Nico Paint – A Drawing App for Windows

Nico Paint is a lightweight drawing application for Windows, built from scratch in C++ with Qt for the UI framework and Skia for the rendering engine. Named after my nephew who loves to draw.

The idea was simple: make a drawing app that starts fast, feels responsive, and doesn’t overwhelm a kid with menus. Something between MS Paint (too basic) and Photoshop (too complex). Clean toolbar, intuitive brush controls, a good color picker, and undo that actually works.

Tech

• C++ with MSVC toolchain
• Qt 6 for windowing, layout, and UI controls
• Skia for GPU-accelerated 2D rendering
• Custom brush engine with pressure sensitivity

Status

Phase 1 complete – core drawing, brush tools, color picker, layers, and undo/redo all functional. Building toward a polished v1 release.