
Show HN: Illustrio – Search, customize and download illustrations - raphdg
https://app.illustrio.com/
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rootlocus

      > © illustrio 2016 - Patent pending
    

What are you patenting?

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raphdg
We've built a CSS based language to enable designers to easily make their SVG
graphics dynamic and customizable. You're right though, it makes no sense to
put it there while it's pending, I'm removing it. Thanks for asking!

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teleclimber
Can you tell us your rationale for patenting this "CSS-based language"?

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atonse
Wouldn't it be the same rationale for any patent? To protect your intellectual
property?

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teleclimber
Well sure, but obtaining a patent is no small thing (if done seriously). So
I'm curious why they feel it's so important to protect this.

Basically I'm wondering if it's just a purely defensive move, (maybe an
investor asked them to file a patent or whatever), or whether they are aiming
for a business model where people create things using a language that they
control and can obtain fees for its use.

Of course they don't have any reason to share this info with us at this point.

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asp2insp
Very cool! I initially thought it was just color swapping, but the percentages
section in particular is fantastic.

Led by the CTA arrow:
[http://i.imgur.com/odtBsuE.png](http://i.imgur.com/odtBsuE.png), I clicked on
"Illustrations" first, which I actually think is the weakest example of cool
customizability. Percentages and Words are both more compelling IMHO.

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raphdg
Thank you for the feedback. The percentages stuff is my favorite too. And
you're right, I'm moving down the arrow CTA :)

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thaeli
I'm not clear on the licensing here. Are all files under the "illustrio
license", and why does the summary that pops up seem to say something
different than the detailed license text? I would be much more comfortable
with a standard license being used - say, the Creative Commons licenses. At
least let users filter their search by license terms, unless they're all under
the same terms in which case that should be clearer.

I like the idea of being able to customize, but is that simply changing the
colors? Or is it the ability to commission edits to the work? If it's just
color changes I have trouble seeing the value; if it's substantial edits to
the work then the pricing looks too low and the license terms are too
restrictive.

Basically, what does this offer me that the Noun Project doesn't, except far
more restrictive licensing terms?

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sebdursel
Thanks for the feedback. The illustrio license applies to all graphics. What
differences have you noticed between the pop up and the detailed text? We
might need to clarify if anything is unclear right now. Also, you may
customize other things than colors by playing with the inputs in the left
side-bar under each "product". Try to play with the slider under Percentages
for example. You need to click on Percentages first.

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thaeli
Ah, it's only in some categories. That is definitely a neat feature now that I
see it. Unfortunate that the licensing makes this something I can't use. I'd
never get your license text past the legal team at my day job, and almost all
of my side projects are FLOSS. Plus, having a policy of never using anything
that I can't either own the rights to or use and modify under a permissive
license makes my IP management so much simpler.

The summary license says that you can't redistribute the graphics. Admittedly,
I'm used to licenses such as GPL where including the file in an app's package
file would be "redistribution" \- it looks like you mean "no redistribution of
JUST the graphics file" which could perhaps be clearer.

Also, the license seems really concerned with not putting any of your graphics
in a theme or template. Why is this? I'd consider offering a licensing option
which permits this, perhaps on a different pricing structure.

You say can't use in/on a paid product, but can use in a paid service. That's
confusing because I'd think of my paid website service AS my product - I think
you might mean "no use on physical goods for sale" which is another
restriction I don't particularly understand but okay. Again that might be
something to offer an option for.

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sebdursel
All good points and we certainly need to clarify a couple things. The reason
why our license is restrictive is because we target non-designers who are
generally not making a living out of design. This way we can offer our own
pricing and not compete with all the already good icon and graphic providers
out there targeting designers. It happens non-designers are also happier with
our limited editing features than Adobe illustrator's for instance. Hope it
makes sense.

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throwaway13337
This is a very good idea. Are you planning to make it marketplacable? So that
there can be creators of SVGs as well.

Also, right now, when I look at the pricing section, only an empty modal
dialog shows up (el capitan, chrome, ad blocker off).

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raphdg
Thank you! We're currently working with a few designers in private but we're
working on tools that would enable designers to upload packs of .svg graphics
and make them automatically customizable on our platform.

I'm having a hard time trying to reproduce the modal bug although you're not
the first one to report the issue. I'm working on it!

edit: typo

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throwaway13337
For what it's worth, I just checked and the pricing dialog works now.

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raphdg
Weird. Thanks anyway :)

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scott_hardy
Also ran into the pricing modal issue when I clicked through to one of the
designs [1]. Using OSX Chrome 50.0.2661.102

[1]
[https://app.illustrio.com/detail/percentage/55803bfd7ca4ca2e...](https://app.illustrio.com/detail/percentage/55803bfd7ca4ca2e5c0ded6b)

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raphdg
It should be fixed by now :)

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lucideer
I'm getting the following very abrupt error (which I assume is caused by a
content-blocker) and then the site fails to load.

    
    
      AlgoliaSearchJSONPScriptErrorError: <script> unable to load due to an `error` event on it
    

Tweaking content-blocking fixes this and all works fine, but just to report
that the alert() popup is a bit abrupt.

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raphdg
The app still needs a lot of error handling love. Thank you for the report.

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king_magic
"All packs are valid for 12 months."

What does that mean? Can the illustrations only be used within that 12 month
period?

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raphdg
No. If you buy a downloads pack, you have to use them within 12 months. After
that period, they expire.

But once the illustrations are downloaded, you can use them as long as you
want.

edit: for clarity

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biot
Perhaps you should say "Must be downloaded within 12 months; perpetual license
lets you use them for as long as you want."

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sebdursel
Indeed good point, thanks for that!

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ArmandGrillet
I can see myself paying for this to improve my next presentations, the value
proposition is really good!

I'm not sure of the business model for big customers though, the gap between
100 and 5000 downloads being huge. Maybe unlimited downloads would be better,
maybe not, only time will give you an answer.

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raphdg
Indeed, we had to came up with a pricing based on the few customers/users we
already have. But I agree that the gap may seem inaccurate.

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jazoom
I was interested until I realised you can't get the icons in SVG. Why use
raster images for icons? SVGs are smaller, crisper and always the correct
resolution.

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fitzwatermellow
Nicely done! Can actually start using this service immediately ;)

How easy would it be for Illustrio to take requests for specific illustrations
from the community?

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raphdg
Cool! Currently we don't have the tools to accept requests automatically.
Still, we're closely monitoring the search terms/expressions users make that
return no (or close to no) results.

We try to be as reactive as possible, so feel free to contact us (bottom left
of sidebar) and ask for what you need!

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raphdg
We clearly did not expect such a traffic from HN. The download requests are
stuck for the moment, sorry for that! We're working on it.

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andybak
Nice.

On signup - there is a field labelled 'company' that validates as an email
address. I'm guessing the label is wrong.

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raphdg
Indeed thank you! edit: Are you referring to the placeholder "Your company
email..." in the signup modal? If it's the case, we're planning on creating a
color scheme automatically from the company's logo. Currently, it can be done
by picking colors manually from any logo the Clearbit API can find. Try to
create a new color scheme :)

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andybak
Maybe I didn't spot the word 'email' in "Your company email..." but I swear it
just said "Your company"...

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arsalanb
This is like Clipart, but better, and for the internet. Loving it!

