Hi guys, my name is Ivan and I am developing an image editor with a good support for PSDs (and also Gimp files - XCF).
My goal is not to replace Photoshop or Gimp, but to “give a chance” to people, who can not use Photoshop for some reason (it is too expensive, or you edit PSD just once a year, or you have Linux, etc.). I think there is no software with a good support for PSD on the market (except of PS).
In order to let users edit all properties of PSD, I had to make quite similar forms, as in Photoshop (same blend modes, same layer styles, same properties of a layer style, same properties of text in a Text layer, same adjustment layers, etc.), so it should look familiar to Photoshop users. There are also basic tools of a classic image editor (brush, eraser, selections, eyedropper, …).
Can you tell me your impressions from PP? Is there a chance that you will start using it? What features do you miss the most? Feel free to sahre it I believe it may be useful for many people, but nobody knows about it. http://www.Photopea.com
This looks very impressive, thank you for sharing!
I have the same concerns about licensing, but also have concerns for my data, as this is a web app. Where does my data go? What do you do with it? I have a hard time relying on web apps as a serious tool because they tend to just go away and I want my tools to be less subject to the whims of others.
The UI is intuitive and I had absolutely no issue finding everything I needed to find. However there are a few points that could definitely be improved upon.
That being said, I agree wholeheartedly with the licensing and privacy issues as stated by @paperdigits above. From your GitHub:
Since Photopea is not open-source project, this account serves as a place for bug reports and general discussion about the project.
Using it for free for any purpose, although generous, does not ensure the possibility of further development should you decide to abandon the project or begin charging for features or upgrades. That is your prerogative as the developer. However you will find few (if any) here willing to rely on such a project for everyday use.
I forgot to mention, Photopea works completely in a browser, there is no Upload or Download of any data. Once the Photopea.com is loaded, you can disconnect from the internet and keep using it. PP would not be able to open your 50 MB PSD in a second, if there was any upload involved.
So, opening Photopea.com (3 seconds) = Downloading + Installing + opening Gimp or Photoshop (more than 3 seconds)
You can say the same thing about any piece of software. Even when you “own” it (you have it on your hard drive), you may need some additional support, or fixing a critical bug.
PP is already running for 3 years now. I am planning to offer optional subscription, which will give the paying user extra features.
For software that is freely licensed (GPL, BSD, MIT, etc), should the project be abandon, you can make fixes yourself and/or pay someone else to make the fixes for you.
There is a lot missing, and there was even more missing a year ago. I am updating Photopea several times a month. But I also need actual users to report bugs and suggest new features, so I can focus on the most important stuff.
Open source is fundamentally different in so many ways. As an open source user, you have the right to not only examine the code of any open source application, but to modify, share, and redistribute that software anyway you see fit so long as you abide by the original licensing terms.
The consequence of which include potentially thousands of independently focused eyes are on the code at any given time. For the popular open source projects, “critical bugs” rarely go unaddressed for long. And in the event that they do, there are so many previous versions of any given software out in the online ether that it’s often quite arbitrary to simply download and install a version that doesn’t have said bug.
This is profoundly important when addressing pretty much every concern stated above.
Nobody is knocking you for wanting to get paid. And don’t be so quick to assume that in order to make money from your application it must be closed source. But this community is all about free and open source software and not many here are going to take your project too seriously if you don’t embrace that ethos.
I think that I will need a lot of money to make Photopea a really good editor. I am afraid I will not be able to get that money, if I go open-source. Most of my projects are open-source and I am aware of advantages and disadvantages of it.
I think, that if I create a “favorable” product (cheaper or better quality than alternatives), everybody will benefit from it, even if it is closed-source.
Do you have any comments about the functionality, or what features would you like to have?
This is not meant to put you or photopea down in anyway, but if this software is closed source with no intention of opening the source, then this is an inappropriate forum to discuss it in. There are many forums and places to discuss closed applications, but this community exists to emabrace, enhance, and support applications that license their code freely.
I don’t want to sound too negative here, as I really appreciate any enthusiasm for photography tools! With that being said…
Are you offering to pay people for their time and effort in helping you understand what is likely to be wanted or what level we feel the functionality might be at? Folks here are quite happy to help, but it does feel like you are asking for us to help advance a closed-source project that aims to be commercial later on (in particular with no compensation for our time and effort). We put time in helping out here with the understanding that in many cases it is for the Greater Good™ of advancing a Free Software project.
Everybody who pays for it might be better off if they don’t care about software freedoms.
With that being said, there’s no reason you couldn’t open-source the project and still ask for payment to support it!
I agree, but let’s give the benefit of the doubt and leave it open for a bit.
Long time ago, RawTherapee was free, but closed source. It took some time to convince the author of RawTherapee to open the source. Do you see the analogy? For this reason I think we should not close the thread because being ‘off topic’…
I am looking for help in form of critique and suggestions (which may take you a couple of minutes) rather than some actual coding (which may take hours).
I am already offering a working product, which can be actually helpful, for free, and I plan to keep the main part of it free forever. So don’t “help me” unless you are persuaded, that you are “helping yourself” - that you may eventually benefit from Photopea in the future
I didn’t know, that this place is for open-source projects only. Can you give me a hint about a different place, where I can find the people, who could be interested in using Photopea?
I believe it may be useful for many people, but nobody knows about it. http://www.Photopea.com
