an example, below is one of the videos by tobyonline from 2013.

Note: if you have concerns about software freedom and privacy, consider watching the video via Invidious or NewPipe. You can also download it directly. Happy watching!


Similar Software 

  • Akira
  • PenPot (web)
  • Diagram.io
  • LibreOffice Draw
  • Figma *
  • Adobe XD *

*) Proprietary software, not free/open source. 



Evolus Pencil should not to be confused with Pencil2D, a free animation software developed by a Taiwanese programmer, which is already available on both Debian and Ubuntu repositories.


Minimum Requirements

Operating system: 

  • GNU/Linux
  • Windows
  • MacOS 

 


Download Pencil

1. Visit the download page https://pencil.evolus.vn/Downloads.html.

2. Download Pencil software package according to your operating system. 


How To Install

For Ubuntu users:

1. Visit the download page.

2. Find the Ubuntu section.

3. Download Pencil software package in DEB format according to your architecture:

  • i386 = Intel or AMD PC 32-bit
  • amd64 = Intel or AMD PC 64-bit

4. Package file downloaded with file name Pencil_3.1.1.ga_amd64.deb or similar.

5. Run the installation command from Terminal to the package file: 

$ sudo dpkg -i [package_file_name].deb

6. If an error about dependencies occured, connect to the internet and fix it all:

$ sudo apt-get -f install

7. Evolus Pencil installed on Ubuntu system.


First Run

Run Pencil from your start menu. For first time, it will look like this. If you are already accustomed to graphic design tool like Inkscape, it is very easy looking, right?


How To Use

Below we show several examples of usages of Evolus Pencil for designing graphical user interface of desktop, mobile and web applications.

A. Desktop application design:

Run Pencil -> New Document -> an empty document created -> see left panel -> open either one of selections below -> drag and drop item from left to white canvas to the right.

  • Common shapes: contains basic rectangle, triangle, circle, lines, text etc.

  • Desktop - GTK Widgets: contains GNOME-like windows and elements.

  • Desktop - Sketchy Widgets: contains handdrawn-like windows and elements.

  • Desktop - Windows XP Widgets: contains Microsoft-style windows and elements.

  • Desktop - Prototype GUI: contains prototyping-style windows and elements.

 
 

B. Mobile application design:

Pencil is capable to draw designs of iOS and Android. Below, we drew an Ubuntu Tablet and an Android phone mockups. It shows elements like radio buttons, push buttons, combo box and even virtual keyboard.
 

C. Web application design:

Pencil is capable to draw designs of website or web application. Below, we drew a very simple design of web blog with Ubuntu style.
 
 

D. Diagram and flowchart:

Pencil is also capable to draw diagrams and flowcharts. Below we drew a diagram of GNU/Linux distributions history.

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