Whats next - take 2

A couple of month ago I asked what we should do next with pixlr.com, since then a lot of the stuff you wanted has been released and some great stuff you didn't know you wanted ;) like the excellent pixlr grabber.

But once again I want to know; if it was up to you what would the next thing to be released be?


//Ola

Drag and Drop support added in layers panel!

I'm still working on creating a better work flow for you .. just added drag n' drop to the layers panel.

This is what you can do:

1. Drag the layers to sort them. Unlock the background to be able to move it.
2. Drag a layer to the trash to delete it.
3. Drag a layer to the New Layer icon to duplicate it.

I'm quite satisfied with it, ie it works as i should :) What do you think?

Peace!

//Ola

Pixlr Grabber for Windows now available!

Just released the Pixlr Grabber for Windows. Now you can right-click any image on your desktop and edit them in the Pixlr Editor without the hassle of manually starting the browser and browsing the image.



Download it from http://pixlr.com/grabber/ and install it today!

A plus is that the Pixlr pdx documents now has its own icon and you can just double-click it to open them.

A new take ..

On the look of things ..

Over and out !

Ola

New version of the editor is out!

Yepp just relesed a new version of the Pixlr Editor. We did a large re-factoring of how the layer handeling works. This means we have made changes to all parts of the application and this also means that I need your help to report any bugs you might find.

For you as a user the changes are:

• Lower memory footprint when working with layers.
• Free transform is just around the layer and not the entire image.
• Layers can be dragged and moved around (and outside) of the document without them being cropped.
• New layout of the Menu, layers box and history box. Yes it's blue and not so many lines, the scollbars also just shows when they need.
• Rotate/flip layer works as it should.

So not that much news for you but a lot of changes and small fixes is done, it will help in future development of the editor.

All out!

Ola

Icons for the applications ..

We are getting some real application icons for the editor and the express applications, here is some sketches I've gotten :) I love concepts.

One year anniversary! *hurray*

Today one year ago I (Ola Sevandersson) released the first of the pixlr services, at that time I had been coding/designing for almost a year. All done in my spare time since I had a regular job as a product development mng for one of the largest social networks in Sweden.

The release was followed by these words in the blog:
"So it's sunday afternoon in Sweden and tomorrow I will let a few know about pixlr. I wonder what they will say about the result of from a years work and thousands of lines of code?"

Well I have to say that the "few" people i let know about the service grew to about 50.000 visitors in the FIRST two days .. quite a good release from my perspective .. Of course it was because it was featured in a couple of large tech-blogs (More on the first week)

Here is a graph of the growth of pixlr.com per month until today:

Solid climb :) Thanks to you all!

One of the key to success was that I didn't just focus on the English speaking part of the world but made it easy to translate the service and today pixlr is available in over 25 languages.

Visitors from Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Brazil, Sweden, Mexico, Germany is often seen on the site :)

The first version of the editor was pretty basic and lacked a lot of features, but continued development has added a lot of tools, adjustments and filters for you all to enjoy. The first version didn't even have Type tool and free transform, wild times ;)

Some other facts:

Firefox add-on (rel 9 dec 2008)
Over 50.000 downloads of the plugin.



Pixlr Express (rel 28 mar 2009)
Great for inclusion in other sites via the API



Pixlr on Twitter (9 nov 2009)
More then 1200 followers.



Pixlr facebook apps (rel 16 june 2009)
Edit your facebook images direct with pixlr editor and pixlr express



Be first!
Pixlr has always tried to move the line of how a application on the web behaves and performs, still the Pixlr editor is just 186 kb large and is one of the most advanced online editors out there. With features like open psd, white balance, tilt-shift filter, curves, levels, dodge, burn, brush editor and more.

Does it end here ..
Noooo, now we are looking forward on the year to come .. you will meet the pixlr products in several more of the largest sites of the world and you might even use our product without knowing :)

I can't say to much but more connections to your desktop are in the pipe as well for a new redone version of the editor. A bit more clean look and a lot of optimization of the footprint.



Thanks you all for this wonderful year!

With the greatest gratitude
Ola

Help needed!

Are you good at writing and know the workings of wiki systems? Want to contribute to the free pixlr service? I need som help getting the support pages updated and i'm so short on time.

Tutorials and other stuff would be great as well.

E-mail me and I'll add a wiki account.

Cheers
Ola

Release me!

A couple of days ago I made the desiccation to stop supporting flash 9 in the new development and with over 85% using flash 10 that's not such a big impact on the users.

All flash 9 users will still be able to use pixlr editor but it will be a version that don't get any future development. (Update dammit! ;))

Due to the fact that we only develop for flash 10 we can use all of the new great things to make a even better product. First out is a optimized version of jpg saving and drawing, now we will focus on the new text engine to get great type possibilities.

I also released a set of features yesterday. First of the "Auto Levels" and also ...


Rename Layer



Color Lookup Filter


Tri Tone Filter


Peace
Ola

Poking around with the brushes ..

Just released a new update with changes to the brush handling. Optimizing the work-flow again.

Also added short-cut keys for resizing/soften the brush, click "," and "." on your keybord to change brush size. Holding down shift and clicking "," and "." will change the hardness.

Use pixlr with facebook

Now you can use the pixlr services on you facebook images.

Image Editor
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=110226352246

Photo Express
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=44331323412

And also be a Pixlr fan
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pixlr/35846011511

Let me know what to do to improve the apps.

Cheers
Ola

Whats next ..

The backlog for pixlr is quite long and just some of the items are on the wall to be done soon.

It's always hard to prioritize what's the next thing to put your hours into.

If you had your wish what would you like to be the next thing released?

Cheers
Ola

Finaly .. our own format :)

So I just added or .. did add late last night a pixlr document format (.pxd). Saving a pxd file will keep all the layers, filters, texts etc so you can revisit the image and continue working on it.

It's also good if you would like to share files with friend or colleagues or for creating templates.

The pxd format will be open for anybody who wants to create readers, I'll add the document specification later on.

Remember this day!

Yes you can now open Photoshop PSD files in the Image editor and Photo Express. We are first to do this native in Flash and online!

For all you who are not always in front of your desktop or just need to preview psd images. The Image editor opens layers and the express version open an flattened version.

We will optimize it more and give some feedback on loading etc, but I just wanted to get it out there!

Out!

Translation help :)

Hi all, need some help updating the language files for image editor and adding new languages to photo express. There have been a lot of development since some of the translations were made.

To help with the translation just download the file you want to update, write a comment to this post that you will do the work so that we don't get a lot of double translations.

The new lines are at the bottom of each file in English. When you are done send the file to us by email.

Image Editor
de = German (0 lines)
en = English (0 lines)
dk = Danish (0 lines)
he = Hebrew (0 lines)
es = Spanish (72 lines)
fr = French (0 lines)
it = Italian (0 lines)
pl = Polish (76 lines)
pt-br = Brazilian-Portuguese (0 lines)
ro = Romanian (53 lines)
nl = Dutch (0 lines)
ru = Russian (0 lines)
uk = Ukrainian (0 lines)
sv = Swedish (0 lines)
sl = Slovenian(0 lines)
el = Greek (45 lines)
cs = Czech (45 lines)
th = Thai (47 lines)
tr = Turkish (52 lines)
jp = Japanese (43 lines)
tr = Korean (43 lines)
zh-cn = Simplified Chinese (0 lines)
zh-tw = Traditional Chinese (72 lines)


Photo Express
en = English (0 lines)
sv = Swedish (0 lines)
de = German (0 lines)
fr = French (0 lines)
no = Norwegian (0 lines)
dk = Danish (0 lines)
pt-br = Brazilian-Portuguese (0 lines)

If you want to add your own language and you feel that you can do a professional translation just copy the English file and translate into your language and send it to us.

Have a nice weekend!

Update: Thanks for all the help so far!

//Ola

White balance ..

Still focus on doing the work flow better in pixlr image editor, added the possibility to use the colorpicker during the time the color chooser is active. Not a big change but oh so nice to have.

This also created a foundation for adding Sampling of white, grey and black points in the curves dialogue. It was requested yesterday by a photographer, apparently you use it to set the correct white and black point in a photo when it's taken in different lightning situations.

Oh and he was a bit surprised that we actually read and answer mails and listen to our users.

Cheers
Ola

Doing som updates

Started doing some small updates on the Image editor, added context menus to the layers box for some quick shortcuts.

Also added Dutch language and fixed a bug regarding small 1x2 pixel images :)
Cheers!

Photo Express fresh from the press

The first beta release of pixlr photo express is done *yay*. Give it a go @ http://pixlr.com/express and tell me what you think, what's good what's bad etc .. you know the drill!
The thought behind this application is that people with low experience from desktop photo editors still will be able to do basic and cool (Tilt-shift!) stuff to their photos.

I made it thinking of all the things you users love in the image editor, first of all its just about 55kb small(!) witch means that it loads like a sun of a gun! It has the same API as the image editor so it's a perfect partner for CMS and blogging systems.

Just added all the stuff i had laying around, will add more "panels" with effects and stuff in the future.

Love to hear from you all!

oh so long ago :)

It's been a while since my last post .. no I've not gone to vacation ;) just been occupied with two great news for pixlr ..

Here is a sneak peak on what some express time has gone into:

The other new feature for the image editor I will keep a while .. oh oh it's so great!

Cheeeeeeers!

日本の最高の写真を編集する

Just added three new languages Czech, Korean and Japanese.

Now pixlr is available in 18 language!

Big thanx to Martin Loužecký and David Smeaton

:)