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Amadine – Vector graphics software for Mac
- jen20 7y agoAlthough I don’t have much use for vector graphics software, it is _great_ to see people building new native mac apps which take advantage of the unique features of the platform instead of targeting a cross-platform lowest common denominator!
- eddieh 7y agoYes, there's so many great Mac/Apple only applications that beat the pants off of any cross-platform apps, especially stuff built with Electron. I use some great apps on a daily basis that are Mac or Apple ecosystem only. Acorn - Image editor OmniGraffle - Diagramming OmniFocus - Todo list for GTD Sketch - UI prototyping Plus Apple's productivity software, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. I honestly don't know how people manage with G Suite. There's also a ton of apps I don't use on a daily basis, and won't bother listing. It really is awesome to see new native Mac apps. Please keep building them, and I promise to keep buying them. I'm giving Amadine a try today.
- jen20 7y agoOmniOutliner is another great example that I have been using for decades. Safari is another overlooked example: the fluency of moving between Mac, iPad and phone with a shared history, tab handoff etc is fantastic.
- favorited 7y agoYou really can tell when you use their software that Omni has been in the Cocoa business since NeXT. OmniWeb used to ship with the OS, and IIRC OmniPDF did too.
- eddieh 7y agoI still love how OmniWeb can do vertical tabs. I wish Safari had an option for it.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoI kind of feel like Omni has seen better days. OmniGraffle just doesn't feel like the must have tool like it used to be.
- ralusek 7y agoThe irony of Figma being better than all of those applications, while having been built with Electron, will not be lost on those who have used it.
- aidos 7y agoFigma definitely stands as an example of what you can do with web technologies. Their webassembly and canvas codebase seems to work out really well for user experience. In comparison I tried Sketch the other day (native) and it was reeeeeeally slow.
- eddieh 7y agoI doubt that claim so much. Every Electron application I've ever used is seriously deficient in many ways. First every app has its own set of UI controls, so right there you loose one of the best things about native Mac apps, consistency. Next I've yet to find a single Electron app that doesn't break some core Mac feature such as copy/paste, system wide spellcheck, system wide dictionary, the emoji picker, system wide settings, scrollable area bounce, zoom, tabs, windows, menus, keyboard shortcuts, drag & drop, screenshots, and so on. Third every electron app consumes way to many system resources and almost all are painfully slow. But, hey I'll give Figma a try and report back.
- eddieh 7y ago- Empty window stoplight controls (breaks HIG). - I been waiting over two minutes for it to open a blank document created in the web version...three minutes still blank. - Had to close and re-open. Still takes a few seconds to load a blank document. - System wide spellchecker doesn't work. - System wide dictionary doesn't work. - Uses CPU time when it should be idle. - One object on screen and it is already using more memory that any other process on my machines (and that includes Discord). - It spawned 8 processes! - Copying an object and pasting into another application doesn't work. - Doesn't respect copy/paste with style and "Paste and Match Style." - Doesn't support standard macOS accessibility. I can probably go on, but honestly I'm not impressed and I'm bored.
- ukyrgf 7y ago
- commandersaki 7y agoGoing to throw Monodraw on the list.
- PlutoIsAPlanet 7y agoI'm curious as to what features are unique to the platform?
- eddieh 7y agoMetal, Core Image, Autosave, QuickLook, and supports the Touch Bar
- dreamcompiler 7y agoMac user here. Of that list, the only one I don't consider superfluous or an outright bug is Quicklook.
- chc 7y agoHow is Core Image superfluous or an outright bug?
- aasasd 7y agoToolbars that aren't just tables crammed in from left to right. (Might've been finally addressed in Win10—dunno, I left that world behind a while ago.)
- oceanghost 7y agoGiven the poor state of Apples PC hardware, I would be weary of investing in the platform as a developer or user.
- daotoad 7y agoWhen pedants attack: Weary = Extremely tired, exhausted. Wary = Fearful or nervous about, having trepidation. Example: I am weary from investing so much time and effort in Apple's platform. Being so deeply invested, I am wary of further investments until I can diversify. This is confusing as hell because "wear" sounds the same as "ware" and weary is a real word and will not upset your spellchecker. Of course "weary" sounds different than "wear", with the first sylable rhyming with ear. Thanks English. Anyhow, misuse of words like this reduces the impact of your communication. I hope this explanation can help you be a bit more effective in expressing yourself.
- ricardobeat 7y agoWhat poor state? The hardware is ok, design still top notch despite going downhill, a few components above average (ex SSD), otherwise it’s just stupidly expensive on the high-end.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y agoDon’t all of the recent MacBook Pros and Airs have low relatability scores? That may factor in to some people’s decisions.
- blondin 7y agoindeed! been a mac user for years but never used the tools provided by apple until i discovered a swift tutorial in the form of a playground recently. so now i am exploring and learning the frameworks and sdks i already have right here on the mac (well of course you have to download gigabytes of xcode). native mac development has such a potential but i don't see people using or promoting it. i can easily blame apple for that. my little experience is that it is very hard to find tutorials that are not geared towards iOS. just try and see for yourself... even books. it is tiring and time consuming to find the right article or tutorial for the macos right now. funny how people go through hoops to get their ipads connected and stream it on youtube, or to get their simulators working while developing on a mac. some of the frameworks they cover could be done natively on the mac!
- ejstembler 7y agoIs it truly native? I was digging around and found some references to https://www.wxwidgets.org https://www.wxwidgets.org. I thought the GUI looked a little off to be truly native...
- willio58 7y agoHmm the screenshots on that site look nothing like their UI.
- wj 7y agoI've been wanting to learn Illustrator in order to create a children's book but never got around to it. Will give this a demo.
- coldcode 7y agoI just started using Affinity, how does this compare?
- boromi 7y agoI'm also curious. Affinity is compatible with Windows which is a huge advantage. It looks like affinity has more features but is also 30$ more expensive, which is not a big deal considering how powerful it is.
- Chazprime 7y agoAmadine has a simpler (probably cleaner UI), solid path-editing tools. It doesn't have anything like Affinity's filters or history, but does include one thing I miss from Illustrator: an easy-to-use, straightforward variable-width editing tool.
- spiderfarmer 7y agoAs another Affinity user, I don't see features that would make me switch.
- sudhirj 7y agoAny recommendations for an iPad + Pencil vector app? This app has a note that an iOS app is coming soon, wondering if anyone has any existing apps they like.
- razster 7y agoI enjoy Affinity Designer on my iPad. I use it on Windows desktop for most of my logo designing. For work I use Illustrator, so I'm use to both.
- killjoywashere 7y agoInkPad, hands down. Have used since release several years ago. Maintenance adopted by a husband-wife team that use it. And the original developer added a minor feature just for me :)
- dharma1 7y agoVectornator is free and pretty good
- davidcollantes 7y agoThis is really well done, and very powerful, wow! The attention to details, and the nice UI, so neat, and smooth. Thanks, bought it!
- andrewingram 7y agoOff topic, but I'm curious who did the skateboarder illustration. It matches an aesthetic that I have a need for.
- princekolt 7y agoIt's in their instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsqFlu-lKYf/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BsqFlu-lKYf/
- andrewingram 7y agoThanks!
- pier25 7y agoStill a little rough around the edges but these guys get it! I've been looking for something like this for ages. A simple lightweight vector graphics software with the best parts of illustrator and none of the fluff. Also, completely macOS native. No web app or Electron based crap. It even has proper group isolation mode, which neither Sketch nor Affinity Designer have implemented after years of users requesting it. This is for me the most important feature in any vectors software since I very rarely use layers. Groups are so much faster. Hopefully they will keep polishing it, but it looks very promising and for $20 it's a steal. slowclap.gif
- exabrial 7y agoI've wanted something as good as Inkscape, but native on OSX, this looks interesting
- nnq 7y agoWOW! This almost feels as good as Fireworks did back in the day! I'll probably use this for my upcoming web coming. Waaay nicer usability than Affinity (which was way nicer to use than Illustrator already): special path width control points, multiple strokes and inner shadows etc. on same shape... For someone with a bit of an artistic side, but who also likes to draw "logically" with exact control of the shape but also without introducing 100 new objects in the picture, this seems amazing. It lacks the "mixing vectors and pixels" part of Affinity Designer which is sort of cool, but the core part, pen and drawing tools seem to be both intuitive and powerful... Will play with the trial more, if it doesn't crash much and doesn't lack any essential feature for me I'll buy it 100%! Keep up the good work!
- lgrebe 7y agoWow! Really a great tool. At the crossroads of Web an Vectorgraphics, I’d love to see a „wysiwyg“ svg editor with the visual interface of a great drawing tool like amandine and at the same time a split window pane like the chrome inspector to modify a resulting svg code and having changes there be immediately visible in the visual interface… Imagine I’d be amazing to get a hang of svg and as a result be able to build some great stuff for example by hooking up d3js…
- mkl 7y agoInkscape seems like it matches that description. The code part isn't as nice as Chrome or Firefox, but it's there.
- dman 7y agoAm curious why some vector rendering products (Amadine, OmniGraffle, Paper 53 etc) end up being Mac / iOS only? Are there some APIs that are Mac only? Why would devs who take an effort to write such a substantial app not ifdef away the rendering bits to make the app work on Windows.
- Gene_Parmesan 7y agoWell, if it's Mac-native, it's likely made using ObjC or Swift with Cocoa. Porting this to Win32 would be a very substantial amount of work -- right of the top, you wouldn't be able to use Swift -- and that's work that's likely not worth it if 90%+ of your customer base are Mac users.
- pvg 7y agoThe entire UI is OS-specific. If this was a matter of #ifdefs, we wouldn't have 50 page weekly discussions on the merits of various cross-platform technologies.
- dman 7y agoIve been surprised because in codebases I have worked on, you usually have an abstract rendering api at the bottom with multiple implementations for each platform. Ive been curious why you couldnt abstract out things like window creation, layout, rendering and implement the abstract api for multiple platforms.
- pjmlp 7y agoLazy development with race to the bottom. Your example is how I used to develop portable native software as well.
- kazinator 7y agoSure, and we can abstract away a mother's touch with some special "cross-person" gloves that anyone can wear to pat the baby. The little end user can hardly tell the difference!
- ryanmarsh 7y agoI’m not the least bit artistic but this looks really nice and approachable.
- butz 7y agoAny plans to bring it to other platforms, possibly Linux?
- tptacek 7y agoHow does this compare to Autodesk Graphic? (I haven't looked at Affinity; I'm not one of the cool kids; I'd be interested in hearing if that's way better than Graphic as well).
- hartator 7y agoWould that finally replace Fireworks in my hearth?
- favorited 7y agoAnyone know if there are differences between the App Store version and the standalone purchase? I like to buy from the App Store when it's available, but sometimes apps have to gimp certain features to deal with sandboxing, etc.
- eridius 7y agoUsually if there's a difference the site will list it. I can't think of any sandboxing limitations off the top of my head that would affect a vector graphics program.
- numbers 7y agoI'm curious about what the name means...anyone know?
- fnordsensei 7y agoA remix of the tag line: "imagine and design", perhaps? Either way, it'll have little overlap with unrelated stuff when you type it into a search engine, which is not unimportant.
- userbinator 7y agoIt sounds like a chemical to me, probably because there are many other compounds with a -dine suffix, e.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acridine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acridine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyridine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyridine
- vbuwivbiu 7y agoPixelmator has a vector graphics mode Command-Shift-V
- ahmadster 7y agoSorry, no, Figma way better https://www.figma.com https://www.figma.com
- omnimus 7y agoAnd probably way slower. Figma is awesome but most of these complicated vectors would stall figma to unpleasant experience. Also vector drawing in figma is super basic.
- simongr3dal 7y agoOT, but does anyone know of a vector drawing program that allows me draw in a similar that Fusion360 or SolidWorks does with their 2D CAD sketches? It also needs to export to some standard format to be used for print, so using SolidWorks of Fusion360 isn't really an option, I can't export the vector 1-to-1 onto a pdf and do proper colors with those. I cannot for the life of me figure out bezier curves to create arc sections with proper radii that blends into another line, and abusing adding and subtracting shapes from each other is a cumbersome process and editing the final shape often requires me to start all over creating that composite shape. I would like to have more technical and fine-grained control over the way my drawings are made, than what pulling with my cursor on those handles gives me.
- omnimus 7y agoI would look into illustrator plugins. Namely VectorScribe, CAD tools and xtreampath all have different ways to draw vectors.
- Rexxar 7y agoIt's not exactly what you want but I have made a little software that is a sort of mix between Inkscape and Geogebra in which you can define a lots of shapes geometrically (https://www.ludigraphix.org https://www.ludigraphix.org, recent show HN : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19942367 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19942367)
- delhanty 7y agoI had some thoughts of writing some software a bit like that, and would be interested and hearing what would be the feature set for a minimal viable product. * For example, if you could do things like >I cannot for the life of me figure out bezier curves to create arc sections with proper radii that blends into another line, and abusing adding and subtracting shapes from each other is a cumbersome process and editing the final shape often requires me to start all over creating that composite shape. and also >I would like to have more technical and fine-grained control over the way my drawings are made, than what pulling with my cursor on those handles gives me. But for everything else (color/fills etc.) you would export to other software >It also needs to export to some standard format to be used for print, so using SolidWorks of Fusion360 isn't really an option, I can't export the vector 1-to-1 onto a pdf and do proper colors with those. Would that still be a useful product? * Disclaimer: Way back around 2001/2002, I worked on the Solidworks sketcher, and also before that used to work for D-Cubed Ltd. (SolidWorks and Autodesk Fusion 360 sketchers both implement their unbounded geometry constraints/dimensions using the D-Cubed DCM2 constraint management component licensed from Siemens PLM.) To implement what you want one needs at least some of the features from DCM2. Either implement one's own code, or one licenses from Siemens PLM (expensive) etc. Most licensees for DCM2 were 3D. There was one product that I recall that fits your description - Imagineer from Intergraph - but it got discontinued. I suspect that there is a market for what you describe, but maybe it's somewhat niche.
- whalesalad 7y agoLove the sales page and all the illustrations, especially the drawing of the Mustang. I have the same set of performance pack wheels on a shelf in my garage. It's nice to see more and more of Adobe's lunch getting taken away by indie shops and products.
- jordache 7y agoCan it draw curves with arrow heads? If so, I'm ditching Affinity Designer...
- drmeister 7y agoOh yes, please someone answer this. I have used adobe illustrator for 15 years - then affinity designer for a few more years. I just want vector graphics with arrows without enormous subscription fees - damnit!
- auxym 7y agoPretty sure inkscape can do this?
- jordache 7y agoDon't know if it can.. However inkscape is HORRIBLE across the board when compared to commercial apps like affinity designer and illustrator. The $50 one time cost for affinity designer is essentially free, when factoring in its improvements over inkscape.
- michelb 7y agoIt seems so. Just tried it quickly. Can't scale the arrowhead independently of the line though, like you can in Illustrator.
- sarajevo 7y agoArrowheads are included in v1.7, it's in beta but freely available. The current general release is v1.6.5, I think this beta will turn into a general release in July. Hope this helps...
- ken 7y agoI bought iDraw (back before AutoCAD bought Indeeo). I bought Affinity Designer. I tried demos for everything else I could get my hands on. I even tried Inkscape. They all have flashy demos and claim to be great Mac apps (well, except Inkscape). A couple weeks later, I end up regretting my purchase. They just aren't terribly Mac-like, and they have all sorts of little bugs that never seem to get fixed. Being a small company in a huge market, their support suffers. There's 10 little obvious things it's missing that you assume will get added real soon, but it turns out there's actually 1000 things it's missing, and they keep picking other little things. Hell, Affinity Designer is 5 years old and arrowheads are still on their to-do list. After 20 years of futzing around with Mac graphics apps, Illustrator is still the best vector graphics app I've ever used, and the newcomers aren't even more Mac-like (which seems like it'd be a low bar). Adobe had a 30 year head start. No matter how swanky the new CoreImage APIs are, you're not going to catch Illustrator in a year or two. Their manual is an inch thick (or, it was 20 years ago) and extremely well-written. If you haven't read it, you don't know half of the little usability tricks that they've packed in there. I love to hate on Adobe as much as anyone, and it's definitely not a very Mac-like user experience, but when it comes to making graphics, Illustrator is an absolute beast. The price of Amadine is a turnoff: $20 is simply nowhere near enough to support the depth of features that a vector graphics app needs. I can tell this is going to be severely underpowered. I've read about "Javascript fatigue". I have "Mac vector graphics app fatigue". Never again.
- willio58 7y agoI don’t consider any adobe app that I’ve ever use to be Mac-like honestly. For 95% of my usecases, sketch and pixelmator do the job. I’m hoping this program takes care of the 5% gap in features i need for very specific vector drawing. I don’t use the advanced features of illustrator, partially due to my design style and partially because I’m too lazy to learn them. I’m glad alternatives to Illustrator exist in the market. It’s nice that I don’t have to pay 50$ a month or whatever absurd price adobe charges for cc these days.
- latexr 7y ago> Affinity Designer is 5 years old and arrowheads are still on their to-do list. Arrowheads are in their beta; you can use them today. Everything else I agree with, and I’ll add that I miss Freehand. > I have "Mac vector graphics app fatigue". Amen. It’s one of those cases where I think “if I had infinite money, I’d build a vector graphics app that works just like I want”. But then I realise that if I had infinite money, I’d have better things to spend my time on.
- sam0x17 7y agoUgg why are people still making Mac only software. It is so easy these days to target the Unix operating systems together with roughly the same codebase.
- saagarjha 7y agoNot for high-quality software with a GUI.
- alexkwang 7y agoMac native app is released. Some people: "applause for native instead of bloated Electron crap". Also some people: "wtf why only Mac?"
- latexr 7y ago> Developed with precision and attention to what users need Affinity Designer also promises precision, but when it comes down to it I find it embarrassingly imprecise, buggy, and lacking in basic functionality. It can’t even do an acceptable job of joining two shapes at a point. I’m cautiously optimistic about Amadine. I’ll give it a spin, and fingers crossed it lives up to its promise!