I Built a Whiteboard App with 3 Dependencies and Survived

Every whiteboard app these days wants your email, your firstborn, and a cloud subscription. One developer had enough. Armed with React, TypeScript, and just three dependencies, he created a no-nonsense drawing board. No sign-up, no sync — like the good old days of local software.

Why It's Not Just Another Toy

Under the hood, it's pure Canvas API with a thin layer of utilities for color and stroke width. No Fabric.js or Konva monsters. The author proudly states: "I wanted the code to be readable even by an intern." And it shows.

Features:

• Draw lines, rectangles, circles (yes, like Paint, but in a browser)
• Change color and thickness
• Undo/Redo (because mistakes happen)
• Export to PNG (to send to a colleague instead of words)

What it doesn't have: real-time collaboration, cloud storage, user accounts, ads — just you and a blank canvas.

The code is open-source on GitHub. If you're tempted to add "just one more feature" — brace yourself for 47 dependencies in a week. But the author is holding the line.

METABYTE studio's take: Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to roll your own. We do the same when waiting for a SaaS to load gets old. Want a whiteboard like this but with bells and whistles? We know how to handle a canvas.