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Show HN: Simple version control for designers

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21–30 of 32 posts

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#21
Cool idea, but I stopped watched the video after about 1 minute. I think you need to get to your sell faster. Like a newspaper article get to the point first, then fill in the details. Don't make me listen to you describe how to save a file in Photoshop for the first 1/3.

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#24
I sent this to our art department, and this is what I was told: I don’t really have time to look at this right now, but sounds interesting! Adobe creative suites have version control built in, but we have been investigating third party sources because it kind of sucks. Thanks for the heads up.

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#25
post #5

Benefit over using Dropbox (which many people have to use for other files anyways)?

Hah, funny you should mention that. We just launched our service that does pretty well the same thing, but uses Dropbox: http://www.pixelstew.com

There are a few other people entering this space too, I think it will be crowded in coming months.

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#26
Cool! Glad to see more people entering this space, it's really validating for us and for you I'm sure too. We just launched our service that is very similar, but uses Dropbox as a back end: http://www.pixelstew.com

Nice design, my only complaint is the blurry video.

Edit: Also, your video is WAY long. You need to make it more succinct. People aren't going to stay engaged for 4 minutes.

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#27
Looks great - designers desperately need a better solution for versioning. My thoughts on existing options:

- Dropbox isn't great because (as far as I know) you don't get to leave messages as you do with Git/SVN commits.

- Git isn't great because (as far as I know) it's not so easy to quickly compare a whole history of iterations

- I haven't looked at hosted options for a few months, but they've always seemed to be expensive.

So you're left with:

- Trying to remember to incrementally increase filenames (Website01.psd, Website02.psd etc) - still leaving out memorable 'commit messages'.

- Saving the files with memorable 'commit messages' in the filename (Website_WideSidebar.psd, Website_NarrowSidebar.psd). Janky.

- Grouping all of your layers and duplicating the entire site for different iterations, turning on and off those groups to see previous work. Or using Layer Comps. Still janky.

- What I do in Illustrator (infinite canvas makes it easier than in Photoshop) - duplicating the artboard for each iteration, leaving a 'post-it note' to myself on the corner of each iteration. So I get the 'commit messages' and the ability quickly see all iterations at once. A recent example: http://c.jongold.in/1z452Y402o3V3s2d0r2W

I'd agree with the previous criticism about the video being too long - I'm sure you're aware of that though.

The pressing issue in versioning for me is being able to leave and view 'commit messages'/comments as simply as I can with Git - they're more meaningful to me that viewing solely by date. If you add that I think you'll have a great product.

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#28
I highly recommend you get a good noise-canceling headset, put up some towels or carpets in a small room, and re-record the video. The sound will be a hundred times better. Take the opportunity to cut the video's length to a minute and a half, and prepare a more complex demo file (i.e. more than a gray canvas).

That said, I'm glad there is more VCS for designers. I see the need every day teaching Git to designers (although it's much easier now with, say, gitx).

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#29
post #12
post #7

Correct me if I'm wrong but this seems almost identical to the versions feature in os x lion. Won't this be somewhat obsolete when adobe starts supporting versions on lion?

The short answer is that it is indeed very much like iCloud for Photoshop, though we're rolling out support for more filetypes over time. If we were to stop in our tracks and cease development, it might be something to be concerned with. There's so much in the pipeline that we're not too focused on it at the moment.

I've been wanting a nice version control system for my design projects for awhile. Looking forward to see what you guys come up with!

Re: Show HN: Simple version control for designers

#30
post #5

Benefit over using Dropbox (which many people have to use for other files anyways)?

At a glance, UI. Dropbox is horrible for restoring things - it's possible, but it's definitely not the primary use-case. Especially with something visual, you can go a lot further a lot faster if you can see what it was at each state without having to hit the back button a bazillion times.
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