Show HN: Repaint – a WebGL based website builder

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception

  • Many commenters are impressed by the technical ambition and smoothness of the editor, especially given it’s WebGL-based.
  • Several say they’re eager to try it and see it as a promising alternative to existing tools, though some won’t sign up without clear code export options.

Positioning vs incumbents (Webflow, Framer, Figma, Wix)

  • Team frames it as Figma-like UX combined with HTML/CSS fidelity, contrasting with Webflow’s perceived clunkiness and Framer’s divergence from “real” code.
  • Others note that for simple marketing/landing pages, mature incumbents with built-in analytics, templates, and funnels are still attractive.

Code export, hosting, and “walled garden”

  • This is the most contentious topic. Many say lack of HTML/CSS (or React) export is a deal-breaker and call this “digital feudalism.”
  • Desired options: static HTML/CSS export, React/component export, Git-based sync, self-hosting, or at least downloadable “frozen” output.
  • Motivations: control over infra, integration with existing stacks (Vercel, GitHub Pages), long-term data sovereignty, and avoiding lock-in or price shocks.
  • The team is reconsidering, exploring code export and alternative business models but has no concrete plan yet.

Responsiveness, semantics, SEO & accessibility

  • Current workflow is desktop-first with breakpoints; some question this vs mobile-first.
  • Commenters highlight need for semantic tags, better defaults, and integrated SEO/a11y checks.
  • The product already scores decently on Lighthouse but not top-tier; future improvements and per-element tag control are planned.

Rendering engine, WebGL, and text layout

  • Many recognize the difficulty of reimplementing CSS and text rendering; there’s detailed discussion of fonts, metrics, HarfBuzz, Skia, etc.
  • Team notes brutal effort to match browser text/layout and that they currently focus on Latin script, with ligatures and complex scripts deferred.
  • Some question whether WebGL is necessary vs smart caching; others argue GPU-driven editors enable Figma-level smoothness.

Performance & visual quality

  • Discussion about FPS: some say 30+fps feels better; others note designers may not need very high frame rates.
  • Aliasing at certain zoom levels is observed; suggestions include shader-based AA, supersampling, and accumulation-buffer style techniques.
  • Team is open to WebGPU in future and considering a C++/WASM core for performance.

UX, onboarding, and feature requests

  • Playground without signup exists but is hard to discover from the main site; several request ungated, more-visible demos.
  • Requests include: Figma import, HTML/CSS import, semantic IDs for post-processing, CMS/data integrations, relative CSS units (rem/em/vw/container units), component libraries, SDK, and embedding the editor into other apps.
  • Some want the rendering engine itself open sourced as a general-purpose canvas/graphics platform.

Internationalization and input

  • Current text system struggles with emojis, IMEs, and non-Latin scripts; users report broken input and missing context menus.
  • Team acknowledges it’s Latin-focused so far and treats broader i18n as future work.