Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Aviary: works like online Photoshop and more, plus remix other artists' work (aviary.com)
5 points by unalone on Dec 18, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 8 comments



Jee. Online Photoshop. How about flying Photoshop or an underwater Photoshop? Every time I edit an image I think those would be so useful...

Seriously, has anyone, just one person in the world, ever had this thought when launching Photoshop: "ughh... I wish it was online so I could wait a bit longer..."


1) Aviary is a free service.

2) They offer more than just a photoshop clone. They've got four tools out right now (raster manipulation, procedural generation, palette creator, vector editor), and there's more on the way.

3) They store all the images online, which means you can see how every image gets made, which is a pretty useful thing for beginners.

4) They're making all the programs available as AIR applications, so they function on the desktop.

Jeez. Why not take a look at the thing before you try and rip it all apart.


Why not take a look at the thing before you try and rip it all apart.

Because my Photoshop files are 20-50MB (quite typical), and even worse, I produce about 2GB of RAW files with my Canon SLR per photo shoot, yet my upstream connection speed is about 45Kb/sec, and that's still probably in top 20% of US population (at most places I worked, connection was even worse). It's been like that for about 10 years and I see no signs of dramatic improvements within next 10 years.

Need I say more?

P.S. That example is a very typical Photoshop usage pattern, if you going to call something "Online Photoshop", you better have some idea what Photoshop is and what it does. If this was called a "Fun College Programming Project" I wouldn't be nearly as sarcastic.

They offer more than just a photoshop clone

Oh, yeah, forgot to add. They're not "just a photoshop clone", they're nowhere near Photoshop 1.0 clone. I am getting quite intolerant to exaggerated claims, link-bait titles and buzzwordy discussions. Especially because after so many years of bullshitting there is only one online app I can use: good old gmail. Just one. Plus time-wasters, of course.


You're completely misrepresenting what I said. I'm not telling you "Hey, use this like you'd use Photoshop." I'm telling you "Click the link before you start trashing the thing." Aviary's people are pretty forthcoming about their product. They aim for hobbyists, not professionals. They've repeatedly said that they're not a Photoshop clone and that they don't expect to ever be as powerful as Photoshop. Rather, they aim to offer some of the most oft-used Photoshop techniques - including some that no other service online offers - and they do a damn good job at it.

When I say that something "works like Photoshop online," I expect people will understand that I mean "works with layers, allows for subtle image manipulation, churns out fairly high-quality images." Of course it's not literally Photoshop. But it does a lot of very neat stuff.

Oh, yeah, forgot to add. They're not "just a photoshop clone", they're nowhere near Photoshop 1.0 clone.

Again: way to utterly disregard what I said. They offer a lot of tools, and all their tools are damn impressive considering they're designed to run online. Yeah, you can ignore that and say that I'm a fuck-up because I used the word Photoshop when submitting. Or, you could cut with the ranting, because on Hacker News people usually respond well to polite, civil discourse, and look at it for what it is, which is a pretty impressive offering. I think Peacock, the procedural generator, is actually more impressive than Phoenix, which is the raster editor.

there is only one online app I can use

No. There's only one you do use. If you need a calendar, there are impressive online alternatives. If you want a to-do list, the same. RSS reading: online alternatives that work better in some ways than desktop clients. Word processors and slide editors: Buzzword and 280Slides. Gmail's good, yeah, but frankly, Mail.app is better than it in every way that matters to me, and so your offering Gmail as the "only offline app" is just empty posturing.

How about we drop this: you can apologize for being a dick when you didn't have to be, and I'll apologize for using the name "Photoshop" in vain. Because this is a much better site than this snipefest would let on, and we could both be wasting our time much more efficiently. Peace?


Unalone, I apologize for being a dick. Peace.


Aviary has been around a while and its been mentioned several times, but it never seems to 'stick' with me. I always see it, remember its potential usefulness, and forget about it the next day.


I'm guessing that's a general recurring theme anytime a new technology arrives. Weren't Kleenexes originally for taking off make-up?

It'll be interesting to see where they take this service.


Yeah, I know the feeling. For whatever reason, it's not a sticky site. You don't go to it and become completely engrossed, which is how it ought to feel considering the awesome stuff they've got going.




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

Search: