Sketchpad (alpha)

admin March 2, 2008

Welcome to the preview of Sketchpad. Though not all browsers support <canvas> we’re working hard to extend support before our official release. Until then, you lucky FireFox users (download Firefox) will be able to kick the tires and hold the wheel of what we believe will become the new standard in Web-authoring.

Sketchpad uses the little-known <canvas> tag to provide users and publishers with full control over the presentational qualities of their work. Directly accessing vector graphics, the <canvas> tag gives publishers real-access to their users’ display. The <canvas> tag will be available in HTML 5.0. In the meantime, we’re working to extend support to Internet Explorer, and working on compatibilty with Safari/WebKit’s javascript layers.

In the late 90’s, Macromedia released flash 7.0, using Actionscript. This allowed web developers to incorporate advanced graphics and programming into their website. Unfortunately, flash files are difficult to edit and require browser-side plugins. This proprietary format has never-the-less, received wide acclaim and usage over the years. Canvas is something new. With canvas, programming is handled in plain Javascript. Developers and users are given a simple way to manage their interactive programs. Further, canvas is a simple vector programming interface. Whether you’re using a mobile phone or a wide screen display, your Canvas webpages are guarenteed to be crisp, clear and responsive.

Apps HTML5, Sketchpad

Sketchpad 4.0

admin June 17, 2016

I’m excited to announce Sketchpad 4.0! The focuses on this release has making the app more colorful, faster, and easier to use.

Here’s an overview of what’s new:

Stroke/Fill is available on all brushes.
VectorFill replaces Floodfill for crisper edges and much faster rendering! This can lead to some fun by importing an SVG into Sketchpad, re-coloring it, and download it back as an SVG (right click to download!).
Linear gradient editor
Radial gradient editor
Text updates with special thanks to OpenType.js & some inspiration from FitText! Editing text now feels very smooth. Additionally these new features are available:
1. Font Size is automatically set based on textarea dimensions
2. Bold, Italic, Underline & Stroke styles
3. Align Left, Center, Right & Justify
4. Line Height & Letter Spacing
Crop has been merged with the Resize tool making life simpler. What’s better the crop tool now automatically zooms your viewport to fit so you can see your entire document while cropping.
Your library view has been updated with a more robust & spacious interface, along with more obvious buttons for renaming, duplicating, and removing documents.
High-res export now works on all tool and style combinations!
New auto-save UI allows you to disable the ‘auto-saving’ feature. This is helpful especially on large documents with thousands of layers that may take awhile to autosave. Although, to that end, auto-saving is much faster in the new version.
And finally you’ll find an export button right on the toolbar for all those who requested it!
Special thanks to jsondiffpatch which is now used in Sketchpad’s history.

There are a couple things that could not be 100% converted to the new version Sketchpad. You may want to consider whether these matter to you before upgrading your files (you will be prompted). My apologies for any inconvenience these may cause you:

FloodFill was depreciated. It just did not make sense to keep in. It cost too much to maintain, it was notorious for crashing users browsers. Sketchpad is a vector app, so a bitmap FloodFill never made sense. The new VectorFill replaces the FloodFill, and the results are much nicer!
LinearGradient format needed to be upgraded in order support the new Gradient Editor, in doing so LinearGradients may shift slightly.

If for any reason you’d like to use the older version of Sketchpad you can find it at its new permanent URL: https://sketch.io/sketchpad-3.7.6/

Or better yet, check out the latest!

https://sketch.io/sketchpad/

Apps Sketchpad

C.A.R.D.S. Project

admin October 19, 2015

I was recently asked to create artwork for the C.A.R.D.S. Project. Chris & John gave me no restrictions, and only one task: Create something interesting that fits on a 3.5 x 2.0 business card. For me, this was a dream project and an exciting excuse to play around with some generative algorithms!

My goal was to create an ‘ocean scene’. To do this I used Perlin noise vector fields, bezier curves, and color cycling. The ‘creatures’ or ‘waves’ are grown based on randomized parameters such as ‘width’, ‘length’ and ‘color’. The parameters change over time; some linearly, while others are mapped to cosine/sine waves and easing functions (this resulted in a more organic feeling).

I ended up submitting 250 unique cards to the project. Each card is composed of 10-frames and took 1-2 minutes to generate. Many were thrown out in the process! From there the cards were sent to GifPop for lenticular printing.

Here’s a few of my favorites (the squid in the first image is by Justin Windle):