4 ms·

Apple should buy Sketch

kwanbix 2mo ago
What the world needs. Less competition.
cosmic_cheese 2mo ago
I'm on the fence on this idea. I think it depends on how well it's doing financially, basically to what extent has Figma eaten its lunch. I never boarded the Figma train because I prefer the UI of Sketch, as well as its local-first approach and how its file format is publicly documented so I actually own my data. I do worry about it going under though, and if Apple buying it up is the only way for that to happen so be it. If nothing else it'd keep it out of Adobe's hands which is worth a lot on its own.
mortenjorck 2mo ago
Sketch lost the market to Figma, and now Figma is losing the market to vibe coding. I'm not sure what the value proposition of Sketch is these days apart from local, non-cloud editing (although you can even get that with a pretty decent UI these days with Lunacy).
- LoganDark 2mo ago
  Sketch has always been the app I use for quick throwing-together of things. Figma seems designed for specifically corporate design documents which is icky.
- cosmic_cheese 2mo ago
  Vector screen-destined assets. Illustrator is print-centric and awkward for the use case, and while Photoshop is technically capable of it that's not what it's made for (also, Adobe CC is just way too bloated for its own good). Figma is oriented around mockups and not as good for assets. There are also platforms which are less vibe-friendly, and old style mockups can still be useful when nailing down a design system across platforms.
  - ctippett 2mo ago
    Surely you've got Photoshop (raster) and Illustrator (vector) mixed up?
    - cosmic_cheese 2mo ago
      Nope. A lot of people use Photoshop for vector screen-destined graphics, because even though it's raster-dominant, it's reasonably capable of vector too. Illustrator is vector-dominant, but as noted, it's aimed mainly at print-destined vector graphics.
      - ctippett 2mo ago
        I stand corrected then. It's been over a decade since I last used Photoshop, so my familiarity with its capabilities are obviously well out of date, I never would've considered it for any sort of vector-based work.
- tombert 2mo ago
  Doesn't Apple already have a loose competitor to Figma? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeform_%28Apple%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeform_%28Apple%29
  - cosmic_cheese 2mo ago
    Not really. Freeform is more of a whiteboarding/brainstorming app. It might be ok for rough wireframes but isn't suitable for high fidelity mockups, asset creation, etc.
rramon 2mo ago
They bought "Play" recently, it was an UI design app dedicated to SwiftUI.

What the world needs. Less competition.

I'm on the fence on this idea. I think it depends on how well it's doing financially, basically to what extent has Figma eaten its lunch. I never boarded the Figma train because I prefer the UI of Sketch, as well as its local-first approach and how its file format is publicly documented so I actually own my data. I do worry about it going under though, and if Apple buying it up is the only way for that to happen so be it. If nothing else it'd keep it out of Adobe's hands which is worth a lot on its own.

mortenjorck 2mo ago

Sketch lost the market to Figma, and now Figma is losing the market to vibe coding. I'm not sure what the value proposition of Sketch is these days apart from local, non-cloud editing (although you can even get that with a pretty decent UI these days with Lunacy).

LoganDark 2mo ago
Sketch has always been the app I use for quick throwing-together of things. Figma seems designed for specifically corporate design documents which is icky.
cosmic_cheese 2mo ago
Vector screen-destined assets. Illustrator is print-centric and awkward for the use case, and while Photoshop is technically capable of it that's not what it's made for (also, Adobe CC is just way too bloated for its own good). Figma is oriented around mockups and not as good for assets. There are also platforms which are less vibe-friendly, and old style mockups can still be useful when nailing down a design system across platforms.
- ctippett 2mo ago
  Surely you've got Photoshop (raster) and Illustrator (vector) mixed up?
  - cosmic_cheese 2mo ago
    Nope. A lot of people use Photoshop for vector screen-destined graphics, because even though it's raster-dominant, it's reasonably capable of vector too. Illustrator is vector-dominant, but as noted, it's aimed mainly at print-destined vector graphics.
    - ctippett 2mo ago
      I stand corrected then. It's been over a decade since I last used Photoshop, so my familiarity with its capabilities are obviously well out of date, I never would've considered it for any sort of vector-based work.
tombert 2mo ago
Doesn't Apple already have a loose competitor to Figma? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeform_%28Apple%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeform_%28Apple%29
- cosmic_cheese 2mo ago
  Not really. Freeform is more of a whiteboarding/brainstorming app. It might be ok for rough wireframes but isn't suitable for high fidelity mockups, asset creation, etc.

rramon 2mo ago

They bought "Play" recently, it was an UI design app dedicated to SwiftUI.