Subpath

A browser-based SVG editor that grew up.

Subpath is a local-first SVG path editor for the browser and desktop, with boolean path operations, ten export targets, and optional AI generation and cloud sync layered on top of an editor that still works with no account and no upload.

🚀 What is Subpath?

Subpath started in 2025 as SVG Path Editor, a browser-based tool for point-and-click SVG editing that I built because I was tired of switching between three different tools just to clean up one icon. Over the following year it kept growing: boolean path operations, a real export pipeline, AI-assisted generation, an optional cloud layer, and a native desktop app. In August 2026 it took a new name to match what it had become: Subpath.

The original tool is still up, unedited, at the SVG Path Editor project page if you want to see where this started.

For the full story of how it got here, including the six-week stretch that turned a quiet side project into this, read One Year In: How SVG Path Editor evolved into Subpath.

✨ Key Capabilities

Precision path editing

Drag anchor and bezier handles, nudge points by 0.1px, and snap to grid, guides, or other objects. Boolean operations (union, subtract, intersect, exclude) combine paths without leaving the editor, and stroke-to-outline turns a stroked path into an equivalent filled shape. The path engine handles offset, inset, normalize, and simplify. Layer groups and a dedicated subpaths panel keep complex illustrations organized, the command palette (Cmd+K) puts every action a keystroke away, and undo/redo covers everything, including deletes.

Import that just works

Drop an SVG file on the canvas or paste directly from Figma. Geometry, gradients, and clips carry over, and full transform support (translate, rotate, scale, skew, matrix, nested groups) means complex assets come in looking the way they were designed.

Export to wherever you are building

This is where Subpath pulls ahead of most path editors. Export as raw or optimized SVG, a React component, Vue, Svelte, SwiftUI, CSS (clip-path or general), a data URI, a sprite sheet, a full ZIP bundle, or push straight to a GitHub Gist. Your last-used settings are remembered, so you are not reconfiguring the export every time.

AI generation, when you want it

Describe a shape and get path variants back, with constraints for size, complexity, and style, or select an existing path and edit it by prompt. Generation is metered by plan, with three quality tiers priced by their real cost difference, and the top tier can run a Refine pass: the rendered image goes to a vision model for critique, then the geometry gets revised against that critique. It is a paid feature now, not a demo, and a request that cannot be charged is refused rather than silently downgraded. Current plans and credit pricing are at subpath.dev/pricing.

Optional cloud, never required

Sign in for cross-device sync, a real document library (create, rename, duplicate, trash), and version history, all backed by Supabase with magic-link or GitHub sign-in. Moving a document to the cloud is an explicit, opt-in copy; it never deletes or replaces your local original. Every bit of local editing works with zero account and zero upload if that is all you want.

A real desktop app

Subpath also runs as a native desktop app (built on Tauri), currently in private beta. It adds real file handling (Open, Save, Save As, export through native destinations), one document per window with its own crash recovery, and full offline editing. Signed public installers are close; see the desktop page for current availability.

🎯 Who It’s For

Solo devs and designers

Quick icon and illustration work without installing anything, exported straight into whatever framework you are already using.

Small teams

Consistent, brand-matched exports across multiple frameworks in one pass, instead of hand-converting the same shape five different ways.

Anyone who wants a real app

Install the desktop version without giving up the free browser editor, work fully offline, and keep your SVGs as real files on disk.

⚡ Quick Start

Open subpath.dev and start from a blank canvas, one of the built-in shapes, or a template. Drop in an existing SVG, or paste one straight from Figma. No account, install, or setup required to start editing; sign in later only if you want cloud sync or AI generation.

Cmd/Ctrl + K   Open the command palette
Cmd/Ctrl + V   Paste an SVG or Figma path onto the canvas
?              Show all keyboard shortcuts

Cmd/Ctrl + K   Open the command palette
Cmd/Ctrl + V   Paste an SVG or Figma path onto the canvas
?              Show all keyboard shortcuts

📊 Real-World Usage

I use Subpath as my daily editor for icon and illustration work, which is still the most honest usage number I have. Cloud sync and the desktop app are both invite-only betas right now, so there is not yet a meaningful usage-at-scale story to tell. That will be its own post once there is one.

🔗 Links

• Try it: subpath.dev
• Desktop app (private beta): subpath.dev/desktop
• Pricing: subpath.dev/pricing
• What’s new: subpath.dev/changelog
• Where this started: the original SVG Path Editor project page
• The full story: One Year In: How SVG Path Editor evolved into Subpath
• The rename, in detail: Renaming a live product without losing anyone’s data

If you have been bouncing between three different tools to get one SVG right, the browser editor is free to open right now, no account needed to find out if it fits your workflow.