ANB File

What are ANB files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an ANB file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your ANB files.

What is an ANB file?

An .ANB file is a Project Dogwaffle Animated Brush file.

Project Dogwaffle Animated Brush files are digital brushes that consist of a short sequence of images used for painting in the Project Dogwaffle family of programs (Howler, Artist, PD Pro). These brushes permit brush strokes whose appearance changes frame by frame as you draw - so a single brush stroke is animated, cycling through multiple brush images rather than repeating the same static pattern. AnimBrushes are useful for adding motion, variation, and dynamic visual effects while painting.

These files are created within Project Dogwaffle (including versions such as Dogwaffle 1.6 and later, PD Howler, PD Artist, etc.). An artist either builds an AnimBrush by selecting a series of images (or frames), possibly from an animation or image sequence, or defines one inside Dogwaffle by painting or importing images. Once the sequence is set, the AnimBrush can be saved to this format so it can be reloaded later and applied while painting. While painting, Dogwaffle cycles through the frames as the brush moves, looping back to the first frame after the last one.

Files in this format start with a header signature "ANBR" (bytes 0x41 4E 42 52) at offset 0, followed by specific regions of zeroed bytes at offsets 6 and 10, and larger spans of zero data at later offsets including offset 13 and offset 25. These identifiers help programs and utilities detect and distinguish them from other files.

How to open ANB files

Important: Different programs may use files with the ANB file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your ANB file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested three different ANB openers which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 18, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of ANB files. Remember, different programs may use ANB files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about ANB file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.