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Ask HN: Are there drawing tool plugins to be used within forums?

• BerislavLopac 9y ago
  Something like https://awwapp.com/info/?section=embed https://awwapp.com/info/?section=embed ?
• buro9 9y ago
  Interesting... how do you imagine providing the drawing?
• Wevah 9y ago
  Sugar (https://github.com/elektronaut/sugar https://github.com/elektronaut/sugar) has a custom drawing tool (called Napkin), though it’s pretty bare-bones (line-drawing only) and uses Flash (eugh).
• pjc50 9y ago
  https://electronics.stackexchange.com/ https://electronics.stackexchange.com/ has an embedded circuit editor from https://www.circuitlab.com/ https://www.circuitlab.com/ , and it works extremely well.
• na85 9y ago
  Why not let your users draw in the multitude of tools already out there that work better than some half baked js monstrosity and then allow them to just embed PNGs or jpegs?
  • scj 9y ago
    Why not both? Let them use drawing tools, but give users the ability to place an image's data into the canvas?
    • jlebrech 9y ago
      this, and add a few ms paint features if they need to highlight something or doodle
  • jmnicolas 9y ago
    Too much friction. Most of the time I don't bother to put a screenshot since I have to : - open my screenshot program - save the screenshot somewhere on my disk where I will find it later - remember which website doesn't suck where to upload the screenshot - actually upload the screenshot - paste a link I'm not a JS bloat fan but int this case I'd rather take the bloat ;-)
    • wazanator 9y ago
      Who is opening a screenshot program and not using a hotkey? Most image hosting sites like imgur let you paste an image from your clipboard (I think you can even do minor editing on their site now). Forums are also starting to allow pasting of images such as Discourse. An editor embedded might be a fun project but it's completely unnecessary.
      • blauditore 9y ago
        How many people know the shortcuts for making a screenshot? How many do even know how to make one, or even what it is? Outside of the IT world, I think very few people are familiar with those things.
• whitingx 9y ago
  https://ux.stackexchange.com/ https://ux.stackexchange.com/ < has a built in version of the Balsamiq (https://balsamiq.com/ https://balsamiq.com/) UI drawing tool. There is a write up on the integration here - https://blog.balsamiq.com/uxstackexchange/ https://blog.balsamiq.com/uxstackexchange/
  • neves 9y ago
    It looks really cool, but it looks like a handcoded integration. The OP wouldn't be able to integrate with his/her forum/blog software.
• angry_octet 9y ago
  https://go.gliffy.com/go/html5/launch https://go.gliffy.com/go/html5/launch Not embedded and it's horribly expensive, but very nice. There are a bunch of similar systems, but not quite as smooth. draw.io is licenced under APL and usable. https://github.com/jgraph/drawio https://github.com/jgraph/drawio Then there is the horrible but very practical: https://docs.google.com/drawings/ https://docs.google.com/drawings/
  • tudelo 9y ago
    I don't think google docs drawing interface is ... HORRIBLE. But it's not the best. I have used it multiple times though, can't really beat the ease of access when working on a google doc that needs a simple diagram.
• smnscu 9y ago
  Probably not what OP is looking for, but you can <pre> an ASCII diagram. It's my favorite way to add more info to a particularly complex piece of code (parsers, state machines, etc.), right there in a comment. You need to update the diagram when shit changes, which is pretty annoying, but all in all it's a fun, quirky way to improve the source code reading experience. http://asciiflow.com/ http://asciiflow.com/
  • nathell 9y ago
    This so needs a ditaa[0] integration. [0]: https://github.com/stathissideris/ditaa https://github.com/stathissideris/ditaa
• rogerallen 9y ago
  Seems like markdeep would be straightforward to add. https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/ https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/
• fl0wenol 9y ago
  When I first saw the headline I was thinking did you mean oekaki-style drawing? In which case... ChickenPaint https://github.com/thenickdude/chickenpaint https://github.com/thenickdude/chickenpaint But I take it you meant more like Visio or Powerpoint style stuff, for that I got nothing.
• genericacct 9y ago
  Given the state of most internet fora it would be a dickbutt machine..
• cdnsteve 9y ago
  Maybe Draw.io has something? I know they are a pretty large Confluence addon.
• IvanK_net 9y ago
  Whenever I need to draw something, I open https://www.Photopea.com https://www.Photopea.com in the browser (loads very fast) and draw the thing. Then I press File - Publish on Imgur (the new panel opens with the PNG image on Imgur). Then I just copy the URL and paste it into a forum / chat. You can also paste the screenshot into Photopea and draw into it, crop it etc. BTW. I am an author of Photopea :) It has an API, that allows embedding it into a website (https://www.photopea.com/api/playground https://www.photopea.com/api/playground), but I am not aware of any large website using it.
  • mbrookes 9y ago
    Very impressive. I was even able to open it on an (old) iPad, and draw with my finger.
  • mixmastamyk 9y ago
    Amazing, how does one write such an app? Is it mostly done with canvas? I’d like to make something like powerpoint in the future, but not sure where to start.
    • IvanK_net 9y ago
      Actually, it is quite simple. You just need some basic computer (I use a 400 USD laptop) and a couple of thousands of hours of time :) You can start by making a PPTX file parser, or PPTX to HTML converter, and then you can start adding some user interface, etc.
      • mixmastamyk 9y ago
        Wasn’t clear, didn’t mean powerpoint but like it. Need to draw graphics on screen and manipulate them.
  • mod 9y ago
    Wow, man. Nice job.
• imonroe 9y ago
  Maybe try Literally Canvas? http://literallycanvas.com/ http://literallycanvas.com/
• Yahivin 9y ago
  Here's one I wrote: https://danielx.net/pixel-editor/ https://danielx.net/pixel-editor/
• diyseguy 9y ago
  I've been wondering why this doesn't exist for years
• Immortalin 9y ago
  Try Minipaint: https://github.com/viliusle/miniPaint https://github.com/viliusle/miniPaint See this for example: https://github.com/Immortalin/Greeting-Card-Creator https://github.com/Immortalin/Greeting-Card-Creator
• krapp 9y ago
  Futaba style imageboards used to come with a Java applet called oekaki that let people draw and post images. I wouldn't recommend trying to track it down, though.
• tomaskafka 9y ago
  Nice and simple tool for 'draw an image, get url' is https://scri.ch https://scri.ch