Ink Marbling Generator - Make Suminagashi Paper Marbling Art Online
Suminagashi - "floating ink" - is the oldest paper-marbling technique in the world, practiced in Japan since the 12th century. Artists float drops of sumi ink on still water, breathe and fan the surface into rings and veins, then lift a sheet of washi paper to capture the pattern. This tool recreates that craft in your browser: a real-time GPU fluid simulation lets you drop, drag and swirl liquid ink across digital paper, then download the artwork as a PNG.
What it does
- Real fluid physics: a WebGL Navier–Stokes solver advects and swirls your ink like actual water - nothing is pre-baked.
- Traditional ink palette: sumi black, indigo, vermilion, pine green, plum and ochre, plus a custom picker for any HEX color.
- Auto flow: let the tool drop and drift ink on its own, like wind moving across the marbling bath.
- One-click export: download the canvas as a PNG for wallpapers, hero backgrounds, textures or print.
How to use it
- Pick an ink from the palette or set a custom HEX color.
- Click and drag slowly across the paper for fine marble veins, or flick quickly for turbulent swirls.
- Tap once (without dragging) to drop a still ring of ink - the classic suminagashi concentric-circle look.
- Adjust Brush size and Flow strength, switch the paper tone, and Download PNG when it looks right.
Pro tips
- Layer two or three related hues for depth - build them first with the Color Harmony Generator.
- Find the perfect ink by blending candidates in the Color Mixer, then paste the result here.
- Pulled a palette from a photo with Palette from Image? Marble those exact colors for an on-brand texture.
- Wondering what your swirl color is called? Check it in the Color Name Finder.
Related tools
For smooth blends instead of fluid swirls, try the Gradient Generator or the Mesh Gradient Generator; for animated backgrounds, the Animated Gradient Generator renders looping CSS keyframes.