Building Crayon: Features I always wished existed in Canva

A year ago, I started building Crayon because I wanted a creative editor that combined the simplicity of Canva with the power of professional design software.

As I kept building, I realized creators often had to jump between multiple apps just to finish one project. Design in one app, animate in another, edit vectors somewhere else, then export and repeat.

I wanted to solve that.

Here are a few features I'm most proud of:

🎨 Illustrator-style Pen Tool

One thing I always missed in browser and mobile editors was a proper Pen Tool.

Crayon lets you create custom vector paths using Bézier curves, making it possible to draw logos, icons, illustrations, and complex shapes with precision instead of relying only on basic rectangles and circles.

🖼️ Mask Images Inside Any Custom Shape

Instead of choosing from predefined masks, you can draw any shape with the Pen Tool and instantly use it as an image mask.

Whether it's a custom blob, abstract shape, logo outline, or complex illustration, your image fits perfectly inside it.

🎬 Timeline-Based Keyframe Animation

Every layer can be animated.

You can add keyframes for:

• Position

• Scale

• Rotation

• Opacity

Create smooth transitions, UI animations, social media posts, intros, or motion graphics directly inside the editor without exporting to another application.

🌟 Real 3D Effects

Crayon includes a full 3D transformation system for both text and images.

You can control:

• Perspective

• Rotation on X, Y, and Z axes

• Scale

• Depth

This makes it easy to create posters, thumbnails, and social media graphics with realistic depth instead of flat designs.

✨ Huge Built-in Animation Library

Not everyone wants to build animations from scratch.

Crayon includes a growing collection of ready-made animations that can be applied instantly, helping creators produce polished content in seconds while still allowing full customization.

🧩 Reusable Components

If you've ever recreated the same button, logo, banner, or card dozens of times, you'll appreciate this.

Any group of layers can be converted into a reusable component and saved to your account.

Use it across future projects, update your workflow, and maintain consistency without rebuilding everything.

📐 Change Canvas Size Anytime

One of the most frustrating parts of many design tools is realizing you chose the wrong canvas size.

With Crayon, you can switch between Instagram Posts, Stories, YouTube Thumbnails, A4 documents, Posters, Presentations, or any custom size at any point during the design process.

No need to start over.

This is only a small part of what I've been building.

Crayon has gradually evolved into a cross-platform creative workspace that includes graphic design, photo editing, video editing, motion graphics, AI-powered tools, file conversion, image and video compression, reusable components, and cloud syncing across Android, iOS, and the web.

I'm still building it every week, and there are plenty of features on the roadmap.

I'd love your feedback.