# Gimel Studio: a non-destructive 2D editor whose author said goodbye > Gimel Studio is a proof of concept non-destructive 2D graphics editor built with Flutter and Dart, and the first section of its README is a farewell note from the maintainer explaining that the project is over and inviting anyone who wants to continue it under the same name. The source is GPL-3.0, so the code is still there to take. **GimelStudio/GimelStudio** — Non-destructive 2D graphics editor (POC) - Repository: https://github.com/GimelStudio/GimelStudio - Website: https://gimelstudio.github.io - Stars: 855 · Forks: 47 - Language: Dart - License: GPL-3.0 - Published: 2026-10-20 · Updated: 2026-10-20 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/gimelstudio-gimelstudio ## The first section of the README is a goodbye Before anything else, the README tells you the project is over. The project status section is dated 2026 and opens with the reason for the note itself: the author has always disliked when maintainers just abandon a project without any notes, and this is that note. The sentence that follows is the end of the project for them, that they have moved on and do not see themselves working on it any more. What makes the note worth reading rather than skipping is that it is not a dry administrative statement. It quotes Ecclesiastes on how the end of a matter is better than its beginning, acknowledges being sad about it and more attached to the project than he ought to be, and says that five years of work on a project is hard to forget, while also saying that the end of a thing is where you learn and reflect on the journey. The thanks are specific: the friendships formed through the project, the people encountered, and everyone who supported what the README calls his sometimes crazy ideas. And then the practical note. If someone wants to continue the project under the same name, Gimel Studio, please let me know. That is an unusual thing to find in a README, and it changes what the repository is: not just an abandoned codebase but a codebase whose maintainer has said, in writing and in advance, that the handover is welcome. The project is a non-destructive 2D graphics editor, and the repository description marks it as a proof of concept, so the scale of what is being handed on is stated honestly too. ## What the editor was meant to be The README describes Gimel Studio as a non-destructive 2D graphics editor, and the repository topics fill in the shape of that phrase: 2d-graphics, vector-graphics, image-manipulation, photo-editor, design-tools, node-based, node-editor and graphics-editor, alongside dart, cpp and flutter. Two of those are the interesting ones. Node-based is the term for an editor whose document is a graph of operations rather than a canvas of pixels, where an image is the result of a chain of steps that can be rearranged, and non-destructive is the promise that the original data is never overwritten, so any step can be changed later without the loss you get from editing in place. For a photo or graphics tool that combination is the design, and the word photo-editor among the topics says the intent was a serious editing tool rather than a demo. The presence of cpp in the topics is explained by the project's history, which the README covers in a short section of its own. The earlier v0.6.x series of the project was written in Python and GLSL, and that code is kept in a separate branch of the same repository, linked from the README under the heading about looking for the v0.6.x series. So the repository holds two generations of a graphics editor: a Python and GLSL implementation from the v0.6.x era, and the current Flutter and Dart rewrite. The mix of languages in the topics list is not confusion, it is the record of a rewrite. The project has its own website at gimelstudio.github.io and a user manual hosted on Read the Docs at gimelstudio.readthedocs.io, both linked from the header next to the banner image. ## The current code is a Flutter application The rewrite is the part that exists on the master branch, and the top-level listing is the standard shape of a Flutter project. There is pubspec.yaml and a pinned pubspec.lock, which is where the Dart package and its dependencies are declared, and a .metadata file, which is Flutter's own project metadata. The application code is in lib/, the tests in test/, and the assets in assets/. Then there are the platform directories: linux/, macos/, windows/ and web/. Those are the folders a Flutter project carries for each desktop target and for the browser, and their presence is what makes the web entry in the testing note below possible rather than a wish. The devtools_options.yaml and analysis_options.yaml files are the Dart tooling configuration, the first for the developer tools and the second for the analyzer and linter, and stacked.json configures the state management approach the project uses, since stacked is a Flutter library built around the idea of separating view models from widgets. There is also a .github/ directory for the workflows, a CONTRIBUTING.md and a CONTRIBUTORS.md, and the GPL-3.0 LICENSE file that the badge in the README points at. What the listing does not include is worth noticing too. There is no CODE_OF_CONDUCT, no SECURITY policy, no CHANGELOG, and no release artefacts in the tree, which is consistent with a project whose maintainer has moved on and whose releases are pre-release tags. ## Running it takes two commands The running instructions are short and are the ones a Flutter developer expects. First you install Flutter and Dart for your system, following the instructions at docs.flutter.dev, and then: ```bash flutter pub get flutter run ``` The first command fetches the dependencies declared in pubspec.yaml, and the second builds and launches the application. The README's third step, the installation of the toolchain, is the only one with any substance to it. Then there is the honest part about what has actually been exercised. The code has been tested on Windows 10, Zorin OS which is a Linux distribution, and the web. That is three platforms, one of which is a browser rather than a desktop, and it is the sort of list a maintainer writes when they are being precise rather than promotional. The absence of anything else in the instructions is itself information. There is no packaged binary, no install script, and no mention of a release download, and the release history confirms it: the newest tag, v0.6.0-alpha-3, is explicitly labelled as having no binaries. So the project is a source project, to be run with a Flutter toolchain, and if you want an application to install you have to build it yourself. ## Three alpha tags, and a gap that says everything The release history is three entries, all on the 0.6.0 alpha line, and their spacing is the story. v0.6.0-alpha-1 was published on 2021-11-25, and v0.6.0-alpha-2 on 2022-01-10, which is about seven weeks later. Then there is a gap of three years, and v0.6.0-alpha-3 on 2025-01-10, whose release title says in parentheses that it has no binaries. The last push to the repository was on 2026-06-18, five and a half months after that tag. So the pattern is a project that shipped a couple of alphas, went quiet for most of three years, published one more alpha in January 2025, and then received its final commits in the middle of 2026. The commits after the last tag are consistent with the farewell note at the top of the README: documentation, and the work of making the end of the project legible rather than the work of finishing the editor. The version scheme has stayed on 0.6.0-alpha across the whole life of the project, with the pre-release number carrying the increment, and the README's own earlier advice is worth noting in that context: if you were looking for the earlier v0.6.x series, it is in the branch named v0.6.x-series and it is written in Python and GLSL. The alpha count in the tag name therefore tells you nothing about which implementation you are looking at, which is the kind of detail that catches people out when they clone the wrong branch and wonder why the language is different. The repository is not archived, so the code is still there and the farewell note is still the first thing a visitor sees. ## What the handover actually means for a developer There are two things a reader can do with this repository, and they are worth separating. The first is to read it. A non-destructive, node-based 2D editor in Flutter is a reasonable subject for a case study, and the repository is small enough to read, with the design decisions in the code and the intent in the topics and the README. The second is to take it. The licence is GPL-3.0, and the README states it plainly with a link to the LICENSE file, which means you may study, modify and redistribute it, and that any distributed derivative carries the same licence. For a project that was a proof of concept and is now finished, that is the normal route: fork it, strip the parts you do not want, and put your own name and licence on what is left. The maintainer's invitation, if someone wants to continue the project under the same name, please let me know, is about the name rather than about the code, and the right way to handle it is to ask. What you inherit is the state described above. A proof of concept, at an alpha stage, with three platform configurations actually exercised, a farewell note instead of a roadmap, and no support. The absence of a changelog and of a security policy is normal for a project at that stage and should be read as a description of the project's state rather than as an oversight to fix. So the sensible framing for anyone considering it is a starting point rather than a foundation, and the honest thing to check first is not the feature list but the state of the code: whether the node graph and the non-destructive pipeline are complete enough to be worth studying, and whether the Flutter and Dart versions it was written against are still the ones you would use. ## Conclusion Adopt the Gimel Studio codebase if you want a starting point for a node-based, non-destructive 2D editor, because the GPL-3.0 licence lets you take it, modify it and redistribute it, and the architecture is a normal Flutter application you can read in a day. Do not adopt it expecting a maintained product, because the maintainer has written a farewell note at the top of the README saying this is the end of the project, and the newest release is an alpha from 2025 with no binaries. Before you build on it, read the project status section rather than the feature list, check which platform the code was tested on, since the author names Windows 10, Zorin OS and the web, and decide whether you want to continue the project under the Gimel Studio name, which the README explicitly invites you to ask about. ## FAQ ### What is Gimel Studio? A non-destructive 2D graphics editor, described in the repository as a proof of concept. The topics list places it in node-based editing, photo and vector graphics, image manipulation and design tools, and the current implementation is a Flutter and Dart application with the earlier Python and GLSL version kept in the v0.6.x-series branch. ### Is Gimel Studio still maintained? No. The project status section of the README is a farewell note dated 2026 in which the maintainer says this is the end of the project for them, that they have moved on, and that if someone wants to continue it under the Gimel Studio name they should get in touch. The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-06-18. ### How do I build and run Gimel Studio? Install Flutter and Dart for your system, then run flutter pub get to fetch the dependencies and flutter run to build and launch the application. The README says the code has been tested on Windows 10, Zorin OS and the web, and there is no packaged binary to download. ### What licence is Gimel Studio under? GPL-3.0, with the licence text in the LICENSE file at the root of the repository and a badge linking to it from the README. The older v0.6.x series, written in Python and GLSL, is kept in a separate branch of the same repository. ## Sources - [GimelStudio/GimelStudio on GitHub](https://github.com/GimelStudio/GimelStudio) - [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/GimelStudio/GimelStudio/blob/master/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://gimelstudio.github.io) - [README](https://github.com/GimelStudio/GimelStudio/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/GimelStudio/GimelStudio/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/gimelstudio-gimelstudio