Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Or allow diagram creation and saving on the site for free and charge a fee for downloading a PDF/visio format of the diagram.

EDIT: PS Very cool.



Thanks! Btw, you can currently download a .png format for free, which I hope you'll be able to print with any program on your computer, or convert to pdf. Do you think there's value in doing a direct conversion to pdf?

Converting to Visio though probably will be a nightmare coz of MS's ugly proprietary format. Just coz of the complexity of doing this, in spite of its value, it'll probably be lower on my priority list.

Btw, currently this goes a little more head-to-head with whiteboarding apps like Netmeeting or Webex's whiteboards (or even MSN messenger's built in whiteboard), and less with tools like Visio/Omnigraffle, that have to be much more sophisticated and give users much more control to make pretty diagrams.


My hunch is that a lot of business users wouldn't know what to do with a PNG, but they would know how to open, print, and redistribute a PDF. (PNG support is built into Windows, but my guess is that most non-technical users don't know that.)


Why not have "Save as image" and "Save as PDF" to make things less confusing for users?


You might be surprised. There are multiple 3p apps that can edit and save Visio. The brand value of collaborative online Visio diagrams for businesses might be pretty large.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: