5 ms·

YC summer startup, Splashup launches (formerly Fauxto)

37 points by sharpshoot 19y ago

nickb 19y ago
Beautiful web design, excellent execution of the app! Small bugs: File -> Exit still says Fauxto I couldn't capture an image from my webcam. I'm using latest Firefox, Flash & Macbook Pro... tried all sources listed and all I got was a black image. Feature request: Ellipse tool... make it like PS so that I can constrain it to a circle. All in all, the best image editor I've seen so far. Congrats.
- axod 19y ago
  Same here regarding webcam. Webcam didn't light up. (MacBook)
- jey 19y ago
  "I couldn't capture an image from my webcam. I'm using latest Firefox, Flash & Macbook Pro... tried all sources listed and all I got was a black image." Go to fauxto, right click the window and click settings, then the webcam tab, then select your webcam in the drop-down list. On a MacBook Pro you need to select "USB Video" to use the built in iSight.
  - nickb 19y ago
    Works! Thanks!
elfred 19y ago
Didn't yc also fund Pixoh/snipshot?
- brlewis 19y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78815 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78815
adnam 19y ago
Impressive
eusman 19y ago
i found a form to submit this but when I went again to "contact us" i didn't find the feedback form bug: when creating text if the text box is empty and click somewhere in the image new text layers are created with the previous textbox remaining active. also simple users wont be familiar with the layers concept so if they try to create some text and right afterwards try to paint with the brush because the background layer is not selected it will seem to them it doesn't work because they wont be able to paint. other than that its obvious it's great work * oh and i was impressed when I even found layer effects
alaskamiller 19y ago
Just curious: how does Adobe's plan to release the web-based Photoshop play into your strategy?
- dbrush 19y ago
  Adobe isn't going to eat their own cash cow. You can see their response to online image editors here: http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9790734-12.html http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9790734-12.html
joefaron 19y ago
impressive, although i dont think i'd ever really use it. its surprisingly advanced, which is good - but being an advanced user, theres NO reason to NOT just get photoshop.
- herdrick 19y ago
  Being a webapp Splashup can do some things Photoshop can't, like saving directly to your Flickr or Facebook account (among others).
  - jacobolus 19y ago
    Not too hard to google for such functionality, and find a free plugin that does the job: http://pixelnovel.com/flickrshop.html http://pixelnovel.com/flickrshop.html But an image editor is really not the place for such tools, which belong in an organizer tool like Lightroom, iPhoto, or Bridge.
- jacobolus 19y ago
  Indeed. It's very impressive, and makes a great demo, but I can't think of a single type of user who wouldn't be better served by some desktop application. For power users, the lack of different color modes (CMYK, Lab, 16 bit/channel) or any kind of color management, curves (or even levels!), the kind of rich interaction (shortcuts, modifier-clicks, etc.) that desktop apps allow, serious retouching tools, line drawing tools, precise text control, etc. etc. makes this almost completely useless. Just the lack of the curves tool is frankly enough to doom any image editor (aimed at power users) which doesn't replace it with something of similar power. For non-power-users, this is still missing important features, but it also has the same complex photoshop-like interface that has been confusing newbies for years. The learning curve of Splashup is steeper than it is for products aimed at casual users; they are better served by those tools. ---- Clearly a lot of work went into splashup, and the technology will surely be useful for something--if nothing else it can be sold to some big company for piles of cash. But in its current incarnation it's basically useless.
- collision 19y ago
  Ehh... price?
wschroter 19y ago
Nice job guys ... but why is Posterize in there? Having been a hardcore photoshop user since v2.0 I can't ever find a reason for that filter!
- dbrush 19y ago
  You know, even while putting it in I couldn't figure out why people would use it. Nonetheless, it was nice to have figured out how it worked.
trekker7 19y ago
Man, I had no idea server-side GUIs had gotten this good... if it ran a little bit faster, it would feel close to a desktop app.
- tlrobinson 19y ago
  I wouldn't call this a "server side GUI"... It's a client side application that happens to be loaded from a server and run within a browser.
brezina 19y ago
I would like if my mouse turned into a different icon when I am using a tool. Example: I was cropping an image, but my mouse still looked like the standard mouse pointer. Later I clicked on the image and forgot I had the crop tool still in use. Not sure how photoshop does this, but I don't remember having this problem with PS.
- dbrush 19y ago
  You're right. Cursors, and keyboard shortcuts, should go a long way toward increasing the usability of Splashup, that's our hope anyway.
Mistone 19y ago
very impressive - i've been awaiting the release of this app and it surpasses my expectations so far - this is huge - congrats and thanks for building this!
nsrivast 19y ago
Would it be possible to add an option where you can design your own (3x3, 5x5, etc.) filter?
- dbrush 19y ago
  Certainly. Do you think a lot of people would use it?
ian 19y ago
Congratulations Dave and Hugo!
lsb 19y ago
congrats dave! congrats hugo!
bouncingsoul 19y ago
Are keyboard shortcuts going to be added?
- dbrush 19y ago
  Yep, it's just difficult because there are so many scenarios to account for with any given shortcut.
dannyv 19y ago
First off, super impressive app. When I went to submit feedback while demoing, it asked me to authenticate after I submitted it - not sure if it went through. I found a bug as well: Open an image, select an area, go to edit -> copy, and then the image disappears.
- dbrush 19y ago
  Thanks, I'll get right on that. There will be another release in the next day or so and that'll be fixed.
danielha 19y ago
Congrats Dave and Hugo! Fauxto was awesome but this rocks so much harder.
kajecounterhack 19y ago
impressive....useful when I'm at school and don't have photoshop but need to crop/edit an image. I doubt it can be used seriously for design though...still lacking too many features. I'm using Photoshop 7 and it still doesn't quite compare...
mattmaroon 19y ago
Congrats fellas!
mhidalgo 19y ago
I think the fact that I have to pay 650 bucks for a new version of photoshop makes this an attractive option for potentially lots of people. Great job guys !
herdrick 19y ago
Way to go guys, look and feel is fantastic. This is a great step for the world's most jaw-dropping web app.
tristian 19y ago
Really nice. It does suffer from a lack of keyboard shortcuts. Just for simple things like holding down shift while drawing an oval to get an exact circle. I can't see it replacing any of my current tools yet, but it's well on the way.
dhouston 19y ago
congrats guys!
jgamman 19y ago
feature request: tour to include some case-scenarios? my home pc has literally GBs of photos - can you provide some scenarios that would tempt my wife to invest some time in using your web app? examples include: backup your photos with our secure server, using filters to make your beach photos awesome, batch renaming functions (prefix suffix etc) etc. not hassling you at all, i just can't see the hook to a non-PS user

37 points by sharpshoot 19y ago

nickb 19y ago

Beautiful web design, excellent execution of the app! Small bugs: File -> Exit still says Fauxto I couldn't capture an image from my webcam. I'm using latest Firefox, Flash & Macbook Pro... tried all sources listed and all I got was a black image. Feature request: Ellipse tool... make it like PS so that I can constrain it to a circle. All in all, the best image editor I've seen so far. Congrats.

axod 19y ago
Same here regarding webcam. Webcam didn't light up. (MacBook)
jey 19y ago
"I couldn't capture an image from my webcam. I'm using latest Firefox, Flash & Macbook Pro... tried all sources listed and all I got was a black image." Go to fauxto, right click the window and click settings, then the webcam tab, then select your webcam in the drop-down list. On a MacBook Pro you need to select "USB Video" to use the built in iSight.
- nickb 19y ago
  Works! Thanks!

elfred 19y ago

Didn't yc also fund Pixoh/snipshot?

brlewis 19y ago
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78815 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78815

adnam 19y ago

Impressive

eusman 19y ago

i found a form to submit this but when I went again to "contact us" i didn't find the feedback form bug: when creating text if the text box is empty and click somewhere in the image new text layers are created with the previous textbox remaining active. also simple users wont be familiar with the layers concept so if they try to create some text and right afterwards try to paint with the brush because the background layer is not selected it will seem to them it doesn't work because they wont be able to paint. other than that its obvious it's great work * oh and i was impressed when I even found layer effects

alaskamiller 19y ago

Just curious: how does Adobe's plan to release the web-based Photoshop play into your strategy?

dbrush 19y ago
Adobe isn't going to eat their own cash cow. You can see their response to online image editors here: http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9790734-12.html http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9790734-12.html

joefaron 19y ago

impressive, although i dont think i'd ever really use it. its surprisingly advanced, which is good - but being an advanced user, theres NO reason to NOT just get photoshop.

herdrick 19y ago
Being a webapp Splashup can do some things Photoshop can't, like saving directly to your Flickr or Facebook account (among others).
- jacobolus 19y ago
  Not too hard to google for such functionality, and find a free plugin that does the job: http://pixelnovel.com/flickrshop.html http://pixelnovel.com/flickrshop.html But an image editor is really not the place for such tools, which belong in an organizer tool like Lightroom, iPhoto, or Bridge.
jacobolus 19y ago
Indeed. It's very impressive, and makes a great demo, but I can't think of a single type of user who wouldn't be better served by some desktop application. For power users, the lack of different color modes (CMYK, Lab, 16 bit/channel) or any kind of color management, curves (or even levels!), the kind of rich interaction (shortcuts, modifier-clicks, etc.) that desktop apps allow, serious retouching tools, line drawing tools, precise text control, etc. etc. makes this almost completely useless. Just the lack of the curves tool is frankly enough to doom any image editor (aimed at power users) which doesn't replace it with something of similar power. For non-power-users, this is still missing important features, but it also has the same complex photoshop-like interface that has been confusing newbies for years. The learning curve of Splashup is steeper than it is for products aimed at casual users; they are better served by those tools. ---- Clearly a lot of work went into splashup, and the technology will surely be useful for something--if nothing else it can be sold to some big company for piles of cash. But in its current incarnation it's basically useless.
collision 19y ago
Ehh... price?

wschroter 19y ago

Nice job guys ... but why is Posterize in there? Having been a hardcore photoshop user since v2.0 I can't ever find a reason for that filter!

dbrush 19y ago
You know, even while putting it in I couldn't figure out why people would use it. Nonetheless, it was nice to have figured out how it worked.

trekker7 19y ago

Man, I had no idea server-side GUIs had gotten this good... if it ran a little bit faster, it would feel close to a desktop app.

tlrobinson 19y ago
I wouldn't call this a "server side GUI"... It's a client side application that happens to be loaded from a server and run within a browser.

brezina 19y ago

I would like if my mouse turned into a different icon when I am using a tool. Example: I was cropping an image, but my mouse still looked like the standard mouse pointer. Later I clicked on the image and forgot I had the crop tool still in use. Not sure how photoshop does this, but I don't remember having this problem with PS.

dbrush 19y ago
You're right. Cursors, and keyboard shortcuts, should go a long way toward increasing the usability of Splashup, that's our hope anyway.

Mistone 19y ago

very impressive - i've been awaiting the release of this app and it surpasses my expectations so far - this is huge - congrats and thanks for building this!

nsrivast 19y ago

Would it be possible to add an option where you can design your own (3x3, 5x5, etc.) filter?

dbrush 19y ago
Certainly. Do you think a lot of people would use it?

ian 19y ago

Congratulations Dave and Hugo!

lsb 19y ago

congrats dave! congrats hugo!

bouncingsoul 19y ago

Are keyboard shortcuts going to be added?

dbrush 19y ago
Yep, it's just difficult because there are so many scenarios to account for with any given shortcut.

dannyv 19y ago

First off, super impressive app. When I went to submit feedback while demoing, it asked me to authenticate after I submitted it - not sure if it went through. I found a bug as well: Open an image, select an area, go to edit -> copy, and then the image disappears.

dbrush 19y ago
Thanks, I'll get right on that. There will be another release in the next day or so and that'll be fixed.

danielha 19y ago

Congrats Dave and Hugo! Fauxto was awesome but this rocks so much harder.

kajecounterhack 19y ago

impressive....useful when I'm at school and don't have photoshop but need to crop/edit an image. I doubt it can be used seriously for design though...still lacking too many features. I'm using Photoshop 7 and it still doesn't quite compare...

mattmaroon 19y ago

Congrats fellas!

mhidalgo 19y ago

I think the fact that I have to pay 650 bucks for a new version of photoshop makes this an attractive option for potentially lots of people. Great job guys !

herdrick 19y ago

Way to go guys, look and feel is fantastic. This is a great step for the world's most jaw-dropping web app.

tristian 19y ago

Really nice. It does suffer from a lack of keyboard shortcuts. Just for simple things like holding down shift while drawing an oval to get an exact circle. I can't see it replacing any of my current tools yet, but it's well on the way.

dhouston 19y ago

congrats guys!

jgamman 19y ago

feature request: tour to include some case-scenarios? my home pc has literally GBs of photos - can you provide some scenarios that would tempt my wife to invest some time in using your web app? examples include: backup your photos with our secure server, using filters to make your beach photos awesome, batch renaming functions (prefix suffix etc) etc. not hassling you at all, i just can't see the hook to a non-PS user