bolt Direct3D 11 GPU Pipeline • 60 FPS Fluid Animations • v2.0.0

The Lightest, Most Responsive Screen Marker for Windows 11.

Q: Which graphics tablets, styluses, and digital pens are supported?

Pen 11 provides native, hardware-level support for any tablet or stylus compatible with Windows Ink / Wintab, including Wacom (Intuos, One, Cintiq), Huion, XP-Pen, Gaomon, and Microsoft Surface Pen. The app reads raw hardware pressure values via tabletEvent() for smooth, natural stroke tapering and automatically detects when you flip your stylus over (PointerType.Eraser) to erase without touching the toolbar.

Q: How does multi-monitor support work across different display resolutions?

Pen 11 is multi-monitor native: its drawing canvas spans your entire virtual desktop across all connected monitors, whether 1080p, 2K, 4K, or mixed DPI. Its smart positioning engine (_smart_position()) detects screen boundaries using QApplication.screenAt() and automatically flips flyout panels horizontally or vertically so palettes and menus never clip off-screen or slip under the Windows Taskbar.

Q: How do I completely uninstall Pen 11 and remove configuration files?

Pen 11 is 100% portable: it does not write to the Windows Registry and does not install hidden background daemons. To uninstall, simply delete Pen 11.exe. If you also wish to clear your saved tool sizes and custom palette configurations, delete the settings folder at %APPDATA%\\Pen11\\.

Q: Can I draw over fullscreen applications, games, and presentation slideshows?

Yes. Pen 11 creates a transparent, hardware-accelerated overlay with Windows non-activating flags (WS_EX_NOACTIVATE / Qt.WindowDoesNotAcceptFocus) so your active PowerPoint slide, PDF reader, browser, or screen share never loses focus while you annotate. For video games, running in Borderless Windowed mode allows Windows desktop overlays to render smoothly on top.

Q: Will Pen 11 lag during long drawing sessions or complex diagrams?

No. Unlike traditional tools that redraw every single vector point from scratch on every frame, Pen 11 uses a Two-Layer Accelerated Backing Cache: completed strokes are permanently rasterized into a high-DPI Direct3D 11 off-screen buffer. You can ink 50,000+ strokes without dropping below 60 FPS or experiencing stroke accumulation lag.

Q: Is Pen 11 completely free and open-source?

Yes, absolutely. Pen 11 is 100% free and open-source software distributed under the permissive MIT License. There are no paywalls, hidden subscriptions, ads, or tracking telemetry.

Q: Does Pen 11 require an installer or administrator rights?

No installation required. Pen 11 is shipped as a standalone portable Pen.11.exe and compressed .ZIP archive. You can download and run it directly from your Downloads folder, Desktop, or USB drive without administrator privileges.

Q: How does Pen 11 achieve zero idle CPU usage?

Unlike web/Electron-based tools that run heavy Chromium background loops, Pen 11 is built on native Direct3D 11 and Qt bindings. When you are not drawing, its event loop sleeps at 0.0% CPU and renders only modified dirty rects during active mouse/stylus strokes.

The fastest way to draw on screen in Windows 11—an open-source screen drawing tool with zero input lag. Hardware-accelerated Direct3D 11 inking, 60 FPS fluid animation engine, Smart Vector Objects with OBB rotation, persistent settings storage, and near 0% idle CPU usage. Completely free and open-source.

explore Explore Features

verified System Requirements & Compatibility

Zero Install • 100% Local

desktop_windows

Operating System Windows 11 / 10 (64-bit)

memory

Memory (RAM) 50 MB Minimum (<0.1% usage)

speed

Graphics (GPU) Direct3D 11 (Hardware DWM)

folder_zip

Disk Storage 38.6 MB (EXE / ZIP Available)

Direct3D 11 • 60 FPS • Smart Objects

Click & drag on canvas to test drawing!

30-SECOND SETUP

Get Started in 3 Simple Steps

No installers, no setup wizards, no registry modifications, and zero administrator privileges required.

download

STEP 1

Download & Launch

Download the portable standalone Pen 11.exe (38.6 MB). Double-click to launch immediately—runs 100% locally with zero background services.

draw

STEP 2

Draw with Ctrl+1

Switch seamlessly between the primary desktop pen tool (Ctrl+1) and translucent screen highlighter (Ctrl+2). Annotate, sketch, or highlight directly over PowerPoint slides, code editors, or browser tabs with zero window focus stealing and Direct3D 11 sub-millisecond response.

Ctrl+1 Pen Ctrl+2 Highlighter Ctrl+3 Eraser

visibility

STEP 3

Toggle with Ctrl+5

Press Ctrl+5 to toggle ink visibility and glide the toolbar into an unobtrusive pill handle. Press Ctrl+Shift+C to wipe all annotations clean instantly.

Ctrl+5 Toggle Pill Ctrl+Shift+C Clear

LIVE APP SHOWCASE

Crafted for Windows 11 Flow

Modular, floating translucent UI panels that adapt to your screen without stealing window focus or cluttering presentations.

12-Color Palette

Palette & Precision Sizer

12 high-contrast curated swatches with instant stroke-width adjustments, non-blocking opacity fades, and auto-persistence to disk.

Geometric Toolbox

Smart Vector Shapes

Lines, Arrows, Rectangles, Rounded Rectangles, Ellipses, and Triangles with 45° angle snapping and 400ms gesture recognition.

State Machine Flyout

Monkey Mode & Minimal Pill

Instantly switch between Active Ink (🐵), Cursor Pass-Through (🐒), and smooth 240ms cubic-bezier minimal pill collapse (🙈).

ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE

Engineered for Speed, Precision & Zero Bloat

Every component in Pen 11 is built from the ground up to respect your hardware and streamline screen annotations—powered by our primary desktop pen tool (Ctrl+1), translucent screen highlighter (Ctrl+2), and smart vector acceleration.

animation

60 FPS Fluid Suite

60 FPS Fluid Animation Engine

Direct3D 11 native swapchain combined with QPropertyAnimation (InOutCubic 240ms) delivers seamless toolbar collapse/expand morphing and non-blocking InOutSine opacity fades with zero visual stutter or layout fighting.

Frame Dispatch & Jitter < 1.2ms (Zero Tearing)

dashboard_customize

Modular UI

Independent Floating Panels

Color Palette, Shapes Menu, and Cursor Toolbars function as modular floating panels. Attached panels glide seamlessly during drag, and remember customized screen coordinates independently.

mouse

Zero Focus Steal

Zero-Latency Hover Engine

Procedural high-DPI tool cursors and instant button tooltips update at 120Hz without stealing OS window focus from Word, web browsers, or presentation slide decks.

crop_rotate

OBB Matrix

Smart Vector Objects & OBB

Pure vector strokes track their Oriented Bounding Box geometry during centroid rotation, scaling, and dragging. Hold for 400ms to auto-snap strokes into perfect geometric shapes.

save

IPC & Storage

Persistent State & IPC Guard

StorageManager auto-saves custom tool sizes, active swatches, and coordinates to disk. Local IPC socket locks ensure a single instance runs with zero hotkey conflicts.

shield

50,000-Stroke Vector Pipeline & 5,000-Step Undo Stack

Draw infinitely with confidence. Pen 11 handles up to 50,000 simultaneous on-screen strokes with a massive 5,000-step memory-capped Undo history, zero raster degradation, and 0.0% background idle CPU usage.

50,000+ Strokes 5,000 Undo Steps 0.0% Idle CPU

TAILORED FOR PROFESSIONALS

Engineered for Your Workflow

Whether you are teaching a classroom, conducting code reviews, or delivering a keynote, Pen 11 adapts effortlessly as a versatile whiteboard overlay for Windows and presentation drawing tool.

school

EDUCATION

Educators & Teachers

Annotate PowerPoint slides, digital textbooks, PDFs, and virtual classroom calls in real-time. Switch to Whiteboard / Blackboard mode (Ctrl+B) for step-by-step math derivations, cursive handwriting, and diagram sketches with full stylus pressure sensitivity.

check_circle Whiteboard & Blackboard modes (Ctrl+B)
check_circle Wacom & Huion stylus pressure tapering
check_circle Flicker-free tooltips with zero focus-stealing

terminal

ENGINEERING

Developers & Designers

Highlight code during pull request reviews, sketch architecture and data-flow diagrams during live pair programming, and circle bugs directly over running software without losing IDE focus. Group, rotate, and scale strokes with pure vector Oriented Bounding Box (OBB) selection.

check_circle Oriented Bounding Box (OBB) vector lasso
check_circle Hold 400ms to auto-snap geometric shapes
check_circle Zero focus-stealing over VS Code & Terminals

co_present

PRESENTATIONS

Business Presenters & Streamers

Guide audience focus during webinars and software demos using high-contrast translucent highlighters, auto-snapped arrows, and callouts. Collapse the toolbar to an unobtrusive pill (Ctrl+5) when recording clean screencasts or sharing screens on Zoom, Teams, and OBS.

check_circle Smooth 60 FPS cubic toolbar collapse (Ctrl+5)
check_circle Multi-monitor taskbar-safe auto-flipping
check_circle Sub-millisecond Direct3D 11 screen-share safe

EMPIRICAL BENCHMARKS

Unmatched Hardware Efficiency

Side-by-side performance analysis on Windows 11 Desktop Window Manager (DWM).

RAM CONSUMPTION

48 MB

vs ~380 MB on Electron tools (87% less RAM)

IDLE CPU USAGE

0.0%

Event loop fully paused when not drawing

FRAME DISPATCH

< 1.2ms

Direct3D 11 sub-millisecond dirty-rect blit

BINARY SIZE

38.6 MB

Standalone portable executable. Zero install.

check_circle Windows 11 / 10 (64-bit) • Min 50 MB RAM • Direct3D 11 • Portable Standalone

HEAD-TO-HEAD BENCHMARK

Pen 11 vs. Other Screen Markers

Looking for a free Epic Pen alternative or modern gInk alternative? Pen 11 offers all Pro features completely free. See how Pen 11 delivers modern engineering, stylus fidelity, and 60 FPS performance without paywalls or bloat.

Feature	🖊️ Pen 11 (MIT) Our App	✏️ Epic Pen Free	🖋️ gInk
Price & License	100% Free & Open Source (MIT)	Free (Crippled) / $25+ Pro Paywall	Free & Open Source (GPL)
UI & Design System	Modern Windows 11 Fluent / M3 Pill UI with 60 FPS cubic animations	Outdated legacy Win32 UI, rigid window frame	Barebones WinForms / GDI+ UI
Pen Tablet & Stylus	Native pressure sensitivity & auto stylus eraser flip (`tabletEvent`)	Stylus pressure locked behind paid Pro	Basic Wintab/stylus support, no auto-eraser flip
Rendering Architecture	Two-Layer Backing Cache (O(1) GPU blit) — 50k+ strokes @ 60 FPS	O(N) redraw loop; stutters under heavy drawing	GDI+ CPU redraw loop; noticeable lag on dense drawings
Vector Selection & Lasso	Oriented Bounding Box (OBB): drag, rotate, scale, and delete	None in Free version (basic moves in Pro)	None (bitmap-style clear/undo only)
Geometric Auto-Snap	Hold 400ms for instant geometric snapping (lines, circles, etc.)	Manual shapes locked behind paid Pro	Rudimentary shapes, no gesture detection
Edge & Taskbar Safety	Smart screen-edge detection (`_smart_position`) with auto-flip	Basic dock snapping; frequently occluded by taskbar	Fixed positioning; can overflow display edges
Memory & Idle CPU	< 50 MB RAM, 0.0% idle CPU (Direct3D 11 hardware DWM)	80–150 MB RAM, background helper services	~40–60 MB RAM, software rasterized
Installation & Portability	100% Portable single `.exe` (Zero registry clutter)	Windows installer (`.msi`/`.exe`) required	Portable zip
Interactive Web Companion	Live Web Sandbox Demo	None	None

WORKFLOW ACCELERATION

Global Hotkey Matrix

System-wide keyboard shortcuts that operate anywhere across Windows 11. Test them in real-time or search below.

search

Action	Key Combination	Description
Select Pen Tool	`Ctrl` + `1`	Activates smooth, pressure-sensitive vector pen nib for writing and sketching.
Select Highlighter Tool	`Ctrl` + `2`	Switches to semi-transparent chisel marker with multiply blend mode.
Select Eraser Tool	`Ctrl` + `3`	Erases strokes point-by-point or smart objects by proximity.
Select / Cursor Mode	`Ctrl` + `4`	Enables cursor click-through mode, lasso circle-to-select, and OBB transformation.
Toggle Canvas Visibility	`Ctrl` + `5`	Collapses toolbar to minimal pill (🙈) and temporarily hides ink without clearing.
Undo Last Action	`Ctrl` + `Z`	Steps backward in the 5,000-step memory-safe undo stack.
Clear Screen	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `C`	Instantly wipes all drawings and strokes from the screen.
Toggle Color Palette	`Ctrl` + `P`	Opens or closes the floating 12-color curated swatch toolbox.
Toggle Background Mode	`Ctrl` + `B`	Cycles between Transparent Desktop, Whiteboard, and Blackboard.
Increase Nib Size	`Ctrl` + `]`	Increments active stroke nib thickness by +2px.
Decrease Nib Size	`Ctrl` + `[`	Decrements active stroke nib thickness by -2px.
Exit Pen 11	`Ctrl` + `Q`	Instantly closes and exits the Pen 11 application.
Delete Selected Objects	`Delete` + `Backspace`	Removes all currently highlighted lasso selections from the screen.
Constrain Shapes & Angles	`Shift` + `Drag`	Snaps line/arrow angles to 45°, rectangle/ellipse to 1:1, and triangle to 90° right angle.

OPEN SOURCE ARCHITECTURE

Built with Python & PyQt6

Completely open source and modular. Safe to inspect, modify, and compile on your own machine.

PowerShell / Command Prompt

# 1. Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/Narayan6204/Pen-11.git
cd "Pen-11"

# 2. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 3. Launch live Python application
python main.py

# 4. Compile optimized standalone executable
python -m PyInstaller "Pen 11.spec" --noconfirm

Core Module Layout

description
main.py
Frameless Direct3D overlay, 60 FPS animations & event dispatcher.
crop_rotate
OBB Vector Engine
Oriented Bounding Box geometry, rotation matrix & handle physics.
dashboard_customize
CustomHoverMenu
Modular floating panels with non-blocking InOutSine opacity fades.
lock
SingleInstanceManager
Local IPC socket mutex guard preventing duplicate instances.
save
StorageManager
Atomic JSON persistence for tool sizes, swatches & coordinates.
history
HistoryManager
50,000-stroke vector pipeline & 5,000-step memory-safe command stack.

COMMUNITY & FEEDBACK

Shape the Future of Pen 11

Encountered an edge case, have an idea for a tool, or want to contribute? File a bug report or feature request directly on GitHub.

lightbulb Feature Request bug_report Report Bug star Star on GitHub

BEHIND THE CODE

The Pen 11 Story

"While taking my NIELIT 'O Level' course, I found myself in need of a good screen annotation tool. However, I quickly realized that most existing options were either locked behind paywalls, bloated with unnecessary features, or suffered from laggy, outdated user interfaces.

Frustrated by these limitations, I decided to build my own solution using AI. The result is Pen 11—a blazing-fast, highly responsive, and meticulously optimized screen marker that respects your system's resources."

— Narayan Dev (Creator & Maintainer)

favorite

Support Continued Development

If Pen 11 helped you in your studies or teaching, buy me a coffee by scanning with any UPI app!

UPI Donation QR Code - narayanadev@ptyes

UPI ID: narayanadev@ptyes Scan with Paytm, GPay, PhonePe, or BHIM

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Got Questions? We've Got Answers.

Everything you need to know about Pen 11 screen annotation, performance, and compatibility.

Which graphics tablets, styluses, and digital pens are supported? expand_more

Pen 11 provides native, hardware-level support for any tablet or stylus compatible with Windows Ink / Wintab, including Wacom (Intuos, One, Cintiq), Huion, XP-Pen, Gaomon, and Microsoft Surface Pen. The app reads raw hardware pressure values via tabletEvent() for smooth, natural stroke tapering and automatically detects when you flip your stylus over (PointerType.Eraser) to erase without touching the toolbar.

How does multi-monitor support work across different display resolutions? expand_more

Pen 11 is multi-monitor native: its drawing canvas spans your entire virtual desktop across all connected monitors, whether 1080p, 2K, 4K, or mixed DPI. Its smart positioning engine (_smart_position()) detects screen boundaries using QApplication.screenAt() and automatically flips flyout panels horizontally or vertically so palettes and menus never clip off-screen or slip under the Windows Taskbar.

How do I completely uninstall Pen 11 and remove configuration files? expand_more

Pen 11 is 100% portable: it does not write to the Windows Registry and does not install hidden background daemons. To uninstall, simply delete Pen 11.exe. If you also wish to clear your saved tool sizes and custom palette configurations, delete the settings folder at %APPDATA%\Pen11\.

Can I draw over fullscreen applications, games, and presentation slideshows? expand_more

Yes. Pen 11 creates a transparent, hardware-accelerated overlay with Windows non-activating flags (WS_EX_NOACTIVATE / Qt.WindowDoesNotAcceptFocus) so your active PowerPoint slide, PDF reader, browser, or screen share never loses focus while you annotate. For video games, running in Borderless Windowed mode allows Windows desktop overlays to render smoothly on top.

Will Pen 11 lag during long drawing sessions or complex diagrams? expand_more

No. Unlike traditional tools that redraw every single vector point from scratch on every frame ($O(N)$), Pen 11 uses a Two-Layer Accelerated Backing Cache: completed strokes are permanently rasterized into a high-DPI Direct3D 11 off-screen buffer ($O(1)$). You can ink 50,000+ strokes without dropping below 60 FPS or experiencing stroke accumulation lag.

Is Pen 11 completely free and open-source? expand_more

Yes, absolutely. Pen 11 is 100% free and open-source software distributed under the permissive MIT License. There are no paywalls, hidden subscriptions, ads, or tracking telemetry.

Does Pen 11 require an installer or administrator rights? expand_more

No installation required. Pen 11 is shipped as a standalone portable Pen.11.exe and compressed .ZIP archive. You can download and run it directly from your Downloads folder, Desktop, or USB drive without administrator privileges.

How does Pen 11 achieve zero idle CPU usage? expand_more

Unlike web/Electron-based tools that run heavy Chromium background loops, Pen 11 is built on native Direct3D 11 and Qt bindings. When you are not drawing, its event loop sleeps at 0.0% CPU and renders only modified dirty rects during active mouse/stylus strokes.