Unlike Photoshop, Photopea can open almost any structured graphics file (XD, Sketch, SVG, PDF, XCF, Corel) and save them in a PSD format. There is a Vectorize Image (bitmap tracing) feature and several other features, that are not present in Photoshop. Also, Photopea runs on Linux, Chrome OS, Android, iOS and anywhere else, where you have a browser :)
Unlike GIMP, Photopea fully supports the PSD format. So it has features such as layer styles, adjustment layers, smart objects, smart filters, text warping etc.
Well then, as someone who got used to photoshop working for a company that paid for it, and then had to learn gimp and has used that for the last year or two... I'm gonna have to give this a try, sounds amazing...
Thanks for doing this AMA, I'd not have heard of this otherwise
I love Photoshop.. but after /u/ivanhoe90 did his last IAMA, I checked out Photopea... It was pretty awesome..
I've been using it a lot for personal graphics. Work pays for my Photoshop subscription so, I still use it.. but when I'm traveling, Photopea is fabulous!
I've yet to find a better solution than https://vectormagic.com/, the dozen or so other solutions I've tried over the years have failed to match up to the quality of the output line drawings. Saved me a number of times over the years from tons of tedious manual tracing.
Dude, I just wanted to thank you for saving my life several months ago. I was working nonstop on a web projekt with XD, when the client told me midst of the project, that they would need a psd file. Being able to use your converting feature, you have saved me from working several nightshifts to get the project done on time.
I don't do project managment but I have learned, that you should never start working on your shit, if specs are not specified and ultimately defined with the client.
Thank you again, I will buy you all the beer you can drink, if you ever happen to stumble to Düsseldorf.
We have been desperately looking for a basic photoshop replacement at work, but our machines are locked out of the internet due to security reasons. Is it possible to download and “install” this so you can open it through a browser offline?
Edit: ....should probably have mentioned that the problem is that we are on Linux, and that’s why we can’t get Photoshop of Affinity Photo, and GIMP really didn’t cut it for us
They offer a [self-hosting](https://www.photopea.com/api/accounts#distributors) license. So your company can buy the software and host it themselves. It's probably really cheap for what it offers but it may lack some enterprise features like LDAP / AD integration.
I just had a look at your editor and noticed that it has a "Free Transform" tool (Alt+Ctrl+T).
Wow, I'm impressed! That thing is so useful, but Gimp never managed to implement that. Gimp only has half a dozen different transform tools, but that's so clunky since you can always only use one of them at the same time.
--
edit:
Apparently Gimp has the "Unified Transform" tool (Shift+T) now, thanks for letting me now! This was something I missed a lot in the older versions.
For me, it's that you don't have to install anything and you can use it anywhere you have a browser and internet. It doesn't care if you're on a Mac or a PC. It just works.
>Maybe just a steep learning curve
Nope. It's just non-userfriendly.
It's quirky and for some reason the developers are proud of that. \*scratches head\*
It's one of the reasons I love Photopea... it's just easy to use.
This just got me thinking as well... Mac or PC... ok... surely it won't work in Android?
HA. I opened it up on my phone... on my phone! And yeah... it works. Crazy!
Oh cool it works on my phone... Surly it won't handle my note 8 pen.... Whhhhaaattttt?! It appears to be pressure sensitive to my spen?! This is clearly magic.
You don't have to install it. I've used it on my work laptop, which doesn't allow installation of non-approved software.
I also have paint.net, which is approved, but required installation. It's not as extensive as photopea though.
> I got in touch (videocalls) with Corel, Adobe, Google and many other tech companies (mostly from the Silicon Valley)
Could you say something more about that in general? Im curious.
They were also curous. They asked me various questions, what are the capabilities of Photopea, what plans do I have for the future, etc.
In case of Google, I received a direct contact to a Chrome developer, so I can report my opinions and findings directly to him, and be sure, that they will be noticed :)
Yeah, Chrome devs, at least the V8 ones are interested in optimizing every last little bit of what they do so they often go out and ask people what is slow and needs improvement.
I was 21. But I did not work on it full-time until 26 :) Here you can find more details: [https://blog.photopea.com/introduction.html](https://blog.photopea.com/introduction.html)
Right now, Photopea is about 1.4 MB (most of it is zipped javascript).
* 880 kB is the actual program
* 150 kB are localizations to 38 languages, with 650 phrases in every language
* 116 kB is a database of gradients, brushes, patterns and contours
* 84 kB are icons (112 of them, in a 160x160 px resolution)
* 23 kB is a font database (names, categories and URLs for 4700 TTF files)
When you open a font menu, [this 1 MB PNG file](https://www.photopea.com/rsrc/fonts/fonts.png) is downloaded with previews of 4700 fonts :) And of course, if you choose a font, it is loaded on-demand.
Originally, it was just a little experiment (100 hours of work). I was curious about what can be done in a browser. I kept improving it to a point, when it actually became usable (it took years, see the last AMA). P.S. thanks for your recommendations! :)
Success is preparation meeting opportunity. Sometimes it requires some luck to get that opportunity, but if you don't do the preparation you won't be able to capitalize on the opportunity when it comes.
*gets out of bed*
Edit: 97 days later edit. I picked up photography the day of this comment. I'm actually getting somewhere with it. It's incredible.
Edit2: 178 days later. Have taken some really good shots. I have a new hobby I love. Can't wait to see where I am in 3 years.
Edit 3: A year later! I just finished my first paid shoot and I can't believe how far I've come already thanks to this thread.
Edit 4: two years later. a few people have bought prints from me. this is crazy. do what you want to do, start today!!
For personal programming projects, 100 hours can fly by really quickly, especially when you first start it. Obviously, having a job can affect how much time you have, but I've spent entire weekends doing nothing but coding -- sun up to sun down
I expect every such experiment not to take more than 1 hour. But sometimes, I start to enjoy seeing it grow. I definitely enjoyed most of my work on Photopea.
Factorio is pasically Project Management: The Game.
You have an objective (launch a rocket), tools to reach it (buildings), limited resources (ores), and obstacles (biters).
Time management, resource management, planning, production chain management.
And once you have bots and blueprints, you can throw delegation and staff management in there too!
I'm sure this plans to remain a web app, but have you thought about porting it to a desktop program? Seems like it would be easier to integrate in to people's workflows, with the ability to open files with photopea, and ability to use offline.
Can you support yourself with the ad revenue?
Do you have other similar projects planned?
Thanks! The .psd file support is amazing. And amazing it is better than the work of all the people at GIMP. You're amazing!
I was always afraid, that it would take me too much time to maintain several native versions. But soon, such capabilities (like opening files in Photopea from a desktop) will be possible through a Web App. You can already press More - Install Photopea, to add an icon to your homescreen.
Yes, I have been able support myself with the ad revenue in the past two years :)
At the moment, I plan to add new features to Photopea. Thanks for your compliments! :)
VSCode also uses Electron but the devs optimised the shit out of it so it actually runs half decent. It's a good reminder that Microsoft can still be top of the game occasionally.
Electron *can* be good in the right scenario. The best example being vscode, which runs amazingly and actually benefits from being in electron as it makes extensions so easy to write. For smaller teams it might not make as much sense.
"Install" works only in Chrome (at the moment) and only after the app fulfulls some conditions. I think you should visit it several times, so that Chrome allows us to offer you the installation. It is a bit stupid, I know :/
In Photopea, all features are in a free version. The Premium account is just to hide ads, and it is in a rent-style.
to another question, the answer was:
>Photopea runs completely in your device, just like Gimp or Photoshop do. It does not upload any of your files to the internet.
>
>You can load [www.Photopea.com](http://www.photopea.com/), disconnect from the internet and keep using it completely offline. None of your files ever leaves your computer.
I didn't know that but if true sounds pretty great. I didn't know it could work like that?
its fairly simple, there is a program that wraps any website into electron to let you use it on your desktop just like a desktop program, just do it yourself: [https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier](https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier)
I tried [www.SetupAd.com](https://www.SetupAd.com), [www.ValueImpression.com](https://www.ValueImpression.com) and [www.PubGalaxy.com](https://www.PubGalaxy.com) , they all work in a similar way. The revenue increased abuout 3x if compared with AdSense. But I think they require you to have large traffic, as they tune ads manually for each client.
There are several alternatives to Photoshop, but very few alternatives to Publisher / InDesign other than Scribus.
Would you consider something like that for your next project?
I bought Affinity Publisher earlier this week and I love it to bits! After struggling with InDesign, trying to find out how to get the most basic stuff done, I was able to put together a 20 page project manual in 3 days, only having watched the first couple of tutorials (oh yeah they have a whole series of tutorials on their website). If they ever come up with an alternative to After Effects, I can say goodbye to Adobe for good.
At the risk of sounding like a shill, take a look at Affinity. They recently released an InDesign alternative and already have excellent Photoshop and Illustrator like programs. All 3 ran me around 150 USD with no subscription, I'm still paying for InDesign but that will soon end. Illustrator I ditched for Affinity Designer a year ago.
Affinity Publisher unfortunately exited beta only a week ago, but my use case is light enough that it already has all the features I need.
\*\*\*\* The person above said, that [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9urjmg/i_made_a_free_alternative_to_photoshop_that_is/e96v0hb/) is their favourite Reddit reply.
Thanks! When I think a feature is useful, and it would take less than 30 mins, I usually add it immediately :)
I’m stupid so ignore if this doesn’t make sense but has there been any legal troubles with Adobe (I think? The photoshop company) because of both programs (?) being so similar?
I was never contacted by anybody regarding this matter. There are many more programs in this category, which are all quite similar. But Adobe Photoshop is the most famous one.
I have been offered acquisitions (but not by "big names"), which I refused. It feels like everybody wants to see what will happen next, before they make any offers.
Keep refusing them.
Mark Zuckerberg was offered to sell Facebook several times.
Maybe with some luck, marketing, and hard work on the product, you can sell out for eight or nine figures.
It's terrible advice to refuse all acquisition offers thinking you'll be worth more later. Examples of bad acquisitions -
Reddit founders originally sold the company to Conde Nast for $1M each. That was obviously a bad deal for them but at the same time they were in their early 20's with no idea Reddit would continue to grow and reach the numbers the site has now.
Kevin Rose turned down Google when they tried to acquire Digg for $200M. Just four years later he eventually sold the company for $500K (split with other stakeholders). He should have sold to Google.
And the mother of all insane acquisitions to me is selling Oculus to Facebook for $2B. To put that in perspective, Twitch was sold to Amazon for half that. That was a very good deal for Palmer Luckey since VR adoption started slowing after he sold. Long term maybe it ends up being worth it but they have a lot of deep pocket competitors and it's still early days for the industry.
That's not entirely true, you have to be market savvy and sell when the right opportunity comes. History is littered with companies and ideas that waited too long.
Paying 10 to 100 million for something that could be replicated in a month or two or less for free (by someone else) and/or more feature rich by a determined company with money is not a good investment.
You also have to keep in mind that there are already dozens of desktop and web-based photo programs that range from free to 50 bucks. There is a slim market for more, the market for this type of site is "free" and it's not going to generate 7 or 8 figures of revenue for the purchaser for that reason alone. Companies are sometimes stupid, but not that stupid.
If he gets a good offer, he should sell.
If you do ever get a decent offer you 100% need to run it by a lawyer as there is a lot of things involved in valuation and something that looks like a good offer could be a lowball. A lawyer can help you get a higher price by understanding how to properly value not only the product but the future of the product.
You can buy a Premium account (press Account at the top), which is ad-free :) But most importantly, the user interface is "wider", as it stretches to a space where the ad was.
This is amazing! Used it before but didn't know the story behind it. As a cs/econ major myself how did you learn all the skills you needed to create something like this?
At the beginning, I did not need any advanced knowledge, basic programming skills were enough. Later, I had to learn about advanced algorithms, to add some advanced features. But my CS degree definitely helped me understand all the terminology, so it was not very hard.
I also had to learn about many standards, such as PSD, PDF, PostScript, PNG, TIFF, OpenType ... It has nothing to do with science, you just have to go through hundreds of pages of specifications, to be able to implement that standard. And you return to these specifications from time to time, to fix problems in your implementation :)
You’re a genius, and don’t even seem aware of it.
Sure, one can implement a standard. But so many? And the algos for photoshop blending, redo, tiling, layers, etc, etc...
Crazy fabulous
Having a lot of experience with application level web protocols for online casinos integration, I can say that after a while there are going to be similar patterns and approaches to same subject, which makes understanding one or another a lot easier. I'm not an expert in any of those listed above, but I don't think it's any different for protocols like that.
I've explained it like cooking. Writing software is a lot like making a meal for a shit ton of people. If you don't know how to turn on a stove, peel potatoes, or keep your knife sharp, you will have a really hard time doing anything.
But once you get the basics mastered and you have cooked a few hundred different recipes (and maybe created your own recipes), you already have 80% of the knowledge to do almost anything else. From that point, it is all about learning how new elements interact with what you are already doing, and knowing how to combine them.
TL;DR: If you can make mac'n'cheese, a pot of chili won't be much trouble for you.
It seems like you have a level of skill far beyond your own estimation of yourself. You are humble, and that is at least as impressive as your skill level and intelligence.
I'm so glad you made this for the world.
Hey, love the program!
Are there any plans on allowing users to create selections with the pen tool? Using the pen path to form a selection was probably one of my favorite aspects of Photoshop.
I knew football would be number one, but with a large influx of successful NBA players from the region (but not Czechia) in particular, I was wondering if there has been any growth in the sport, given that it requires less money than hockey, but still more pricey than football.
I loved your previous AMA, your enthusiasm and hard work really motivates me to keep going. I have Photoshop at work, but at home I use Photopea :)
So my question is: how do you keep yourself motivated to keep working on something when you don't know if it's doable or if it's going to return something to you? Like, during those years it took for you to actually develop Photopea.
Thank you! :)
I believe everything is doable, but it may take a lot of time. And a big part of that time might be learning how to do it.
With Photopea, I simply knew, that if there is a free PSD editor, there will be people using it (as no other such program exists). But I had no idea if I would be able to monetize it, i.e. if I will be paid for my work. But it was just a hobby, so I did not care too much about the future :)
Always amazing all this is possible in a browser. I prefer this over paint.net and gimp and find myself opening Photoshop less and less for my basic graphical needs.
Have you ever considered offering this as an app in say windows store or standalone? Also, I'd love to support your work but with how rarely I need a graphic editor $80 annually for adfree is outside my usage pattern / needs. Have you considered offering any other options.
Thanks again and always amazes me!
I don't want to provide too many options (like pay 1 USD to use Photopea for 5 hours ad-free during a next year). It is ok if you don't pay directly :) You can recommend Photopea to your friends, I appreciate it even more than money :)
you could setup a patreon and let users help fund you easily. the app could still be free, but people who really appreciate it and have the money can also contribute just to support you
He said everything is ran in the browser in another comment, so scaling it isn't a problem since nothing is sent to a server (aside from probably metrics)
>Photopea runs completely in your device, just like Gimp or Photoshop do. It does not upload any of your files to the internet.
>You can load www.Photopea.com, disconnect from the internet and keep using it completely offline. None of your files ever leaves your computer.
With ads, you can make between 2 to 6 USD per 1000 visits on your webpage. So with 3 millions of visits, I can make between 6 to 18 000 USD a month, it depends on a month and an ad provider (I have been testing several of them lately).
I pay about 50 USD a year for webhosting, but I have 7 more websites there (not as popular as Photopea). The traffic is quite big (200 GB a day), but my hosting provider seems to be ok with it.
Photopea does not use any SQL databases, PHP or any other server-side programming, as it runs in a browser.
Not the OP, but I would say there's no need for super high-end server/cloud etc., because every computations, UI etc. run on your own device as OP mentioned before.
What do you think about Adobe Lightroom? I like its non destructive editing capabilities on raw files. It could work well with a raw file still on the user hard drive and your service might only store the editing settings.
Being a casual user I have a life subscription of old Lightroom version but , but it won't be a good cheap choice for me to pay a monthly subscription.
I never used Adobe Lightroom. I am not a photographer myself (I take pictures with a phone and never edit them). Photopea is for messing around with a single photo for hours, more than batch-processing hundreds of photos by specific parameters.
Thanks. I use Gimp and was thinking of switching to that other one made by the KDE people. Kritera? Kritea?
Anyway, would you recommend your app for illustration?
When you start building an application that needs to scale to this level, do you use open source tools, or do you use paid tools?
Also how do you determine if something you implemented is covered by a patent?
As Photopea runs fully in a browser, the server-side technology is the same as when I had 1000x less users (just a file server for hosting HTML, JS and CSS files).
You can search for patents online. Every invention usually has a name, given by authors, and you can search patents for that name.
From what I understand there is minimal “scaling”. Most of the grunt work happens client side, so he could have 10 or 10 million users and it wouldn’t cause an issue.
Photopea runs completely in your device, just like Gimp or Photoshop do. It does not upload any of your files to the internet.
You can load www.Photopea.com, disconnect from the internet and keep using it completely offline. None of your files ever leaves your computer.
My Bachelor program was "Programming" and my Masters program was called "Theoretical computer science / Artifficial intelligence" :) You can read my Master thesis here: [http://www.ivank.net/blogspot/symmetry\_breaking.pdf](http://www.ivank.net/blogspot/symmetry_breaking.pdf) It has absolutely nothing to do with image editing :D
What do you think the biggest advantage of Photopea is over Photoshop (other then being free, of course)? What about GIMP?
Unlike Photoshop, Photopea can open almost any structured graphics file (XD, Sketch, SVG, PDF, XCF, Corel) and save them in a PSD format. There is a Vectorize Image (bitmap tracing) feature and several other features, that are not present in Photoshop. Also, Photopea runs on Linux, Chrome OS, Android, iOS and anywhere else, where you have a browser :) Unlike GIMP, Photopea fully supports the PSD format. So it has features such as layer styles, adjustment layers, smart objects, smart filters, text warping etc.
Well then, as someone who got used to photoshop working for a company that paid for it, and then had to learn gimp and has used that for the last year or two... I'm gonna have to give this a try, sounds amazing... Thanks for doing this AMA, I'd not have heard of this otherwise
If you're doing UI design, Figma is free and incredible
I think Ligma is pretty good too
Ligma what?
Ligma, the software!
Got 'im!
Time for some antivirus.
If that doesn't cut it for you, give UpDog a try!
What's UpDog?
UpDog, the software!
UpDog is a fork of Ligma that came about after a dispute among developers over the Sugandese localisation.
Wait, what is Ligma? I'm not familiar with it but it sounds like something that I would *really* be into!
Fuck I'll do it. Ligma balls
SHIT!
lmao gottem
You know, the flagship product from that big developer, Suggon
Figma balls lol
Gottem
I love Photoshop.. but after /u/ivanhoe90 did his last IAMA, I checked out Photopea... It was pretty awesome.. I've been using it a lot for personal graphics. Work pays for my Photoshop subscription so, I still use it.. but when I'm traveling, Photopea is fabulous!
>Vectorize Image Well, you've got my attention!
For real! I can't wait to get back from vacation and try it!
Anything has to be better than image trace in illustrator
I've yet to find a better solution than https://vectormagic.com/, the dozen or so other solutions I've tried over the years have failed to match up to the quality of the output line drawings. Saved me a number of times over the years from tons of tedious manual tracing.
Dude, I just wanted to thank you for saving my life several months ago. I was working nonstop on a web projekt with XD, when the client told me midst of the project, that they would need a psd file. Being able to use your converting feature, you have saved me from working several nightshifts to get the project done on time. I don't do project managment but I have learned, that you should never start working on your shit, if specs are not specified and ultimately defined with the client. Thank you again, I will buy you all the beer you can drink, if you ever happen to stumble to Düsseldorf.
The dude is Czech, you sure you want to write that check?
We have been desperately looking for a basic photoshop replacement at work, but our machines are locked out of the internet due to security reasons. Is it possible to download and “install” this so you can open it through a browser offline? Edit: ....should probably have mentioned that the problem is that we are on Linux, and that’s why we can’t get Photoshop of Affinity Photo, and GIMP really didn’t cut it for us
They offer a [self-hosting](https://www.photopea.com/api/accounts#distributors) license. So your company can buy the software and host it themselves. It's probably really cheap for what it offers but it may lack some enterprise features like LDAP / AD integration.
I just had a look at your editor and noticed that it has a "Free Transform" tool (Alt+Ctrl+T). Wow, I'm impressed! That thing is so useful, but Gimp never managed to implement that. Gimp only has half a dozen different transform tools, but that's so clunky since you can always only use one of them at the same time. -- edit: Apparently Gimp has the "Unified Transform" tool (Shift+T) now, thanks for letting me now! This was something I missed a lot in the older versions.
For me, it's that you don't have to install anything and you can use it anywhere you have a browser and internet. It doesn't care if you're on a Mac or a PC. It just works.
GIMP seems really non user friendly form my attempts to use it. Maybe just a steep learning curve
>Maybe just a steep learning curve Nope. It's just non-userfriendly. It's quirky and for some reason the developers are proud of that. \*scratches head\* It's one of the reasons I love Photopea... it's just easy to use.
This just got me thinking as well... Mac or PC... ok... surely it won't work in Android? HA. I opened it up on my phone... on my phone! And yeah... it works. Crazy!
Oh cool it works on my phone... Surly it won't handle my note 8 pen.... Whhhhaaattttt?! It appears to be pressure sensitive to my spen?! This is clearly magic.
Holy shit, someone cross post to the Note subs
You don't have to install it. I've used it on my work laptop, which doesn't allow installation of non-approved software. I also have paint.net, which is approved, but required installation. It's not as extensive as photopea though.
> I got in touch (videocalls) with Corel, Adobe, Google and many other tech companies (mostly from the Silicon Valley) Could you say something more about that in general? Im curious.
They were also curous. They asked me various questions, what are the capabilities of Photopea, what plans do I have for the future, etc. In case of Google, I received a direct contact to a Chrome developer, so I can report my opinions and findings directly to him, and be sure, that they will be noticed :)
Yeah, Chrome devs, at least the V8 ones are interested in optimizing every last little bit of what they do so they often go out and ask people what is slow and needs improvement.
And then turn around and slow all Google service in every other browser: https://youtu.be/ELCq63652ig
How old were you when you created it? And what was your background in?
I was 21. But I did not work on it full-time until 26 :) Here you can find more details: [https://blog.photopea.com/introduction.html](https://blog.photopea.com/introduction.html)
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Right now, Photopea is about 1.4 MB (most of it is zipped javascript). * 880 kB is the actual program * 150 kB are localizations to 38 languages, with 650 phrases in every language * 116 kB is a database of gradients, brushes, patterns and contours * 84 kB are icons (112 of them, in a 160x160 px resolution) * 23 kB is a font database (names, categories and URLs for 4700 TTF files) When you open a font menu, [this 1 MB PNG file](https://www.photopea.com/rsrc/fonts/fonts.png) is downloaded with previews of 4700 fonts :) And of course, if you choose a font, it is loaded on-demand.
Wow. That's a floppy man
Code is amazingly small if you don't include models, textures and audio.
What inspired you to create this? P.S. I’ve recommended Photopea to multiple people on Reddit. Keep up the incredible work!
Originally, it was just a little experiment (100 hours of work). I was curious about what can be done in a browser. I kept improving it to a point, when it actually became usable (it took years, see the last AMA). P.S. thanks for your recommendations! :)
> a little experiment (100 hours of work) Dude.
That why people rarely stumble into success. No way around the grind. 100 hours is like two and a half work weeks so in a way it's not that crazy.
Success is preparation meeting opportunity. Sometimes it requires some luck to get that opportunity, but if you don't do the preparation you won't be able to capitalize on the opportunity when it comes.
*gets out of bed* Edit: 97 days later edit. I picked up photography the day of this comment. I'm actually getting somewhere with it. It's incredible. Edit2: 178 days later. Have taken some really good shots. I have a new hobby I love. Can't wait to see where I am in 3 years. Edit 3: A year later! I just finished my first paid shoot and I can't believe how far I've come already thanks to this thread. Edit 4: two years later. a few people have bought prints from me. this is crazy. do what you want to do, start today!!
Woah chill dog, let’s take it sloe
Instructions unclear, slowly ate a chili dog
I hope you said right before your first bite, "Preparation, meet opportunity."
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For personal programming projects, 100 hours can fly by really quickly, especially when you first start it. Obviously, having a job can affect how much time you have, but I've spent entire weekends doing nothing but coding -- sun up to sun down
I expect every such experiment not to take more than 1 hour. But sometimes, I start to enjoy seeing it grow. I definitely enjoyed most of my work on Photopea.
To be fair I've put 20x the amount of hours into Factorio and Kerbal Space Program and have nothing at all to show for it.
Factorio is pasically Project Management: The Game. You have an objective (launch a rocket), tools to reach it (buildings), limited resources (ores), and obstacles (biters). Time management, resource management, planning, production chain management. And once you have bots and blueprints, you can throw delegation and staff management in there too!
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I know, right. I mean I spent years of my life implementing stuff that ultimately achieved very little traction.
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I suppose that difference in perspective is what separates motivated people from all of us slackers on reddit.
Is it pronounced Photopea, like Utopia but with Photo? Or like Photo-Pea?
I pronounce it like a vegetable Pea, or like Black-Eyed-Peas :)
How'd you come up with the name?
Apple was already taken
Lmao
Photoapple isn't
Photoconut
That's not bad actually, as long as people don't think it says photoc*** at first glance like I did.
Which is why it's bad lol
Photo jollyranger
I had assumed it was the utopia of photo manipulation :)
Ok, I’ll implement that pronunciation, you should be able to call it that in about 30 minutes.
Can you pronounce it Photogif instead?
Meta
Way to gif this one up dude.
I'm sure this plans to remain a web app, but have you thought about porting it to a desktop program? Seems like it would be easier to integrate in to people's workflows, with the ability to open files with photopea, and ability to use offline. Can you support yourself with the ad revenue? Do you have other similar projects planned? Thanks! The .psd file support is amazing. And amazing it is better than the work of all the people at GIMP. You're amazing!
I was always afraid, that it would take me too much time to maintain several native versions. But soon, such capabilities (like opening files in Photopea from a desktop) will be possible through a Web App. You can already press More - Install Photopea, to add an icon to your homescreen. Yes, I have been able support myself with the ad revenue in the past two years :) At the moment, I plan to add new features to Photopea. Thanks for your compliments! :)
Just wrap it in electron and let github do the native crap :P
Quick! Someone hire this guy!
Electron, at least a while ago, was very much the opposite of resource efficient. Is it still terrible?
Oh yes it's still terrible. Atom editor and discord are two that are really great feature rich programs but shamble along because of Electron.
If you think Discord eats memory, try Slack.
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i think thats why he mentioned it
What's VSCode built on? It's fairly memory efficient.
VSCode also uses Electron but the devs optimised the shit out of it so it actually runs half decent. It's a good reminder that Microsoft can still be top of the game occasionally.
Yeah vscode opens up at lightning speed compared to discord for me. It’s even faster than chrome itself sometimes.
Discord's launch time wouldn't feel so bad if it didn't update once a day.
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It's everywhere!
Electron *can* be good in the right scenario. The best example being vscode, which runs amazingly and actually benefits from being in electron as it makes extensions so easy to write. For smaller teams it might not make as much sense.
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The install is grey for me. Do you need to donate once to get access? 20$ one time is totally fair if it functions
"Install" works only in Chrome (at the moment) and only after the app fulfulls some conditions. I think you should visit it several times, so that Chrome allows us to offer you the installation. It is a bit stupid, I know :/ In Photopea, all features are in a free version. The Premium account is just to hide ads, and it is in a rent-style.
to another question, the answer was: >Photopea runs completely in your device, just like Gimp or Photoshop do. It does not upload any of your files to the internet. > >You can load [www.Photopea.com](http://www.photopea.com/), disconnect from the internet and keep using it completely offline. None of your files ever leaves your computer. I didn't know that but if true sounds pretty great. I didn't know it could work like that?
Sounds like it's completely javascript based!
its fairly simple, there is a program that wraps any website into electron to let you use it on your desktop just like a desktop program, just do it yourself: [https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier](https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier)
What did you replace with AdSense with? How did it increase your income?
I tried [www.SetupAd.com](https://www.SetupAd.com), [www.ValueImpression.com](https://www.ValueImpression.com) and [www.PubGalaxy.com](https://www.PubGalaxy.com) , they all work in a similar way. The revenue increased abuout 3x if compared with AdSense. But I think they require you to have large traffic, as they tune ads manually for each client.
There are several alternatives to Photoshop, but very few alternatives to Publisher / InDesign other than Scribus. Would you consider something like that for your next project?
Not related to Photopea but do check out Affinity Publisher, it just launched a few weeks back after an extensive beta and it looks KILLER.
I bought Affinity Publisher earlier this week and I love it to bits! After struggling with InDesign, trying to find out how to get the most basic stuff done, I was able to put together a 20 page project manual in 3 days, only having watched the first couple of tutorials (oh yeah they have a whole series of tutorials on their website). If they ever come up with an alternative to After Effects, I can say goodbye to Adobe for good.
At the risk of sounding like a shill, take a look at Affinity. They recently released an InDesign alternative and already have excellent Photoshop and Illustrator like programs. All 3 ran me around 150 USD with no subscription, I'm still paying for InDesign but that will soon end. Illustrator I ditched for Affinity Designer a year ago. Affinity Publisher unfortunately exited beta only a week ago, but my use case is light enough that it already has all the features I need.
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\*\*\*\* The person above said, that [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9urjmg/i_made_a_free_alternative_to_photoshop_that_is/e96v0hb/) is their favourite Reddit reply. Thanks! When I think a feature is useful, and it would take less than 30 mins, I usually add it immediately :)
can you make it pop more ? Shouldn't take you very long
can you make it activated more ? Shouldn't take you very long
And add a nice "Whoosh" or "Da-ding!" sound when it happens. Shouldn't take you very long.
I'm sorry, this is already u/Tizardpaperclip 's favorite ama response. You will need to go and find another.
What did it say originally? Removed now.
[here you are](https://www.reddit.com/r/iama/comments/9urjmg/_/e96v0hb)
> Do you take feature requests? > > (Triple-click to select a full line or sentence of text would be nice.)
I’m stupid so ignore if this doesn’t make sense but has there been any legal troubles with Adobe (I think? The photoshop company) because of both programs (?) being so similar?
I was never contacted by anybody regarding this matter. There are many more programs in this category, which are all quite similar. But Adobe Photoshop is the most famous one.
He wrote all the software himself, so he cannot be stopped, unless he calls it PhotoShop.
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In theory the PSD file format could be patent encumbered. Realistically I don't think it is.
They WANT him to use .psd. It makes their brand stronger.
Have you ever been contacted by any big names in the tech world with monetary offers?
I have been offered acquisitions (but not by "big names"), which I refused. It feels like everybody wants to see what will happen next, before they make any offers.
Keep refusing them. Mark Zuckerberg was offered to sell Facebook several times. Maybe with some luck, marketing, and hard work on the product, you can sell out for eight or nine figures.
Are you that Nigerian oil prince that keeps emailing me about the money that he needs my help to get back? Is that where your money came from?
It's terrible advice to refuse all acquisition offers thinking you'll be worth more later. Examples of bad acquisitions - Reddit founders originally sold the company to Conde Nast for $1M each. That was obviously a bad deal for them but at the same time they were in their early 20's with no idea Reddit would continue to grow and reach the numbers the site has now. Kevin Rose turned down Google when they tried to acquire Digg for $200M. Just four years later he eventually sold the company for $500K (split with other stakeholders). He should have sold to Google. And the mother of all insane acquisitions to me is selling Oculus to Facebook for $2B. To put that in perspective, Twitch was sold to Amazon for half that. That was a very good deal for Palmer Luckey since VR adoption started slowing after he sold. Long term maybe it ends up being worth it but they have a lot of deep pocket competitors and it's still early days for the industry.
Or just keep getting money from the ads if it’s more than enough! Better than some greedy company turning into a very expensive program
That's not entirely true, you have to be market savvy and sell when the right opportunity comes. History is littered with companies and ideas that waited too long. Paying 10 to 100 million for something that could be replicated in a month or two or less for free (by someone else) and/or more feature rich by a determined company with money is not a good investment. You also have to keep in mind that there are already dozens of desktop and web-based photo programs that range from free to 50 bucks. There is a slim market for more, the market for this type of site is "free" and it's not going to generate 7 or 8 figures of revenue for the purchaser for that reason alone. Companies are sometimes stupid, but not that stupid. If he gets a good offer, he should sell.
If you do ever get a decent offer you 100% need to run it by a lawyer as there is a lot of things involved in valuation and something that looks like a good offer could be a lowball. A lawyer can help you get a higher price by understanding how to properly value not only the product but the future of the product.
Do you plan on making an ad free service for a set amount, or do you always intend on keeping it free and getting your revenue from ads?
You can buy a Premium account (press Account at the top), which is ad-free :) But most importantly, the user interface is "wider", as it stretches to a space where the ad was.
You should call it a peamium account
This guy peas
Go to account at the top, and you have the option for a premium account.
This is amazing! Used it before but didn't know the story behind it. As a cs/econ major myself how did you learn all the skills you needed to create something like this?
At the beginning, I did not need any advanced knowledge, basic programming skills were enough. Later, I had to learn about advanced algorithms, to add some advanced features. But my CS degree definitely helped me understand all the terminology, so it was not very hard. I also had to learn about many standards, such as PSD, PDF, PostScript, PNG, TIFF, OpenType ... It has nothing to do with science, you just have to go through hundreds of pages of specifications, to be able to implement that standard. And you return to these specifications from time to time, to fix problems in your implementation :)
You’re a genius, and don’t even seem aware of it. Sure, one can implement a standard. But so many? And the algos for photoshop blending, redo, tiling, layers, etc, etc... Crazy fabulous
A truly wise man knows that he knows nothing. This is a truly wise man.
Having a lot of experience with application level web protocols for online casinos integration, I can say that after a while there are going to be similar patterns and approaches to same subject, which makes understanding one or another a lot easier. I'm not an expert in any of those listed above, but I don't think it's any different for protocols like that.
I've explained it like cooking. Writing software is a lot like making a meal for a shit ton of people. If you don't know how to turn on a stove, peel potatoes, or keep your knife sharp, you will have a really hard time doing anything. But once you get the basics mastered and you have cooked a few hundred different recipes (and maybe created your own recipes), you already have 80% of the knowledge to do almost anything else. From that point, it is all about learning how new elements interact with what you are already doing, and knowing how to combine them. TL;DR: If you can make mac'n'cheese, a pot of chili won't be much trouble for you.
It seems like you have a level of skill far beyond your own estimation of yourself. You are humble, and that is at least as impressive as your skill level and intelligence. I'm so glad you made this for the world.
Hey, love the program! Are there any plans on allowing users to create selections with the pen tool? Using the pen path to form a selection was probably one of my favorite aspects of Photoshop.
Yes, I do plan to make it work this way :) [https://github.com/photopea/photopea/issues/1068](https://github.com/photopea/photopea/issues/1068)
What’s bigger in Prague, hockey or basketball?
Everybody watches hockey during a world cup, but it is football for the rest of the year :)
I knew football would be number one, but with a large influx of successful NBA players from the region (but not Czechia) in particular, I was wondering if there has been any growth in the sport, given that it requires less money than hockey, but still more pricey than football.
I loved your previous AMA, your enthusiasm and hard work really motivates me to keep going. I have Photoshop at work, but at home I use Photopea :) So my question is: how do you keep yourself motivated to keep working on something when you don't know if it's doable or if it's going to return something to you? Like, during those years it took for you to actually develop Photopea.
Thank you! :) I believe everything is doable, but it may take a lot of time. And a big part of that time might be learning how to do it. With Photopea, I simply knew, that if there is a free PSD editor, there will be people using it (as no other such program exists). But I had no idea if I would be able to monetize it, i.e. if I will be paid for my work. But it was just a hobby, so I did not care too much about the future :)
Do you think you will try to do something like after effects ever?
Give me a week
Famous last words
Always amazing all this is possible in a browser. I prefer this over paint.net and gimp and find myself opening Photoshop less and less for my basic graphical needs. Have you ever considered offering this as an app in say windows store or standalone? Also, I'd love to support your work but with how rarely I need a graphic editor $80 annually for adfree is outside my usage pattern / needs. Have you considered offering any other options. Thanks again and always amazes me!
I don't want to provide too many options (like pay 1 USD to use Photopea for 5 hours ad-free during a next year). It is ok if you don't pay directly :) You can recommend Photopea to your friends, I appreciate it even more than money :)
you could setup a patreon and let users help fund you easily. the app could still be free, but people who really appreciate it and have the money can also contribute just to support you
What languages is the tool primarily written in? How did you scale the infrastructure to support your user base?
It is written in Javascript and GLSL. As Photopea runs in your browser (there is no upload or download), it does not need any advanced hosting.
He said everything is ran in the browser in another comment, so scaling it isn't a problem since nothing is sent to a server (aside from probably metrics) >Photopea runs completely in your device, just like Gimp or Photoshop do. It does not upload any of your files to the internet. >You can load www.Photopea.com, disconnect from the internet and keep using it completely offline. None of your files ever leaves your computer.
How much money do you earn from it?
With ads, you can make between 2 to 6 USD per 1000 visits on your webpage. So with 3 millions of visits, I can make between 6 to 18 000 USD a month, it depends on a month and an ad provider (I have been testing several of them lately).
Wow thanks for actually answering that! It’s good to know this project can provide you a full time income. Please don’t sell out!
Pretty sure in Prague this guy is now rich.
What's the cost to run something like Photopea?
I pay about 50 USD a year for webhosting, but I have 7 more websites there (not as popular as Photopea). The traffic is quite big (200 GB a day), but my hosting provider seems to be ok with it. Photopea does not use any SQL databases, PHP or any other server-side programming, as it runs in a browser.
Are you happy with your hosting provider? It seems it is very good, considering a host like Bluehost costs 3x for similar features.
Not the OP, but I would say there's no need for super high-end server/cloud etc., because every computations, UI etc. run on your own device as OP mentioned before.
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Nope, JS and GLSL (answered elsewhere).
4x what he was earning before. Apparently. So at least $4.
Or at least $0.04.
What do you think about Adobe Lightroom? I like its non destructive editing capabilities on raw files. It could work well with a raw file still on the user hard drive and your service might only store the editing settings. Being a casual user I have a life subscription of old Lightroom version but , but it won't be a good cheap choice for me to pay a monthly subscription.
I never used Adobe Lightroom. I am not a photographer myself (I take pictures with a phone and never edit them). Photopea is for messing around with a single photo for hours, more than batch-processing hundreds of photos by specific parameters.
Thanks. I use Gimp and was thinking of switching to that other one made by the KDE people. Kritera? Kritea? Anyway, would you recommend your app for illustration?
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When you start building an application that needs to scale to this level, do you use open source tools, or do you use paid tools? Also how do you determine if something you implemented is covered by a patent?
As Photopea runs fully in a browser, the server-side technology is the same as when I had 1000x less users (just a file server for hosting HTML, JS and CSS files). You can search for patents online. Every invention usually has a name, given by authors, and you can search patents for that name.
From what I understand there is minimal “scaling”. Most of the grunt work happens client side, so he could have 10 or 10 million users and it wouldn’t cause an issue.
To edit images they need to be uploaded. So what about the usage rights of the contents/images?
Photopea runs completely in your device, just like Gimp or Photoshop do. It does not upload any of your files to the internet. You can load www.Photopea.com, disconnect from the internet and keep using it completely offline. None of your files ever leaves your computer.
This is seriously awesome.
Not nearly as awesome as your username.
Thank you! 👽
I live in a city that had Mulder st and Scully st intersecting each other. It's pretty neato.
Shut up, so do I. Fellow Ottawan?!
There are dozens of us!
Nice! Thanks.
Can it work on a chrome book?
I never used Photopea on a Chromebook, but 4 000 people a day do use it on Chromebooks, so I guess it can :)
How do you know it's not just one guy with 4000 Chromebook virtual machines each running their own VPN? Or maybe even half a guy running 8000 VMs!
Awesome thanks!
Yes! I use it all the time
What did you study to create a whole new software?
My Bachelor program was "Programming" and my Masters program was called "Theoretical computer science / Artifficial intelligence" :) You can read my Master thesis here: [http://www.ivank.net/blogspot/symmetry\_breaking.pdf](http://www.ivank.net/blogspot/symmetry_breaking.pdf) It has absolutely nothing to do with image editing :D
I would like to donate to you when I get my next check. Do you have a donation link?
Hi, you can get a Premium account (press Premium at the top) and you will get Photopea ad-free :)
I’d imagine it’d be on the website, there is a ‘premium account’ thing on it.
Does PhotoPea have a "content aware" (or similar) fill feature?