openFrameworks is an open-source toolkit designed for creative coding founded by Zachary Lieberman, Theo Watson and Arturo Castro.

According to its authors, openFrameworks was developed for "... folks using computers for creative, artistic expression, and who would like low level access to the data inside of media in order manipulate, analyze or explore.

[7] In 2006, Cory Arcangel used openFrameworks to create the video projection Colors, taking the 1988 film of the same name and playing it one horizontal row of pixels at a time, for more than 33 days.

[2] OpenFrameworks' emphasis on creative coding is similar to the Processing language in that both projects present a simplified interface to powerful libraries for media, hardware and communication.

The primary difference is that openFrameworks has a larger number of dependencies on open source libraries, allowing advanced programmers more control and transparency, while Cinder is more dependent on libraries built into the operating systems it sits on top of, which generally means updates and bug fixes are more frequent and reliable with openFrameworks.