What is Penpot?
Penpot is the open-source design platform that lets teams build digital products together. It’s built for designers, developers, and even AI agents to collaborate in real time. Whether you need to create wireframes, design systems, or connect with your favorite AI tools, Penpot gives you a free, scalable workspace that actually matches code. Think of it as a design tool that speaks the same language as your developers.
What are the features of Penpot?
- UI Design with Real Code: Design responsive interfaces using wireframes, interactive prototypes, and native CSS Grid and Flexbox layouts. Your designs match real code from the start.
- Design Systems That Scale: Build sophisticated visual frameworks with design components, native design tokens, and shared libraries. Keep your team on the same page without messy handoffs.
- AI Workflows (New): Bring any AI agent, LLM, or tooling directly into Penpot. Work with code-to-design, design-to-code, and design-to-design flows seamlessly.
- Code Inspection That Matches: Developers can inspect and integrate code that actually matches the design. It uses open standards like CSS, HTML, SVG, and JSON.
- Open File Format: No vendor lock-in. Your designs live in an open format that you own and control.
What are the use cases of Penpot?
- Wireframing early concepts: Sketch out quick ideas for a new app interface and share them with your team in seconds.
- UX prototyping: Build clickable prototypes that feel like the real product before you write a line of code.
- AI-powered design workflows: Let an AI agent generate design variations or convert code snippets into visual components.
- Collaborative UI design: Multiple designers, developers, and product managers can work on the same file at the same time.
- Building a design system: Create and manage reusable components and tokens that keep your brand consistent across every product.
How to use Penpot?
- Sign up for free at Penpot’s website or choose the self-host option if you want to keep everything on your own servers.
- Start a new project and pick a template or begin with a blank canvas. Familiarize yourself with the UI, which feels similar to other design tools.
- Use the built-in design components and libraries from the community. If you’re building a design system, create your own design tokens for colors, spacing, and typography.
- Invite your team by sharing a link. Designers, developers, and AI agents can all edit the same file in real time.
- Connect your AI workflow (if needed) by integrating your preferred LLM or AI tool directly through Penpot’s extensions.
- Inspect and export code directly from your design. Developers can grab CSS, SVG, or JSON that matches exactly what you designed.
