

Avocode – preview and inspect PSD without Photoshop - PetrBrzyBrzek
http://avocode.com/

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lechevalierd3on
How is it different from the Adobe tool mentioned here earlier today ?
([https://projectparfait.adobe.com/](https://projectparfait.adobe.com/))

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LeZuse
We cannot speak for the Parfait team, but we think there are some key
differentiators given that their tool is from Adobe. Read Q11 at
[http://avocode.com/faq.html](http://avocode.com/faq.html)

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jscheel
I know Sketch is mentioned in the FAQ as something that may come later. But,
Sketch is quickly becoming the darling of the web design world, and the
development world just hasn't adopted it yet. Want to corner the market?
Support Sketch sooner, rather than later. I'm really looking forward to seeing
what Avocode can do!

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cvburgess
Although I think this tool is fantastic, and an asset to the design community,
i think it is an attempt at making the wrong tool for the job slightly less
wrong. Photoshop was never designed, optimized, or planned around UI designers
- it's audience is photographers.

I applaud projects like this, but sometimes its just better to use a tool that
was build from the ground up around UI design, not an app that can be hacked
to the point where it can somewhat deliver the results that UI designers need.

I personally use Sketch and Sketch Mirror and have found that the native
support for device mirroring, retina resolutions, and CSS layer styles have
become an essential part of my workflow. Photoshop gets REALLY messy as soon
as you get a few iterations into a big project, and although there are hacks
to get around some of the frustrations, at the end of the day they are just
that: hacks.

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grrowl
Unfortunately, you're right (about "the wrong tool for the job"), but just as
you use the best tool _for you_ and for the job, many designers love Photoshop
and it is the industry standard. For now, this is the best solution unless
you're both designing and developing.

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iansinnott
This is amazing. No one who uses or likes photoshop for design has to switch,
and developers never need to find a copy of photoshop again. This is a genius
solution.

Also the fact that it's multiplatform is great. I'm looking forward to using
this on linux.

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ryanackley
Has anyone tried Layervault? I've never used them but they look like they do
something similar. They also have an open source ruby library for inspecting
PSD files called PSD.rb which is how I know of them.

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LeZuse
LayerVault is a great tool if you want to keep your design files version
controlled and nicely organized, which is the primary function. They have also
introduced a handoff feature
([http://layervault.tumblr.com/post/82302518939/introducing-
as...](http://layervault.tumblr.com/post/82302518939/introducing-asset-
handoff)) that is somewhat closer to Avocode. But Avocode aims to be your tool
of choice when it comes to designer->developer interaction and VICE VERSA.
Many services often forget those developers who must code the same parts over
and over again.

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jffry
As an aside, I was surprised (in a good way) at how well the video blended in
with the page. Pixel-perfect alignment of the first thumbnail of the video
with the slightly-animated image shown before, and near-instantaneous starting
when I played. No flicker, no buffering, just play immediately.

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gio
Looks cool. Me and my friends are working on an API service that would enable
anyone to build such an app. [http://filepreviews.io](http://filepreviews.io)

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dolphenstein
Just the sort of tool I'm after! Been using Gimp to open PSDs but it's quite
finicky and error prone. I can't justify myself a Photoshop license just for
inspection purposes.

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stuaxo
Interesting .. how good is the PSD support ?

If it's based on existing 3rd party libraries then I imagine there are some
things that don't work, on the other hand it might do something a bit more
exotic like sandbox adobe apps.

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LeZuse
Parsing the PSD format is quite a challenge given its "half-open" nature.
We've looked at many different libraries out there and basically took the best
from each. Now we're also contributing to the open PSD.rb implementation.

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carrotleads
How can I test it. Put my email down and on a list now.

Also your email subject says subscribing and at the same time there is no
unsubscribe link.

Maybe change subject to "Thank you for showing interest in Avocode"

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LeZuse
Thanks for noticing. We are going to fix some of these mistakes.

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muaddirac
This looks great! I wanted something sim(ilar|pler) for inspecting psd iOS
mockups (to extract size/font info, etc). This is clearly geared towards web,
but looks like it would work well for any sort of design.

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helloiamvu
"Right now Avocode is focused on the web but we would like to offer the same
experience for mobile developers too" \- Question 12
[http://avocode.com/faq.html](http://avocode.com/faq.html)

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jpdlla
This looks way better than what Adobe is doing with
[https://projectparfait.adobe.com/](https://projectparfait.adobe.com/)

