Penpot returned a true zero: 3,617 title matches and no fingerprint in any field

Zero is a result worth reporting precisely, and it is also easy to misreport. Penpot, an open-source design and prototyping platform, returned zero for the application field and zero for the product field while the title field returned 3,617. The article explains what each figure can and cannot support.

Context and method

Queries were executed through the ZoomEye SDK on 2026-10-05 with sub_type=all, page=1 and pagesize=1. Page size limits returned records, not totals.

• Search: title="Penpot" returned 3,617.
• Comparison: app="Penpot" returned 0.
• Comparison: product="Penpot" returned 0. A completed query that returns zero is a valid observation. An error, a timeout or a malformed response would be reported as an error and must not be recorded as zero, which is why the collection method is stated alongside the numbers.

Reading two zeros beside a four-figure count

Two zeros in different fields do not multiply the evidence of absence. They show that neither the behavioural fingerprint nor the component representation covers this application, which is a statement about the index rather than about the software.
Penpot is a heavily client-rendered application. The HTML delivered on first load carries a title and a bundle, and the interface itself is assembled in the browser. A signature derived from server-rendered markup has little to work with. Combined with the common practice of serving it under an organisation's own domain behind a proxy, the fingerprint misses almost everything.
The title count is the only usable field here, and it functions as an upper bound. It includes installation guides, comparison articles and documentation pages that mention the product. Using it as a deployment count would overstate; using the zeros as a deployment count would understate by the full population.

What the platform holds

A design platform stores project files, comment threads, team membership and often embedded assets and fonts. Where the platform supports shared links, those links are a distribution mechanism that may outlive the project. Where it is integrated with an identity provider, the platform inherits that provider's session model, which means a design tool can become a route into other systems if the integration is loosely scoped.

A defensible way to report this

State the field, the query, the collection time and the value. Where a field returns zero for a product that demonstrably exists, describe the field as not covering this application class rather than as evidence that the product is rare. Where possible, add a third representation that does not depend on server-rendered markup, such as a distinctive asset path or a certificate attribute, and report that result separately rather than merging it into a single figure.

Limitations

No third representation was queried here, so the range between zero and 3,617 remains wide. The title count includes non-deployment pages. A fingerprint of zero collected on one date does not exclude a match on another date, because fingerprints and index coverage change between collections.

References

• ZoomEye, title="Penpot" (3,617), app="Penpot" (0) and product="Penpot" (0), sub_type=all, collected 2026-10-05.
• Penpot project documentation, deployment and team configuration.