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Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

svija.love

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Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#81

Post by thomasikzelf »

I really like that this allows people to finally break free from the box design and try something new. Of course there will be challenges like accessibility along the way but those can be solved.

I just happened to launch a similar product today on product hunt (https://moos.app) that also allows people to build pages from SVG files but I take a more hybrid approach and focus more on animation (and the render actually uses WEBGL for performance reasons).

Will we still have the same boxy design in 5 years or will we have a completely new experience?

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#82

Post by spicybright »

lbj wrote: post #62
AndrewSwift wrote: post #2

I was getting really frustrated with CSS and HTML (I was originally a print designer), so built a tool for building websites using only SVG content. It's essentially a website builder that uses Adobe Illustrator for creating pages. The results so far have been really promising: - building websites is extremely rapid - very little debugging or verification is needed - it's easy to create beautiful content Techniques t…

Absolutely ingenious. I love what you've done here

I agree, this could fix a massive amount of headaches depending on what kind of site you're building.

If it's proven to be performant enough, I think it would work for 90% of sites out there (pages of information + pictures)

Theoretically you could even have a graphic designer build a site without much code knowledge instead of hiring a webdev.

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#83

Post by abstract_put »

AndrewSwift wrote: post #46
abstract_put wrote: post #29

First of all, neat concept. Small point, on desktop I have a horizontal scroll bar for what appears to be intended as a full width site, which is always a bit of a pet peeve. I understand it's a technology demonstration, I'm struggling to decouple the clash with my aesthetic sense from the technology/framework. There are so many new UI elements (stuff floating, expanding, appearing on hover) that it really puts me of…

So far it's been mainly small businesses who just want to put up a cheap website quickly. I can turn a PDF flyer into a website in a couple of hours, and that's been really popular. It's so fast to put up a site that it would be good for events, like album release parties, etc. I'm hoping to find a company that would really like to explore the potential — with a good team we could do some amazing stuff. The long term…

Very neat - I love the idea of building tooling for a very specific workflow. Must be satisfying to show people and have them go "what? That's it?!"

> The long term goal is to make a tool to replace Illustrator

As in your ambition is to have the original content creation happen in the tool you make, take Illustrator out of the process entirely? That's ambitious! (or it seems like it, with little actual knowledge of what functionality people use within Illustrator to produce content like this).

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#84

Post by dsizzle »

lucideer wrote: post #72

> Virtually all website builders include options to create responsive websites. However, in most cases, developers have used these options to create two versions: a desktop version and a mobile version. Various elements may also appear or be displaced depending on the exact screen dimensions. > Svija is intended for websites where the content creator wishes to have complete control over the final page. Therefore, a s…

Yeah, all the sites I work on are responsive.

I wonder if there's some way to make this approach responsive, even if just using breakpoints (vs serving a completely different site requiring a pageload). Doesn't seem like it, but I haven't thought about it much.

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#85

Post by CodeGlitch »

gtsop wrote: post #78
ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #31

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana

What is the past you are refering to? Please give context

Perhaps parent was referring to flash sites from 20 years ago? Personally I found them to be pretty unique and creative. Obviously there were problems with security and cross platform limitations, but awesome none the less.

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#86

Post by spicybright »

ehutch79 wrote: post #63
cryptoz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macromedia Flash era was the best for authoring IMO. But I was just a hobbyist, didn't use it professionally.

This was a terrible era. Specifically because of sites that had no business using it making their whole site flash. Like restaurants.

It's not like they were completely unusable, it's just showing text in an annoying way.

On the plus side, it's a testament to how nearly anyone could build a website. I'm sure many many people got their feet wet in web dev making simple sites for local businesses because the bar was so low.

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#88

Post by spicybright »

cunthorpe wrote: post #76
AndrewSwift wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved Flash, and I think that SVG, if I can create proper tools, has the potential to be as good and maybe to avoid some of the drawbacks. In fact, I wrote Svija because I took a sabbatical from web design. When I came back, Flash was gone and I just couldn't stomach the idea of twenty years of HTML and CSS. So, SVG.

The problem with SVG is that it performs terribly especially when compared with Flash. This site is relatively small and it's super slow on an i9

I wonder why that's the case. Flash was all vectors and could run really well once it reached maturity.

Is it because we're shoving the SVG into the dom or something? Or using expensive SVG features?

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#89

Post by derekzhouzhen »

AndrewSwift wrote: post #60
tinaprice wrote: post #58

Is the tool can create dynamic websites with proper responsiveness to each devices?

The page adapts to the screen. It means making different versions for different types of screens. But, the development process is so abbreviated that it takes way less time to make a mobile & desktop version than it would take to make the equivalent responsive version. Also many (most?) serious sites already develop separately for different platforms. So far, in 5 years I've been working on this, I've not had a singl…

There is more than mobile and desktop; there are tablets that is somewhere in between. Hell, the mobile users can rotate their phone.

Those being said, it could be a viable solution for fixed screen kiosks.

Re: Show HN: A tool to build real websites built exclusively in SVG

#90

Post by spicybright »

cunthorpe wrote: post #73

Your site is laggy, zero accessibility, microscopic text unless your window is large enough, does not support anything you'd expect from a regular website. Just ship a PDF already. The web is not paper, don't design for it as if it as. Oh, and this little page weighs 4.5MB

It's a proof of concept, but I think it has potential so it's worth exploring.

> The web is not paper, don't design for it as if it as.

People have said that for literally everything we have on the web now, starting with "the web is only for text and hyperlinks"

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