Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Sketchology

sketchologyapp.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 85 posts

Re: Show HN: Sketchology

#11

Post by mickrobk »

NLPsajeeth wrote: post #8

Can you export to SVG, PDF or some other vector format?

No unfortunately. While it's fairly trivial for me to support, the performance difference (a factor of more than 100) between Sketchology and other vector drawing apps makes it impossible to actually load the exported file anywhere.

I tested against Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, iDraw, and Inkpad and was unable to load a file equivalent to drawing for more than about 2 minutes in Sketchology. I'll have a more in depth technical analysis of this soon.

Re: Show HN: Sketchology

#12

Post by mickrobk »

andrew_gardener wrote: post #9

So does the tool just abstract pixels or is it using Vectors? If it is vectors, what kinds of tools does it offer for exporting? Note that I'm not into designing at all but I might suggest this to a friend for their projects

It's fully vector but you cannot export to SVG or any other open formats due to the performance difference between Sketchology and other vector apps. (More than 100x even against x86 hardware.)

You can export to web[0], which creates a zoomable raster copy of the drawing, but this is obviously limited to getting an editable vector copy.

[0] For example: http://www.sketchologyapp.com/u/sketchology/18

Re: Show HN: Sketchology

#13

Post by mickrobk »

RBerenguel wrote: post #7
mickrobk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's free to download and use, though to unlock all the tools (about 50% come standard) there's a one time IAP for $5

Another app to get me to save for a new iPad (still 1)

Definitely :) - Even getting this to run on the iPad 3 was a lengthy adventure in profiling. I wish I could have hit the 1, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Re: Show HN: Sketchology

#14

Post by aidos »

mickrobk wrote: post #11
NLPsajeeth wrote: post #8

Can you export to SVG, PDF or some other vector format?

No unfortunately. While it's fairly trivial for me to support, the performance difference (a factor of more than 100) between Sketchology and other vector drawing apps makes it impossible to actually load the exported file anywhere. I tested against Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, iDraw, and Inkpad and was unable to load a file equivalent to drawing for more than about 2 minutes in Sketchology. I'll have a more in depth…

Congratulations, it looks really nice.

Are you going to be sharing the details of how you've done it or will it remain secret? Just interested because I've done a lot of work with large svgs (sometimes million+ nodes) over the last year (for an ongoing project) so I'm well aware of the performance issues you mentioned.

Re: Show HN: Sketchology

#17

Post by flyosity »

This looks like a really wonderful app, but the icon needs a lot of work. Maybe export a beautiful, colorful world as the icon and have it look sort of abstract? A big ugly S is something I really don't want on my home screen, to be completely honest.

Re: Show HN: Sketchology

#19

Post by mickrobk »

aidos wrote: post #14
mickrobk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No unfortunately. While it's fairly trivial for me to support, the performance difference (a factor of more than 100) between Sketchology and other vector drawing apps makes it impossible to actually load the exported file anywhere. I tested against Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, iDraw, and Inkpad and was unable to load a file equivalent to drawing for more than about 2 minutes in Sketchology. I'll have a more in depth…

Congratulations, it looks really nice. Are you going to be sharing the details of how you've done it or will it remain secret? Just interested because I've done a lot of work with large svgs (sometimes million+ nodes) over the last year (for an ongoing project) so I'm well aware of the performance issues you mentioned.

Thanks! I want to talk about it - I think it's probably the coolest part of the program. It's difficult though, I left my job about 2 years ago to work on this so commercial success is a definite goal. Hopefully sometime in the future I'll be able to give out algorithmic details without compromising that.

Re: Show HN: Sketchology

#20

Post by mickrobk »

guizzy wrote: post #18

Any plans for other platforms? Android? Windows 8?

The first 6 months or so of development were on Windows/Linux, so cross platform compatibility is something I've always had my eye on. I can't say when though, in all honesty an iPhone version is far more likely to come before Android or Win8.
Post reply on HN