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Comment by wgx | Hacker News Reader

A polite reminder that the (quite extraordinary) Photopea[0] is available which replicates most of Photoshop's features in the browser, and is free - with a paid ad-free option.

0. https://www.photopea.com/

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...and created by 1 person.

My name is Ivan Kutskir and I am the only developer of Photopea. I am 27 years old graduate of the Charles University in Prague. I live in Prague, Czech Republic, but I was born in Ukraine. https://blog.photopea.com/creating-photopea.html

[Edit]

Reddit AMA (3yrs ago) and HN discussion on it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18397380

If i remember correctly, the whole app runs in the browser without a backend which is pretty amazing.

And no WASM either last time I checked. The author also has multiple open source imaging JS libraries on his GitHub that he created for PhotoPea

that’s impressive

He (Ivan Kuckir) has been building this online photo editor for 7 years now, and it’s paying off. Last year (2020), he broke the line of $500,000 ARR, and it’s still growing.

https://www.lunadio.com/blog/the-story-of-a-unicorn-solo-fou...

The fact that Photopea is better than GIMP in so many ways (does GIMP still not have adjustment layers for non-destructive editing?), and was created by one person is a little depressing, but also inspiring at the same time.

Yes, GIMP layers are still in limited and a pain to use. I'll definitely try photopea next time.

>Better than GIMP in so many ways (does GIMP still not have adjustment layers for non-destructive editing?), and was created by one person

This makes total sense. GIMPs problem was never feature quality or quantity, it was mostly focus and coherence.

A single person brings that.

The main trouble with GIMP (and Inkscape) is lack of first-class CMYK, making it irrelevant for any print-targeting activity. Otherwise the features have advanced in the last few years and the coherence is not bad, the photoshop crowd being in the same ballpark for me.

You know what's more than little depressing? That each time any similar topic comes up you don't have to scroll down very far to find someone in the comments that will bash GIMP for some random thing.

You're comparing an ad-supported/subscription web service making a good part of 6 figures per year with software maintained largely by volunteer work for the past 20+ years.

The takeaway is that a large community of volunteer can be beaten by a single full-time software engineer.

I apologize - I truly don't mean to bash GIMP and I appreciate all the work the volunteers have done. It has come a long way and appears to be getting better with every release.

My reliance on adjustment layers and non-destructive workflows probably doesn't represents the majority of GIMP's user base, and that's ok. I can't really use it seriously for photographic retouching until it does have that, but I'm glad other people get a lot of use out of it, and the other features that have taken higher priority surely make sense for a great number of those people that do use it regularly. I hope that drives more usage, donations, and development.

Nomen est Omen, with a name like GIMP what can you expect. I mean, the software name is literally slang for a disabled person.

Why don't they start from changing the name I don't understand.. Open Source projects have these odd ways of just sticking whatever somebody came up in the late 90s and rolling with that.

GIMP is an acronym (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

Yeah I know that. But do the people looking for a professional photo editing program know that. I'm just saying if you want to make it big or attract developers, maybe naming your software Gimp is not the best thing either..

A lot of the best software is made by one person. Large codebases and organisations have significant inertia that make producing good stuff hard. You’ll also get greater deviation from the mean in a single developer (so a lot of the worst software is also made by one person).

I wonder if this was what spurred it! A few years ago a free fan operated RuneScape server running an old version became more popular than the actual game. Jagex asked them to shut down, but they also launched their own version in kind: OldSchool RuneScape.

Moparscape was always running even before that, albeit not as polished and the server owners had full control over how ridiculous the game was.

Discussed in a few past threads:

Photopea: A free alternative to Photoshop used by millions of people - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26898836 - April 2021 (5 comments)

AMA: Ivan Kutskir, creator of Photopea - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26768550 - April 2021 (267 comments)

AMA with the Creator of Photopea - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24143189 - Aug 2020 (6 comments)

Reddit AMA on Photopea, a free alternative to Photoshop used by 1.5M people - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18397380 - Nov 2018 (179 comments)

My name is Ivan and I want to make the best photo editor - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15924402 - Dec 2017 (80 comments)

Surface Blur and Median - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12612720 - Sept 2016 (34 comments)

Photo Pea 0.3 – New features - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6624264 - Oct 2013 (7 comments)

HTML5 image editor wants to replace Photoshop and Gimp - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6396474 - Sept 2013 (4 comments)

Yep, I use this all the time when I need to do some quick image editing. I tried to get used to Krita, but PhotoShops hotkeys and menus were already burned into my brain. PhotoPea does a great job emulating them.

How have I never heard about his before. This is amazingly useful.

Wow even some of Photoshop's more obscure shortcuts are the same. Embarrassing that it feels snappier than my actual copy of PS.

Wow, it even seems to work great on a phone, better than any free app I've tried.

polite thank you -- not sure if I checked it out in the earlier days or something but hadn't been back and stunned at how GIMPy it is (in a good way). And totally jump-right-in useable. Impressive.

they only share a similar name and UI/UX

it doesn't even support 10% of what Photoshop is capable of, including performance and handling of RAW files

Most people use less than 10% [1] of what Photoshop is capable of. It is the subset of features that is used by 90% [2] of people that Photopea covers. That means Photopea could take 90% of the market share of Photoshop, which is pretty good return on investment!

[1][2]: Like in the parent's comments, all percentages are made up.

I guess you are right!

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