PlaceIt by Breezi - Generate Product Screenshots in Realistic Environments | Hacker News Reader

PlaceIt by Breezi - Generate Product Screenshots in Realistic Environments

placeit.breezi.com

124 pointscharlieirish66 comments

Love this idea and the final images look great. One gripe with the UX, and I'm starting to see this everywhere, is that the only way to upload a file is to drag it onto the browser. Why not add the option for a standard file input form? Drag and drop uploading breaks my workflow substantially - am I alone in this?

Agreed. Indeed it would be even more useful / powerful for me if I could interact via API ala imgur or imm.io

Came here to say the same thing - I hate drag and drop everywhere! I have to resize my browser window, move it around, open up a file browser, resize that, find the file, drag and drop it, close the file browser, and resize my web browser. How annoying! I think it's because it's an OSX paradigm, so stuff that's very design-y tend to use it, and it ends up with the usual OSX "looks nice, isn't very practical" effect.

I love the service though - could use some 'outdoor' shots in urban environments, a crowd, a concert, a subway stop, stuff like that. Bookmarked.

you guys should use http://mizage.com/divvy/ is great for resize windows without touching the mouse.

I love divvy, but a file input field is still easier. Both options require you to go through a file browser to find your file, but a file input doesn't make you resize any windows then resize them back.

Why resize your browser? cmd+tab to Finder, cmd+n a new Finder window, browse to file, drag it in...

(PC win+e a new explorer window and do the same thing)

Even worse is that you MUST have a mouse. Navigating with keyboard alone doesn't work.

We added the upload button btw. Thanks for the feedback

awesome, thank you.

I don't get why so many product screenshots focus on showing use on an Apple computer/device when statistically most of your users will not be using Apple.

Perhaps more early adopters are using Apple? Or it just makes it look cooler?

Well, if you're making an iPhone app or Mac app, then it's obvious.

But I assume you meant specifically in the case of specifically non-Apple stuff... because they look better to more people (or at least most of us learned to buy into that perception), and represent to many a more "premium" experience. I've seen it on TV ads for years now -- blank-labeled Macbook Pros say "sexy".

Same reason fast food commercials always show skinny people.

If you're making a mobile app, or especially something for tablets, in a lot of cases most of your users WILL be using Apple products even if it's not specific to iOS.

Market share and pictures of a hand holding an iPhone disagree with you.

For many markets (probably globally too?), there's no single smartphone that's more popular than the latest iPhone. So if you're only going to put one device in a photo, that'll probably be it.

And if you look only at the demographics you're interested in, it's likely that iOS will be at or near the top anyway.

Market share? It's been shown that even though a lot of "android" devices may be out there, the majority of use and engagement from mobile platforms is still coming from iOS.

See this post on asymco:

http://www.asymco.com/2012/11/26/the-android-engagement-para...

I don't understand this comment, or any of the replies. It's not like anyone makes an Android app and thinks "well, since the iPhone is more popular, I'll go with that for the screenshot".

Maybe for mobile websites, but I don't see anyone screenshotting those...

Very cute idea.

I might be missing something here, but - where's the license to the photos? These would obviously be useful for commercial purposes, but I have to see some usage license for it.

The 3D ones we rendered ourselves and the others are photos we took.

That's awesome, now put a link to a license that legally defines how can one use them, to avoid legal confusions.

May I suggest CC http://creativecommons.org/ ? :)

Done!

Sweet! :) I love your responsiveness here on HN, pretty impressive.

It's nice but only for Apple products...

We'll put up a few new android stages up in a few hours.

Thanks, I'll love you if you do that.

There are a few up there now

Awesome idea. I was thinking that I needed something like this just this past weekend. I was working on a demo for my iPhone and the product actually works, but it was pouring rain all weekend in SF so I couldn't go outside and take a good pic.

Adding a few more devices or even shots with multiple devices would be a great addition, but the core concept is great.

Would love MacBook Air, but with no (transparent) background.

We'll add that for you - check back in 1 hr

Can I get http://placeit.breezi.com/productshots/12 and http://placeit.breezi.com/productshots/15 in transparent background.

Thank you very much.

Sure. We'll probably add them at some point this week

This is cool, but I think more transparent background scenes would be useful.

Great suggestion. Yes makes a lot of sense. We'll add those today.

Excellent idea. I'd love to have MS Surface as an option (in horizontal orientation). I'd also love the ability to do it with a video.

Looks great -- As a note, I got a response after about a 1-2 minute process time. Would be great for you to show where I am in the process queue location instead of just the loader so that I don't think there was a browser or server error.

Is it possible to also have a multi-device template (showing the screen simultaneously on iPhone, Macbook, etc?)

Sorry, yes there is a lot of people hitting the server right now. Yes, that would be possible but I think what we're going to do is add PNG outputs so you can place them together with your own backgrounds as well.

Seems like it should be possible to do everything in the browser using canvas.

This is fantastic! Kudos for coming up with this amazing service. We just launched our software for Mac and putting the screenshot of the app in a Macbook makes it so much more beautiful!

If you can also add some Windows monitors and desktops on transparent background then other non Apple folks would also be able to use it. :)

Sure thing. We'll add some on Tuesday. Please check back then.

Suggestion - You might look into creating some templates pre-sized to be ready to upload to the appropriate app store(s). Something like http://android-ui-utils.googlecode.com/hg/asset-studio but for promotional graphics.

Oh, that moment of frisson when a piece of the future arrives. This is so excellent, thank you!

:) glad you like it

This is cool. If you don't mind my asking, are you using imagemagick to generate the final image? I went through some of the js/css and I didn't see any CSS transforms or js trickery (funny comment about IE in there though).

Seems like it's broken at the moment. I'll check in later. Neat idea and execution!

Should be ok now - sry about that - we ran out of space

Really cool idea. Is there any website providing the same for Android Platforms?

We'll add them in a few hours

Woww Amazing! PlaceIt also available in the Chrome Store: http://goo.gl/XtUDJ in 3 Languages (English, Spanish and Arabic)

Aw come on, you got on the front page didn't you?

Did we break it?

  We're sorry, but something went wrong.

  We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly.

Hey, jut ran out of disk space. Will be back in 20 minutes.

I love the idea, but I worry it has little practical use for business - it'll be the web faux pas equivalent of using unmodified Bootstrap!

I don't really have a problem with people using a standard form for content, I understand it's nice to make engaging interactive content, and artistic projects that entertain, inspire or amuse, sometimes though, you just want to read some words, look at some images and find out some facts, a standard form can be very good for that.

That's why we added the png ones. You can put your own environment behind it. We'll add more of those this week.

We just need those plastic guns that deliver the drug which takes away mutant powers.

I think you may have commented on the wrong post :)

Haha yes I did. Not sure how I managed that. :P

This is pretty awesome! Are there plans to charge for this? Keep it free?

I can't see us ever charging for this. Just wanted to give out something valuable to the community

'cause the only customers worth having use apple products!

Perfect and just in time for when I go back to work!

Just yesterday, I was looking for this. Thanks!

If only there were some non-Apple devices...

We'll add about 5 more non-apple device today. Check back around this afternoon (pst). Thanks

Wow brilliant, what a handy tool, thanks!

very cool I would add rotated iPhone (Landscape) scenes to the mix

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