
Show HN: Eschersket.ch – a symmetry drawing app to design custom wrapping paper - alevskaya
https://eschersket.ch
======
gitgud
Very nice and fluid, also great to be able to instantly buy the pattern in
wrapping paper.

The only things I would recommend are:

\- The help screen in the beginning, doesn't look like a modal. It took me
ages to actually figure out there was an "x" button in the top-right. Maybe
add a darken behind the help popup, to show that it can be exited.

\- "Show Grid-lines" should be a first class option. I couldn't easily find
out how to show grid-lines and without you're clicking in the dark to find
where the pattern begins and ends.

These are just some small UX improvements, overall it's an impressive tool and
I wish you all the best!

~~~
glaberficken
Also, the way the trash can icon works is way non standard. I applaud the
attempt of getting rid of a standard confirmation modal, but when introducing
novel UI like this you need to be more explicit.

Suggestion: \- make the prompt appear inside the trash button and not outside
it. That should be enough to make it more obvious. If not enough, then add a
small text to it.

like this maybe:

[(Trash)Reset?]

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kauegimenes
What you guys think?
[https://www.zazzle.com/api/create/at-238457573239445416?rf=2...](https://www.zazzle.com/api/create/at-238457573239445416?rf=238457573239445416&ax=DesignBlast&sr=250849350115079504&cg=196081129722954021&t__useQpc=false&ed=true&t__smart=false&continueUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zazzle.com%2Feschersketch&tc=&ic=&t_image1_iid=https://eschersket.ch/zazzle/755816bb904e352ba343a319043ea69e.png)

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GistNoesis
Hello nice work but I'm afraid there is a critical bug when varying the grid
size. I'm not sure you can output a tile image when using simultaneously two
various grid sizes, as the periodic tiled image then should be of size
greatest common multiplier of the grids size.

What you see is not what you get.
[https://eschersket.ch/s/52e60da7c86c26cecc6b59bb7f9de9ad](https://eschersket.ch/s/52e60da7c86c26cecc6b59bb7f9de9ad)

Try to see the tiled image or exported to zazzle, and lines are no longer
continuous :( (By the way I also just notice sharing a zazzle url like :
[https://www.zazzle.com/eschersketch_wrapping_paper-256519193...](https://www.zazzle.com/eschersketch_wrapping_paper-256519193363075851)
is problematic because it is very tempting for the user to do so, but everyone
is sharing the same link, and what is displayed have some caching issues),
(Zazzle also gives a warning when the image is too big, Zazzle is also really
expensive 33€ for 76cm x 1.80m)

If you can sort the above issues, you can probably easily add some fractals
symmetries :)

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benenglish
Great software but after clicking buy and seeing that the Zazzle want to
charge £37 for a roll of custom wrapping paper? haha. the economics deem this
ridiculous!! You can buy great wrapping paper at a craft store for £3 a
roll...

~~~
alevskaya
Hey - author here, that price does seem high - I don't remember it being that
much... the only reason I linked to Zazzle at all was that they were the only
printer at the time offering a simple API for single-button forwarding of
image data. I'm sure there are cheaper services out there, which is why you
can download the 'tile' image that should work with any decent printing
service, or SVG for more customization, etc.

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h00dui
This is lovely, many thanks for sharing. I am having a lot of fun with this &
will most likely use this for some art related things in the future. I'd love
to be able to export these & have the same view I have via the browser. Seems
that exporting picture will give me some extra space on the right with
different gray space etc. Still love it, many thanks.

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abathur
Watched most of the demo with my permanent roommate (an architect) before
dinner and we both found it interesting. Good work.

~~~
samstave
What is a "Permanent Roommate"?

~~~
abathur
Just a cheeky term for my life partner :)

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stuntkite
This is awesome. Better execution than most web based tools I've seen to do
similar. I'm fascinated by Escher's migrating tessellations of recognizable
figures[0]. It would be nice to fork this and be able to draw a pair (or more)
of figures then use a gradient to base a blending mask to sum them.

[0]
[https://mathstat.slu.edu/escher/index.php/Tessellations_by_R...](https://mathstat.slu.edu/escher/index.php/Tessellations_by_Recognizable_Figures)

~~~
ddsea
Reproducing one of Escher's works, even approximately, would likely make a
killer demo for this.

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adrianoconnor
This is really nice, good work!

I once made a similar thing, but it was more of a creative-play-thing for
children (so no way to create tiled graphics, but hopefully easy to use and
fun to play with). It is at:
[http://kaleidopaint.com/](http://kaleidopaint.com/)

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rkagerer
One of the most enjoyable HN Show and Tells I've clicked in a while, thanks!

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bpick
Does anyone have any recommendations for a better, more economically
reasonable printing service than Zazzle? The sheer cost of it is prohibitively
expensive, and makes it tough to imagine small businesses or artists being
able to afford using their service.

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mkl
This looks neat! Two improvements I'd suggest are icons for the symmetry
choices rather than (or as well as) technical names, and pressure sensitivity
via Pointer Events.

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pvinis
A friend of mine has made [https://patternjs.com/](https://patternjs.com/) but
Eschersketch one is way more interactive!

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pgreenwood
Looks great! A fair bit more functionality than similar apps. I'd love to see
an option to use orbifold notation as well as crystalographic.

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cairo_x
This is excellent!

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ddsea
Like in a kaleidoscope, almost anything looks much better with symmetry.
Doodling on industrial scale. Great job!

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lainga
If I press "Grid Adjust", I think it stops the preset grid choices from
applying afterward

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sabujp
the autogenerated rolled paper is nice :
[https://www.zazzle.com/eschersketch_wrapping_paper-256519193...](https://www.zazzle.com/eschersketch_wrapping_paper-256519193363075851)

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CodeWriter23
Great name.

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yenwel
thanks so much! my wife is a teacher in ceramics so this is superusefull for
her...

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xkef
amazing work! very creative - keep it up :)

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countername
it's a pleasure to play with it

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vectorEQ
this is super nice :D

