The node-based
image editor.
Wire 87 nodes into one non-destructive pipeline, then re-export every color variant, size, and format in a single pass. Nothing is ever baked.
Native C++ for Windows, macOS & Linux
Who it’s for
If you’ve ever exported
the same thing twice,
this is for you.
Game Artists
200 item icons in 12 color tiers. Build the pipeline once and export all 2,400 variants straight into your project folder.
→ Asset variants · Sprite sheets · Texture production
Pixel Artists & Indie Devs
Pixelate, Outline, and Dither handle retro styling. Sprite Sheet export packs variants into a single atlas with a TexturePacker-compatible JSON manifest, all inside your target palette.
→ Sprite production · Retro styling · Atlas packing
Illustrators
Character sheets, commission variants, color explorations. Define your palette, see every version instantly, adjust one and they all update.
→ Color variants · Commission workflows · Character art
Concept Artists
AI Image Edit takes your rough sketch and fills in the detail. You control the composition and iterate on style without starting over.
→ Sketch-to-art · Rapid iteration · Style exploration
Texture Artists
Seamless Blend makes any source tileable. Normal Map generates 3D lighting from grayscale. Noise and Pattern build procedural bases, and Tile Preview shows the result tiled. All in one graph.
→ Tileable textures · PBR authoring · Procedural generation
Designers
Logos in every brand color on product mockups. Marketing assets at every size. Systematic pipelines that produce every variant without repetitive manual exports.
→ Brand systems · Logo variants · Multi-format export
Familiar territory. If you’ve used node-based tools in Houdini, Blender, Nuke, Substance, or Unreal, you already know the paradigm. ArcBrush applies it to 2D image production.
How it works
Your process,
as a graph.
Load, filter, warp, mask, remap, export: each is a node. Change one parameter and only the nodes downstream recompute. Nothing is baked, everything stays live.
Typed pins
Typed pins
Images, masks, palettes, and batches each carry their own pin type. The graph refuses an invalid wire before you can make it.
Non-destructive
Every parameter stays live. Adjust a blur radius or swap a palette six months later; only the affected nodes re-evaluate.
.arcb is portable
One graph file holds every parameter, connection, and embedded asset, and opens identically on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Live re-evaluation
Toggle Watch File on a source, edit it in another app, and the graph re-runs the moment the file changes on disk.
Batch processing
Drop a folder.
Process everything.
Ten or ten thousand.
Load a directory with Image Folder, wire it through any chain of filters and transforms, and connect Export Batch. Every frame flows the whole pipeline; hundreds of consistently named files land in your output folder.
Image Folder
Trim
Outline
Quantize
Export Batch
Transparent propagation
Wire a batch into any node and every frame flows through it. No batch-specific modes, no loops, no scripting. Blur, Levels, Sharpen, and Color Balance all handle batches natively.
Folder scanning
Image Folder loads an entire directory with glob-style filtering, recursive subfolder scanning, and sorting by name, date, or file size. Cap the batch with a frame limit when testing on large folders.
Smart file naming
Export Batch names every output with configurable tokens, and a live preview shows the resolved filename as you type.
{name} {source} {index} {width} {height} {date} {node} {graph}
Live progress
Every node in the pipeline shows a progress bar during batch evaluation, and Export Batch tracks file writes in real time. You always know exactly where things stand.
Split and route
Decompose batches with Split: extract individual frames, divide into equal chunks, slice by index, or filter by name pattern. Branch your pipeline for per-frame or per-group processing.
AI-aware batching
When a batch hits an AI node, a confirmation modal shows the total credit cost with cache hits pre-deducted. Failed frames retry individually without re-running the whole batch.
The killer feature
One graph.
Every color variant.
Automatically.
Define a palette of nine named colors, wire it into Palette Remap, connect Export Batch. Nine recolored PNGs land in your folder, each keeping the original's highlights, shadows, and gradients. Change the palette, re-export.
9 named slots → 9 named files
Luminance preserved
The remap shifts hue and saturation in perceptual color space. Highlights stay highlights, shadows stay shadows. The recolor looks painted, not tinted.
Import palettes
Drop in .gpl, .ase, .pal, and .aseprite palettes from Aseprite, Photoshop, GIMP, Krita, Illustrator, Affinity, or Inkscape, including names and colors.
Palette From Image
No palette? Feed any reference image into Palette From Image and it extracts the dominant colors automatically. Wire that into Palette Remap.
Named variants
Each palette slot has a name, and Export Batch uses it in the filename: potion_red.png, potion_blue.png. Consistent and automatic, every time.
Sprite sheet export
Export all variants as individual files, or pack them into a single sprite sheet with a TexturePacker-compatible JSON manifest, ready for your game engine.
One change, all update
Adjust the source art and every variant re-exports with the change. Adjust the palette and every variant shifts. The graph stays live.
AI integration
Optional AI.
Built right in.
ArcBrush is a complete node-based image editor with optional AI generation built in. FLUX, Nano Banana 2, GPT Image 2, four background-removal engines, and 4x upscale wire into the graph as ordinary nodes. Generate from a text prompt, or feed your own images to restyle, edit, upscale, or remove backgrounds. Every filter, mask, warp, color tool, and export pipeline still works locally, without an account or internet connection.
Nano Banana 2
GeminiAccepts multiple input images at once (references, style, masks) with strong all-round prompt understanding
GPT Image 2
OpenAIThe best in-image text rendering of any model, and the strictest prompt adherence on complex instructions
FLUX.2 Max
Black Forest LabsHighest-fidelity generation and editing
FLUX.2 Pro
Black Forest LabsHigh-quality, production-grade generation and editing
FLUX Fast
Black Forest LabsLow cost and fast, for exploring ideas before committing
FLUX.2 Turbo Edit
Black Forest LabsFast, affordable instruction-based edits at the lowest editing cost
Background Removal
4 enginesFour engines at one cost: rembg, Bria RMBG 2.0, Ideogram, and Pixelcut
AI Upscale
AuraSR4x super-resolution, v1 for general use and v2 for photographs
All 83 non-AI nodes run offline: no account, no sign-in, no limits. AI is a paid add-on you opt into. Sign in once and the first 10 credits are free.
Starter
Best for trying AI features and occasional generation.
Plus
For regular AI-assisted workflows.
Pro
For heavy AI use and production pipelines. Lowest per-credit cost.
Generations per model
At standard resolution (up to 1024x1024). Higher resolutions use more credits.
| Model | Credits | Starter | Plus | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLUX FastText to Image | 0.2 | 1,750 | 4,000 | 9,000 |
| FLUX.2 Turbo EditImage Edit | 0.5 | 700 | 1,600 | 3,600 |
| Remove BackgroundRemove BG | 1 | 350 | 800 | 1,800 |
| AI UpscaleUpscale | 1 | 350 | 800 | 1,800 |
| FLUX.2 ProText to Image / Edit | 2 | 175 | 400 | 900 |
| GPT Image 2Text to Image | 4 | 87 | 200 | 450 |
| GPT Image 2 EditImage Edit | 5 | 70 | 160 | 360 |
| Nano Banana 2Text to Image / Edit | 5 | 70 | 160 | 360 |
| FLUX.2 MaxText to Image / Edit | 5 | 70 | 160 | 360 |
Under the hood
Native. Not a web app.
Not Electron. Not a wrapper.
ArcBrush is a C++20 desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux. OpenCV processes your images on the CPU and GPU, OpenGL renders the previews, and every operation runs natively on your hardware. AI nodes reach the cloud only when you tell them to.
C++20
A native binary compiled for Windows, macOS, and Linux. No runtime dependencies, no browser engine, a lightweight installer, and a fast cold start.
16.3 MB Win · 26.9 MB Mac · 11.5 MB Linux
GPU-accelerated
Image processing offloads to your GPU when one is available, and falls back to the CPU on every operation. Larger images route to the GPU for speed.
Automatic GPU / CPU routing
Parallel processing
Every per-pixel operation distributes across all of your CPU cores. Large images process in fractions of a second.
All cores · adaptive threading
Smart evaluation
Only the nodes downstream of a change re-evaluate. Fast nodes update instantly; heavy nodes wait until you stop dragging. Nothing recomputes needlessly.
Incremental · adaptive debounce
Typed connections
Five pin types (Image, Mask, Palette, Batch, Size Reference), each with strict connection rules, so the graph blocks invalid wiring before you make it.
5 pin types · strict rules
Open format & auto-save
.arcb files are human-readable JSON. Your work auto-saves at regular intervals, with crash recovery on the next launch.
JSON · portable · crash recovery
Node library
87 nodes. 10 categories.
Infinite combinations.
From basic inputs to AI generation, from pixel-level color control to mesh warps and batch export, every operation in your workflow has a dedicated, composable node.
Inputs
3Image In
Load PNG, JPEG, WebP, TGA, BMP from disk or clipboard
Image Folder
Load all images from a folder as a batch
SVG Import
Vector import with resolution-independent rasterization
Generators
6Canvas
Solid color starting point at any resolution
Gradient
Linear, radial, angular, diamond gradients with multi-stop colors
Noise
Perlin, Simplex, Clouds, Voronoi, White noise with fBm and domain warp
Pattern
Checkerboard, stripes, dots, hexagons, brick
Shape
Circle, rectangle, polygon, star, ring with optional stroke and tile mode
Text
Render text with system or custom .ttf/.otf fonts, with full alignment and rotation
Transform
17Arrange
Place images side by side or stacked for comparisons and layouts
Corner Pin
Four-point perspective warp with optional background plate
Crop
Extract a region by pixel coordinates or percentage
Displace
Pixel displacement driven by a grayscale or red/green channel map
Mirror
Flip horizontal, vertical, or both
Mesh Warp
Interactive bicubic Bezier grid deformation, drag control points to sculpt
Offset
Shift the image horizontally or vertically with optional edge wrapping
Pad
Add border padding with color or extend modes
Polar Remap
Cartesian-to-polar and polar-to-Cartesian coordinate transform
Resize
Scale to exact dimensions or percentage with multiple algorithms
Rotate 90
Pixel-perfect 90/180/270 rotation with no interpolation
Smart Scale
Content-aware resize via seam carving, preserving important content
Spherize
Barrel and pincushion lens distortion
Sprite Sheet
Pack batch frames into a single grid image for game engines
Tile
Grid-based image repeat with mirror mode, row/column offset, and size reference
Transform
Translate, rotate, scale with interpolation and an interactive manipulator
Trim
Auto-crop transparent or solid-color edges
Filter
21Blur
Gaussian, box, median, motion, bilateral, edge-preserving, radial, zoom blur
Chromatic Aberration
Per-channel radial or uniform dispersion
Composite
Layer blending with 18 modes (Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, more)
Denoise
Noise reduction preserving edges and detail
Drop Shadow
Configurable offset, blur, color, and opacity
Edge Detect
Canny edge extraction with adjustable thresholds and custom colors
Emboss
Directional emboss with angle and strength
Film Grain
Physically-modeled film grain with eight calibrated stock presets
Glow
Bloom/glow effect with threshold and radius control
Halftone
Newspaper, manga, and offset-print dot screens in Grayscale, RGB, CMYK
High Pass
Isolate detail for sharpening, frequency separation, and texture flattening
Inpaint
Content-aware fill using mask regions
Layer
Composite images as a layer stack with per-layer blend, opacity, visibility
Normal Map
Generate normal maps from height/grayscale images for 3D lighting
Outline
Inner, outer, or center stroke around non-transparent regions
Paint
Interactive freehand painting directly on images
Pixel Sort
Reorder pixels along rows, columns, angles, or polar spokes for glitch effects
Pixelate
Reduce to chunky pixels with configurable block size, essential for pixel art
Seamless Blend
Mirror-fold and content-aware blend to make any image tileable
Sharpen
Unsharp Mask and edge-preserving Detail Enhance
Vignette
Edge darkening with shape, size, and falloff
Mask
8Color Range
Select pixels by color similarity with eyedropper, tolerance, softness
Magic Wand
Flood-fill contiguous color selection from seed points
Mask Apply
Apply a mask as the alpha channel of an image
Mask Boolean
Union, intersection, subtraction, XOR of two masks
Mask From Image
Extract masks from alpha, luminance, or any channel
Mask Paint
Freehand mask painting with brush tools
Mask Refine
Erode, dilate, feather, and threshold masks
Roto
Interactive bezier spline rotoscoping
Color
22Black and White
Convert to grayscale with per-hue sliders and film-style presets
Brightness/Contrast
Simple brightness and contrast with S-Curve or Linear modes
Channel Merge
Combine four single-channel images into one RGBA image
Channel Shuffle
Rearrange, swap, or fill RGBA channels
Channel Split
Split an RGBA image into four single-channel images
Color Balance
Shadows/midtones/highlights color shifting
Color Overlay
Solid color overlay with 18 blend modes and adjustable opacity
Color Remap
Single-color hue/saturation shift preserving luminance
Curves
Bezier curve adjustment per channel
Dither
Floyd-Steinberg, ordered, and blue noise dithering for retro and print
Exposure
Adjust exposure in EV stops with offset and gamma, in linear light
Gradient Map
Map luminance range to a color gradient
HSB
Hue, saturation, brightness adjustment
Invert
Channel inversion (all, RGB only, or per-channel)
Levels
Input/output range with per-channel gamma control
Local Contrast
Clarity / local contrast enhancement
Palette
Define named color slots for variant generation
Palette From Gradient
Sample a palette from a gradient with seven interpolation modes
Palette From Image
Auto-extract dominant colors from any image
Palette Remap
Full palette-driven variant generation (N colors to N outputs)
Posterize
Reduce color levels for a stylized flat-color look
Quantize
Reduce to N colors with optional dithering
Keyer
2Chroma Key
Green/blue screen removal with spill suppression
Luma Key
Extract matte from brightness values
AI
4AI Image Edit
Edit existing images with text instructions
AI Remove Background
One-click AI background removal to clean RGBA
AI Text to Image
Generate images from text prompts (5 models)
AI Upscale
4x super-resolution via AuraSR, adds realistic detail
Export
2Export Batch
Export all batch frames as named files or packed sprite sheets
Export Image
Save single output as PNG, JPEG, BMP, WebP, TIFF, or TGA
Utility
2Collect
Bundle images into a batch for pipeline processing
Split
Decompose a batch into individual images or sub-batches
87 nodes · 5 typed pins · type-safe wiring
Features
Serious depth.
Obsessive polish.
Node graph
- Graph editing shortcuts
- Drop a node on a wire to splice it in, shake one to disconnect its wires, or Ctrl+R to swap two. Drag a selection from one output to fan it into an array input.
- Smart node deletion
- Delete a node and its upstream and downstream reconnect automatically, so the signal chain stays intact.
- Node snapping
- Dragged nodes align to their neighbors with guide lines, or to a grid, or not at all. Hold Ctrl to move freely.
- Node groups
- Backdrop boxes that organize complex graphs. Drag, resize, and rename; nodes belong by spatial containment.
- Reroute nodes
- Double-click any wire to drop in a routing dot that passes the signal through unchanged, for cleaner paths.
- Wire styles
- Curved, rounded, straight, or right-angle wires with automatic node avoidance.
- Node notes & sticky notes
- Attach text notes to any node, or drop standalone sticky notes on the canvas.
- Graph search
- Find any node by name instantly. Ctrl+F to search, Enter to jump to it.
- Minimap
- Bird's-eye view of the whole graph. Click to navigate.
- Node bypass
- Disable any node without deleting it. The graph routes around it.
- Y-key wire cut
- Hold Y and drag across wires to slice them for fast restructuring.
Creative tools
- Interactive tools
- Draw and sculpt directly in the preview with Mesh Warp, Roto, Corner Pin, Text, Paint, and Mask Paint handles.
- Layer compositing
- Composite any number of inputs as a layer stack with per-layer blend mode, opacity, and visibility. Drag rows to reorder.
- Pro gradient engine
- Seven interpolation modes including perceptual OKLab, OKLCh, and pigment-mixing Kubelka-Munk, with Hue Path control and dithering to kill banding.
- 18 blend modes
- Eighteen Composite blend modes, from Multiply and Screen to Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity.
- Warp & distortion
- Five warp nodes: perspective, freeform mesh, displacement maps, polar coordinates, and lens distortion.
- Multiple blur modes
- Eight blur algorithms: Gaussian, box, median, motion, bilateral, edge-preserving, radial, and zoom.
- Text rendering
- System font browser with weight and style selection and custom .ttf/.otf loading. Drag to position, rotate with the ring handle.
- Procedural noise & patterns
- Noise and Pattern nodes generate tileable textures and geometric bases, with a seamless toggle.
- Film grain
- Per-channel analog grain profiled from seven real film stocks, from Kodak Vision3 to Ilford HP5+. Optional mask for selective grain.
- Texture tools
- Seamless Blend makes any image tileable, Normal Map builds lighting maps from grayscale, and Tile Preview shows any node tiled.
- Pixel art workflow
- Pixelate, Outline, Dither, and Quantize for retro and limited-palette art, ready to export as sprite sheets.
- Eyedropper
- Every color picker has an eyedropper for sampling colors straight from the canvas.
Preview & inspection
- Preview panel
- Full-resolution preview with zoom, pan, a pixel grid at high zoom, and a live color readout. Lock it to any node.
- Viewer slots
- Hover a node and press 1-9 to pin its output to a slot, then compare up to nine side by side in a live Preview grid.
- Quick-Lock preview
- Double-click a node to lock its output to the preview, so you can inspect upstream nodes without losing your view.
- Channel isolation
- View individual Red, Green, Blue, or Alpha channels in the preview without exporting.
- Histogram
- Live histogram overlay showing the tonal distribution of any node's output.
- Display color management
- Reads your monitor's ICC profile and corrects color so the preview matches your export, even on non-sRGB displays.
- Lazy evaluation
- Hide Thumbnails skips on-canvas thumbnails and evaluates only the selected node's chain, keeping huge graphs responsive.
Import & export
- Embedded recipes
- Turn on Embed Recipe to store a privacy-sanitized copy of the whole graph inside an exported PNG, WebP, JPEG, or TIFF. Drop it back onto ArcBrush to reopen the project.
- 6 export formats
- PNG, JPEG, BMP, WebP, TIFF, and TGA, in both single-image and batch export with quality control.
- Sprite sheet export
- Pack all batch frames into one sprite sheet PNG with a TexturePacker-compatible JSON manifest.
- Package as .zip
- Bundle a project and every file it references into a single shareable archive that opens with no missing-file errors.
- Collect Files
- Copy all referenced assets into a folder beside your .arcb file, so projects move with no broken links.
- Quick export
- Ctrl+Shift+E exports the selected nodes; Export All runs every export node in the graph at once.
- Relative export paths
- Type export/sprite.png and it resolves relative to your .arcb file, with directories created automatically.
- Relative file paths
- Image In, SVG Import, and Export nodes accept relative paths like assets/logo.png, keeping projects portable.
- Drag-and-drop
- Drop image files onto the canvas to create Image In nodes.
- Clipboard paste
- Ctrl+V pastes clipboard images straight in as new Image In nodes.
- SVG import
- Load vector graphics at any resolution with resolution-independent rasterization via ThorVG.
- File watching
- Toggle Watch File on Image In or SVG Import and the node reloads when the source changes on disk. Edit elsewhere, see it live.
Workspace & interface
- Customizable interface
- Dock, tab, or pop out any panel into its own window for multi-monitor work. Save workspace presets, or Lock Layout once it feels right.
- Auto-save
- Saves automatically at regular intervals, with crash recovery restoring your last state on relaunch.
- Undo/redo
- Full undo stack for every operation: nodes, parameters, connections, and groups. Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y.
- Favorites
- Star any node to pin it atop the Node Library and Add Node menu, one click away no matter the category.
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Standard shortcuts for everything: save, undo, delete, F5 to re-evaluate, Tab to add a node.
- 6 color themes
- Violet, Emerald, Ocean, Rose, Amber, and Graphite. Pick the UI tone that suits your eye.
AI workflow
- Parallel AI generation
- Run multiple AI nodes at once: generate, edit, and remove a background in parallel, no waiting in line.
- Generation log
- Track every AI generation with timestamps, prompts, and per-call costs, plus session and lifetime totals.
Download
Download ArcBrush.
Free to use. No account required for the editor. All 83 non-AI nodes work immediately, with no signup, no activation, and no trial period. When you're ready for AI features, sign in with one click and get 10 free credits to start.
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