- faithful support of many photoshop file formats. These formats can be considered industry standard and only half a handful of apps (excluding gimp) support them. These are: psd (ps document) csh(shapes) asl(layer styles) grd(gradients) pat(patterns) ase(swatches)
- accurate rendering of layer styles: These are non-destructive effects on layers such as drop-shadow or stroke. Many apps just import ps layers as images. cpphoto they remain editable.
- accurate rendering of ps adjustment layers: like layer styles they are non destructive (like contrast or color adjustments) and remain editable. Adjustment layers include gradient, pattern and solidcolor layers.
- accurate rendering, editing and transforming of text layers: ps text layers are often imported as images in 3rd party apps and thus not editable. Text layers are loaded as editable text in cpphoto. They can be transformed and warped non-destructively. A huge library of free fonts is included and could be easily extended.
- loading, editing of ps vector shapes: basic shapes are supported via pen and path tools. a library of free shapes is included and additional shapes in csh format can be loaded.
It is important to note that ps formats are widely used and shared asset formats. There are huge libraries and they can be used immediately in cpphoto.
Generally, as a web app, cpphoto runs in any desktop browser and needs no installations or updates. It could be easily integrated into any web service or platform. It is developed as modular typescript application with no external dependencies.
You must have put a great deal of work into this to create such a high-quality UI and handle all of those proprietary file formats. What was your goal when you started working on this ? I doubt you planned to just host it somewhere and hope the right people would find it.
Call it naive, but I guess putting stuff up somewhere and spread the word in a forum could have worked then. Users are pickier today as markets are more saturated and even free stuff is expected to work flawlessly.
Work on the project has been and is mostly fun, having a rather boring day job, roaming free, reverse engineering, analyzing how image filters work is something I enjoy doing no matter how many users there are. Nevertheless it could be more fun doing more of what I like doing so I'm asking if it is possible to make more out of it. Thank you for your advice on looking for the right people - this is one key for sure.
Reality: