Live Draw with Klecks

Draw on your iPad or computer and share a live view with anyone in a browser. Live Draw combines the Klecks drawing editor with a presenter mode and a read-only audience view.

Viewers follow your ink as you draw, along with zoom, pan, rotation, mirroring and applied edits. They see the drawing area without editor controls. Use it for lessons, demonstrations, workshops or a shared viewer window in a video meeting.

Features

• Klecks drawing tools, layers, filters, undo and redo.
• A viewer link for each session, with no viewer account or installation.
• A compact sharing bar with live status, viewer count and optional hiding.
• An audience view that fits the browser window and supports fullscreen.
• Presenter sign-in, remembered devices and configurable editor access.
• Local PNG and layered PSD exports.
• Self-hosting with Docker, HTTPS and configurable streaming limits.

Run locally

Install Node.js 22 or newer, npm and Git, then run:

npm ci
npm run prepare:klecks
npm run build
npm start

Open http://127.0.0.1:5055, choose Start live, and use Copy link to open the audience view in a separate browser window. Keep the presenter visible while drawing; capture pauses when its page is in the background.

Local startup listens on loopback. To connect an iPad or another computer, use self-hosting with HTTPS or the local HTTPS setup.

Present and share

On a password-protected server, sign in with the Presenter password supplied by the operator. Choose Remember this device on your own device to reuse access on later visits. Viewers need only the copied viewer link.

Hide gives the editor the full window height. A floating Show button keeps live status and the viewer count visible, and restores the sharing bar. Use Stop to end the session and invalidate its viewer link.

Save a PNG through Export inside Klecks and confirm Submit in its dialog. Use More → Export PSD to save layers. Drawings stay in your browser; export before reloading or closing the presenter. The server keeps the latest shared image in memory and discards it when the session ends or the server restarts.

See the presenter guide for iPad use, sharing controls, exports and reconnecting.

Self-host and contribute

The relay runs without a database or drawing volume. Docker Compose serves it on host loopback behind an HTTPS reverse proxy. A configured presenter password makes the editor private by default; EDITOR_ACCESS=public allows local drawing without sign-in while keeping broadcasts password-protected.

• Self-hosting: Docker, HTTPS, access and streaming settings.
• GitHub Actions: verification, image publication and deployment.
• Security: authentication, resource limits and dependency checks.
• Contributing: development setup and the Klecks integration.

The build uses the exact Klecks revision in upstream.json and the patches in patches/. The drawing engine stays in Klecks; Live Draw handles capture, sessions, transport and the audience view. Its viewport observer is independent of the relay and can be used by other integrations.

Licence and attribution

Live Draw is an independently maintained companion, licensed under MIT. Klecks is created by bitbof and retains its MIT licence and copyright. Live Draw is not an official Kleki service.

The built editor includes Klecks' licence at /klecks/LICENSE. Its library and font notices are available in Settings → Licenses and in the pinned upstream source. The ws runtime dependency includes its MIT licence. Preserve these notices when distributing source or built assets.