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Gimp
Any image editor is valid, eg. Minipaint, which is FOSS, complete and works right in the browser (hosted in github.io), using images from eg. Pixabay (images, vectors, videos, gifs, music, sounds) which are all free to use (CC or copyleft). Really not a problem to create memes without copyright issues (and without AI).
Gimp/krita/script it with imagemagick/python + pillow
Unless there's something I'm missing, its just text on an image. Any editor will do.
It's mostly about ease of use. You don't really want to spend more than a few minutes on a silly meme. As such, having a database with meme templates, the right kind of font and easy text placement, can make the difference, whether you'll bother creating a meme or not...
Sincerely a selfhostable service to create memes using a base image you choose from like a dropdown or something, some text, and some basic positioning could be nice, with the option to add new images on the fly. I'd definitely use it, so that I don't upload my own photos to someone's server.
Alternative to, best swapping application guide ever. I got thus from the Arch Wiki. It's great for giving you more than 1 option.
Second this
I thought about creating something like that and the major problem that I see is that lots of meme templates do have copyright and the font that's typically used for memes, Impact, isn't free either. Well, and it isn't done by merely developing a software and offering it for download. You would need to host the meme templates or some editor webpage, which is a whole 'nother skillset.
If we say that users bring their own meme template, and it can be a free font that looks similar to Impact, and it's not to be hosted as a webpage, then it would be quite doable.
You would "just" need to call the ImageMagick library with the right parameters. Still not trivial, but the path to get there is fairly straightforward. I could imagine that something like that already exists as an open-source project...
The Anton and Oswald Google fonts are Free alternatives to Impact which can be made to look nearly identical (more spacing for Anton, bolder weight for Oswald).
That's one of your issues solved.
The other one could be solved by making users upload memes to their browsers in local storage. They could then export their meme repositories as ZIP files and share them with others.
You'd "just" need to host the editor webpage and have it do everything locally, ideally as PWA.
On android I use Pocket Paint and MemeTastic. They are both on F-Droid.
What's wrong with imgflip ? You can upload your own picture and caption it
It's not opensource.
What's your threat model to need a quick online image caption to be opensource?
It might just be that if there's an OpenSource option they prefer to use and support that, no need to have a threat to use something open.
Alternatively, maybe they want to create memes with their own personal images or text that they rather not upload anywhere. The reason for why they prefer some OpenSource option, maybe something to selfhost, is irrelevant to the question by OP.
He didn't mention security concerns.
Why does it need to be proprietary?
The image editing part is already solved. The problem is the massive library of templates, which are copyright some unknown person, hence a legal liability. If you need to upload your own template you may as well use GIMP - it's not like it's hard to create a few text layers after adding the template. Prepositioning them and scaling them isn't that big a deal.
it’s not like it’s hard to create a few text layers after adding the template.
Give me an example of a GIMP made meme with white Impact font, black borders, please, and tell me how long it took you.
I mean, it's not hard, but it takes way longer than 4 clicks and a few keystrokes like on the aforementioned sites.
If you want an open source tool, you're not going to have a proprietary font in it, are you?
But you're right that I hadn't thought about the borders.
Might be overkill (since it's a Figma alternative), but try Penpot.
I'm waiting for the day someone decides to challenge the behemoth that's Canva with an open source alternative. That'd be dope.
this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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