Ardesia

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Free digital sketchpad for screen annotation and presentation

Ardesia is the free digital sketchpad software that helps you make colored free-hand annotations with digital ink everywhere, record it and share on the network. It is easy to use and impressively fast and reactive. You can draw upon the desktop or import an image and annotate it and redistribute your work to the world.

Thanks to Ardesia you are free to open any application and fix your ideas and comments as if you wrote on a classic chalkboard. Tradition and innovation are living together in simplicity thanks to a natural user interface that reproduces the natural feeling of free-hand painting.

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🎯 Use Cases

• Presentations - Highlight and annotate during live demos
• Teaching - Enhance lessons with smartboards and interactive whiteboards and tablet
• Tutorials & Demos - Create annotated screencasts
• Brainstorming - Quick sketches and artwork on any application
• Remote Collaboration - Share annotated screen via network streaming

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✨ Features

• 🎨 Free-hand drawing with digital ink
• 📐 Shape recognizer - automatically converts sketches to geometric shapes
• 🖊️ Multiple tools - pen, highlighter, eraser, text, arrow, filler
• 🎨 Color palette - quick access colors plus custom picker
• ↩️ Undo/Redo - full annotation history
• 📸 Export - screenshot to image or multi-page PDF
• 🎥 Recording - capture and stream your annotated screen
• 🖥️ Multi-monitor - configurable toolbar and workspace placement
• 🎯 Universal compatibility - works with mouse, touchscreen, drawing tablets, Wiimote whiteboards, interactive projectors
• ⚙️ Customizable - configurable appearance and toolbar position
• 📂 Open formats - imports/exports IWB (Interactive Whiteboard) files

Built with: GTK 3.x (Glade/GtkBuilder) and Cairo graphics library

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📋 System Requirements

Linux

• Display server: X11 with composite manager (compiz, kwin, xcompmgr, xfwm, metacity, mutter) or Wayland (via XWayland)
• Libraries: GTK 3.x, Cairo, GLib 2.0
• Optional: VLC (for recording), xdg-utils

Windows (Legacy Support)

⚠️ Note: Windows support is legacy and may need updates for modern versions

• Windows 7 (Ultimate, Enterprise, Professional, Home Premium)
• Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, Ultimate, Home Premium)

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🚀 Installation

See the INSTALL file for detailed build instructions.

Quick Setup

VLC for Recording (Optional):

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install vlc

Other distros: Use your package manager or download from videolan.org/vlc

xdg-utils (Usually pre-installed):

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install xdg-utils

Running

After installation, start Ardesia from:

• Application menu: Applications → Tools → Ardesia
• Command line: ardesia

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🎮 Usage Guide

Toolbar Overview

The Ardesia toolbar appears at the screen edge (default: right side). Click buttons to select tools and options.

Drawing Tools

Tool	Description
Pen	Draw free-hand lines with selected color
Highlighter	Semi-transparent highlighting
Eraser	Remove annotations
Text	Insert text annotations (click to place)
Arrow	Draw lines with arrow at the end
Filler	Fill contiguous area with selected color

Appearance Controls

Control	Description
Thickness	Cycle through thin/medium/thick line widths
Colors	Quick select: Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, White
Color Selector	Open full color palette

Drawing Modes

Change how Ardesia interprets your strokes:

• Handwriting - Draw freely without assistance
• Rectifier - Converts closed paths to polygons, open paths to straight lines
• Rounder - Converts closed paths to ellipses/smoothed shapes, open paths to spline curves

💡 Tip: Rectifier is perfect for diagrams, Rounder for organic shapes

Actions

Button	Function
Lock/Unlock	Toggle annotation mode. When unlocked, interact with desktop normally
Clear	Erase all annotations from screen
Undo	Reverse to previous state
Redo	Advance to more recent state
Screenshot	Export current view to image file
Export PDF	Add current view as new page to PDF (creates or appends)
Record	Start/stop desktop recording (requires VLC)
Preferences	Configure background color/image
Info	Show program information
Quit	Exit Ardesia

Advanced Features

Background Customization

Set custom backgrounds via Preferences:

• Choose background color
• Select from preset backgrounds
• Load custom image file

IWB File Support

Reuse Interactive Whiteboard projects:

1. Navigate to Ardesia workspace folder
2. Right-click .iwb file
3. Select "Open with Ardesia"

Toolbar Customization

Position:

ardesia --gravity north    # Top
ardesia --gravity south    # Bottom
ardesia --gravity west     # Left
ardesia --gravity east     # Right (default)

Appearance:

• Copy desktop/gtkrc to /etc/xdg/ardesia/
• Edit to customize look and feel

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⚙️ Command Line Options

Usage: ardesia [OPTIONS] [filename.iwb]

Options:
  -V, --verbose              Enable verbose logging
  -d, --decorate             Add window decorations (allows moving toolbar)
  -g, --gravity POSITION     Toolbar position: east|west|north|south
  -l, --leftmargin PIXELS    Text left margin after Enter
  -t, --tabsize PIXELS       Tab size in text mode
  -c, --coverage MODE        Fit to: monitor|area|full
  -m, --tools-monitor N      Monitor for toolbar (default: 1)
  -M, --workspace-monitor N  Monitor for main window (default: 1)
  -x X_POSITION              Main window X position (default: 0)
  -y Y_POSITION              Main window Y position (default: 0)
  --width WIDTH              Main window width (default: 200)
  --height HEIGHT            Main window height (default: 200)
  -o, --opaque               Force opaque window (no transparency)
  -h, --help                 Show help screen
  -v, --version              Show version information

Arguments:
  filename                   Interactive Whiteboard Common File (.iwb)

Examples:
  ardesia                         # Start with defaults
  ardesia -g south                # Horizontal toolbar at bottom
  ardesia -d                      # Movable toolbar window
  ardesia -m 2 -M 1              # Toolbar on monitor 2, workspace on monitor 1
  ardesia --verbose              # Debug mode
  ardesia presentation.iwb       # Open IWB file

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🎥 Recording & Streaming

Local Recording

1. Ensure VLC is installed
2. Click Record button in Ardesia
3. Choose output filename on first use
4. Recording starts automatically
5. Click Record again to stop

Live Streaming (Advanced)

Stream to Icecast2 server for live presentations:

Requirements:

• Icecast2 server (public IP + domain for internet access)
• Local machine with Ardesia and network access to server

Setup:

Edit screencast configuration:

• Linux: $PREFIX/share/ardesia/scripts/screencast.sh
• Windows: share\ardesia\scripts\screencast.bat

Uncomment and configure:

ICECAST="TRUE"
ICECAST_PASSWORD="your-password"
ICECAST_ADDRESS="icecast.server.com"
ICECAST_PORT="8000"
ICECAST_MOUNTPOINT="presentation"

Usage:

1. Click Record in Ardesia
2. Enter filename when prompted
3. Stream becomes available at: http://icecast.server.com:8000/presentation.ogg
4. Share URL in webpage or announcement

For Icecast2 server setup, visit icecast.org

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🔧 Troubleshooting

Ardesia won't start - Composite manager error

Cause: Transparency requires window compositing

Solution: Enable compositor for your desktop environment

GNOME:

• Usually enabled by default
• Settings → Appearance → Visual Effects → Normal

KDE:

• Usually enabled by default
• System Settings → Display → Compositor → Enable

XFCE:

• Settings → Window Manager Tweaks → Compositor → Enable

Standalone X11:

# Install compositor
sudo apt-get install xcompmgr   # or compton/picom

# Run compositor
xcompmgr &

Check if active:

xdpyinfo | grep Composite

Graphics drivers:

• Intel: Free drivers usually work
• NVIDIA: Install proprietary drivers
• AMD/ATI: Install proprietary drivers

Toolbar is off-screen or too large

Try horizontal layout:

ardesia -g south    # or -g north

Or enable window decorations to move manually:

ardesia -d

Cannot move toolbar

By design: Toolbar is fixed to screen edge (right by default) to avoid hiding important content and stay accessible.

To move it: Use --decorate option:

ardesia -d

Recording doesn't work

Check VLC installation:

vlc --version

Test audio drivers:

• Record audio with another program first
• Ensure microphone/system audio works

Windows users:

• Add VLC installation folder to PATH environment variable

Advanced troubleshooting:

• Run with verbose: ardesia --verbose
• Manually edit screencast script (see paths in Recording & Streaming)

Wayland compatibility

Ardesia works on Wayland via XWayland compatibility layer with some limitations:

• May experience input lag
• Some features might not work optimally
• Native Wayland support is in development

For best experience on Wayland systems:

• Use X11 session if available (select "GNOME on Xorg" at login)
• Or help us develop native Wayland support! See CONTRIBUTING.md

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📚 Documentation

• INSTALL - Build and installation instructions
• CONTRIBUTING.md - Developer guide and contribution guidelines
• NEWS - New features and changes
• COPYING - GPL v3 license text

External Resources

• Video Tutorial: YouTube Demo
• VLC Media Player: videolan.org/vlc
• Icecast Streaming: icecast.org

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🤝 Contributing

Ardesia is being actively revived and modernized! Contributions are very welcome.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for:

• Development environment setup
• Build process and testing
• Code style guidelines
• Pull request process
• Project architecture

Quick ways to help:

• 🐛 Report bugs via GitHub Issues
• 💡 Suggest features
• 📝 Improve documentation
• 🧪 Write tests
• 💻 Submit code improvements

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📜 License

Copyright © 2024 Pietro Pilolli and contributors

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the COPYING file for details.

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📞 Contact & Support

• Issues & Bugs: GitHub Issues
• Email: pilolli.pietro@gmail.com
• Repository: github.com/pilollipietro/ardesia

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Have fun! 🎨