Silicate

GPU-Accelerated Procreate File Viewer

Online Web Viewer • Download Native App

Overview

Silicate is a high-performance, cross-platform viewer and renderer for Procreate files (.procreate). Built with Rust and powered by WebGPU, it provides both native desktop applications and a web-based viewer for read access to your Procreate artwork. Useful for archiving and preserving your digital artworks.

Don't have a Procreate file? Try the included reference.procreate file in the repository's base directory!

Quick Start

Web Viewer | Launch

The web viewer provides instant access without installation:

• Requires a modern browser with WebAssembly and WebGPU support.
• However, it is slower than the native viewer due to single-threaded execution.
• The UI may be unresponsive during compositing.

Browser Compatibility:

• Chrome/Edge 113+
• Firefox 121+ (with WebGPU enabled)
• Safari 18+ (macOS Sonoma+)

Native Viewer | Download

Stable Releases

Download platform-specific binaries from the Releases page:

• Windows - .exe
• macOS - .dmg package
• Linux - Binary

Development Builds

Get cutting-edge builds from the CI pipeline:

1. Navigate to the latest successful workflow run
2. Download release-{your-os} artifact
3. Extract and run

macOS Users:

• Unpack the .zip or open the .dmg files
• The app is not notarized, so you may need to allow it manually by either:
  • Allow the app in System Preferences → Security & Privacy
  • Remove quarantine with the Terminal xattr -d com.apple.quarantine <file_path>

Windows Explorer Thumbnails

Silicate includes a thumbnail provider for Windows Explorer (libs/silica-thumbs) that shows previews of .procreate files in File Explorer, just like images.

• Uses the QuickLook/Thumbnail.png preview embedded in each file, so thumbnails appear instantly without compositing.
• Registers for the current user only, so no administrator rights are needed.

Features

• Native Desktop Apps: Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Web Viewer: Modern browsers with WebGPU support
• Multi-file Support: Load and view multiple .procreate files simultaneously
• Drag & Drop: Intuitive file loading
• Real-time compositing: Fast and accurate rendering of Procreate files
  • Powered by wgpu for cross-platform performance
  • Live preview of layer changes
  • Supports blending modes, masks, opacity control
• Export: Save your Procreate files as images with multiple formats
• Procreate-Inspired UI: Familiar interface for Procreate users
• Explorer Thumbnails: Previews of .procreate files in Windows File Explorer

Important Notes

Rendering Accuracy

The renderer produces slightly different results compared to Procreate's native engine:

• Saturation and Hue blending modes follow Photoshop's style instead of Procreate's

🛠️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Latest stable Rust toolchain
• For native builds: Platform-specific dependencies
  • Windows: MSVC toolchain
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
  • Linux: build-essential

Build Commands

Native Builds

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Axaril/silicate.git
cd silicate

# Build native release
cargo build --release

# Run native app
cargo run --release

Web Build

# Build for web (requires trunk)
cargo install trunk
trunk build --release

Multithreaded Web Build (experimental)

The wasm-threads feature decodes layers on a pool of Web Workers. It needs a nightly toolchain with rust-src (rustup component add rust-src --toolchain nightly) to rebuild std with atomics:

export RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN=nightly
export CARGO_UNSTABLE_BUILD_STD=std,panic_abort
export RUSTFLAGS="-C target-feature=+atomics,+bulk-memory,+mutable-globals \
  -C link-arg=--shared-memory -C link-arg=--max-memory=4294967296 -C link-arg=--import-memory \
  -C link-arg=--export=__wasm_init_tls -C link-arg=--export=__tls_size \
  -C link-arg=--export=__tls_align -C link-arg=--export=__tls_base"
trunk build --release --features wasm-threads

The page must be cross-origin isolated to use shared memory. trunk serve sends the required headers (see Trunk.toml), and on static hosts like GitHub Pages the service worker in assets/sw.js adds them.

Windows Explorer Thumbnails

# Build the thumbnail DLL and register it with Explorer for the current user
cargo xtask thumbs register

# Remove the registration
cargo xtask thumbs unregister

Explorer keeps the DLL loaded after showing a thumbnail, so re-registering a rebuilt DLL may fail. Add --restart-explorer to register to release it. See the thumbnail provider README for all options.

Procreate File Format

All .procreate files are standard ZIP archives with the following structure:

filename.procreate (ZIP archive)
├── {UUID}/
│   └── {col}~{row}.chunk          # LZO-compressed RGBA tile data
├── QuickLook/
│   └── Thumbnail.png              # Low-quality preview
├── video/
│   └── segments/
│       └── segment-X.mp4          # Timelapse video segments
└── Document.archive               # NSKeyedArchive with layer metadata

Component Details

Layer Data ({UUID}/ folders)

• Each layer has a unique UUID
• Contains chunked raster data in {col}~{row}.chunk files
• Compression: LZO or LZ4
• Format: Premultiplied RGBA or Grayscale (masks)
• Tile Size: tile_size × tile_size pixels per chunk
• Chunks are recombined to reconstruct the full layer

QuickLook

• Thumbnail.png: Low-resolution preview generated by Procreate
• Used for file browser previews on iOS/macOS, and by Silicate's Windows Explorer thumbnail provider

Video Segments

• Timelapse recording of the drawing process
• Split into multiple MP4 segments
• Not currently utilized by Silicate

Document.archive (NSKeyedArchive)

Apple's serialization format for Objective-C/Swift objects. Structure:

Component	Description
version	Archive format version (not used)
archiver	Archiver identifier (not used)
top	Root object reference (SilicaDocument)
objects	Object pool containing all serialized values

Key-Value Structure:

• Keys are simple strings
• Values are often id indices pointing to objects in the objects array
• Contains layer hierarchy, canvas size, document settings, etc.

Important Fields:

• Layer information (hierarchy, names, UUIDs)
• Canvas dimensions
• Document metadata
• Layer properties (opacity, blend mode, visibility)

Acknowledgments & Attribution

This project builds upon the work of others in the Procreate ecosystem:

• Silica Viewer by redstrate

  • Provided foundational understanding of the Procreate file format
  • Base code for NSKeyedArchive parsing

• Prospect by Jarom Vogel

  • Alternative Procreate viewer focused on final composites
  • Supports timelapse playback functionality

• SVG Thumbnail Extension for Windows Explorer by Thio

  • Basis for the Windows Explorer thumbnail provider

Special thanks to the Rust community and the maintainers of:

• wgpu - Cross-platform graphics API
• egui - Immediate mode GUI framework
• All other dependencies listed in Cargo.toml