A virtual spirograph you can play with in your browser
Remember the drawing toy with plastic gears and a pen poking through a hole? This online spirographrecreates it without the slipping gears or torn paper. Choose a ring and a wheel, pick where the pen sits, and turn the wheel by dragging around the canvas. The pen traces looping curves that build into perfectly symmetrical rosettes, stars and flowers. Change colour, rotate the start or swap wheels to layer patterns on top of each other.
How to make a spirograph pattern
- Choose a ring (the big outer gear) and a wheel (the small gear that rolls).
- Pick Inside or Outside: inside rolls the wheel around the inner edge for classic rosettes; outside rolls it around the outer edge for petal-like shapes.
- Set the pen hole with the 🖊️ slider. Further out means pointier loops.
- Drag in circles around the middle of the canvas to turn the gear, or press Auto.
- Layer it up. Change colour and wheel, or press 🔄 to rotate the starting point, and draw again.
- Download your design as a PNG.
Tips for beautiful designs
- Start with dark, end with light. Draw a bold base pattern, then add thinner, lighter layers on top.
- Repeat with rotation. Draw one pattern, press 🔄 and change colour, then draw the same pattern again for a woven, rainbow effect.
- Mix wheel sizes. A large wheel gives a few big loops; a small wheel gives many tight loops. Combining both adds depth.
- Try the pen hole near 50%. Halfway holes make soft, flowery curves that look great in pastel colours.
- Hide the gears with ⚙️ when you want to admire the result without the wheel in the way.
- Feeling stuck? Press 🎲 for a random combination of gears, pen hole and colour.
The maths behind the spirals
The curves a spirograph draws are called hypotrochoids (wheel inside the ring) andepitrochoids (wheel outside the ring). As the wheel rolls, it turns around its own centre while its centre travels around the ring, and the pen adds the two circular motions together. The pattern closes when the wheel has rolled a whole number of times around the ring, which happens after the ring's teeth divided by the greatest common divisor of both gears. That is why the info box shows the gear pair, the number of loops and how much of the pattern has been drawn.
Gear combinations to try
- Ring 96, wheel 36, pen hole 80%: a crisp eight-pointed star, ideal as a first layer.
- Ring 105, wheel 40: 21 slim petals that make a dense, lacy rosette.
- Ring 144, wheel 64, pen hole 50%: nine soft, rounded loops that look like a flower.
- Ring 150, wheel 84, outside: large overlapping loops that wrap around the ring like a crown.
- Ring 120, wheel 45: eight loops with a woven look; repeat it three times with 🔄 in three shades of the same colour.
Because the canvas never slips, you can stop at any point, change colour and carry on from exactly the same place, something that is almost impossible with the physical toy. Dragging backwards simply moves the wheel back without drawing, so you can line up the pen precisely before continuing.
More creative drawing tools
Love symmetry? Make your own designs freehand in the Mandala Maker, draw retro sprites in the Pixel Art Maker, or doodle freely on theonline drawing board.
Spirograph FAQ
How do I use the online spirograph?
Choose a ring and a wheel, set the pen hole with the slider, then drag your mouse or finger around the canvas to turn the wheel inside the ring, just like the real toy. Or press Auto to let the wheel go round until the pattern closes.
Why do some patterns have more loops than others?
The number of loops depends on the teeth of the ring and the wheel. Divide both by their greatest common divisor: a 105-tooth ring with a 40-tooth wheel shares a factor of 5, so the pattern has 105 ÷ 5 = 21 loops. Wheels that share fewer factors with the ring make more complex patterns that take longer to close.
What does the pen hole do?
It is how far from the centre of the wheel the pen sits. Holes near the edge of the wheel give sharp, pointy loops; holes near the centre give gentle waves. The slider goes from 10% to 95% of the wheel radius.
Can I layer different colours?
Yes. After one pattern is finished, change the colour, the wheel or the pen hole and draw again on top. The rotate button turns the starting point by 15° so the same pattern can be repeated around the circle in another colour.
How do I save my spirograph art?
Press the download button for a 1024 × 1024 PNG with a white background. Your patterns are also autosaved in your browser, and undo and redo work for every layer, even after you reload the page.
Is this spirograph free, and does it work on phones?
It is free with no sign-up or download, and it works on phones, tablets and computers. On a touch screen, drag in circles around the canvas to turn the gear.