Vlasta's blog

Download sites considered harmful

Few days ago, I have visited some of the more well known download sites to see how my software is doing or read an occasional review left there by a happy/unhappy user. I was horrified. Virtually all download sites are overloaded with ads and, what is worse, many of them mislead users to download and install adware instead of the software they actually wanted.

Google+ authorship

As many of you know, there are 3 contact fields on your profile pages. They allow you to connect your rw-designer profile with your other profiles on the internet. If you have a Google+ profile, connecting it correctly may have an additional advantage for you.

Early preview of the next RWIE

It has been almost 3 years since the last version of RealWorld Icon Editor was published. I would very much like to release an update, but I am not there yet. While the support for vector layers is now complete, I also want to have 3D layers in the next RWIE and it is going to take some more time to get them right.

No change really

We live in an age, where information rules. There is a lot of useful bits of info out there, but there is even more noise. Rw-designer.com is much smaller than the whole world, but it may still be difficult to not miss any of the useful bits and not be distracted by the noise. The problem is of course in the definition of useful and noise as every person has their own interests.

Latest WEBP codec supported in RealWorld Paint

Google's WEBP reached 0.3.0 - Mozilla still unconvinced. Although I am a WEBP fan, I perfectly understand Mozilla's position. The Google's image format is still new and rough. Neither the specification nor the libwebp are ready to be widely used. I just spent a couple of days integrating the latest version of libwebp into my freeware image editor and here is a summary of my experiences.

User icons on the People tab

I have made a slight change to the People section of this web site. You can now see icons of users (if they have an approved icon). Another addition is the Subscribe button, which allows you to watch what the people you select are doing (blogging, posting icon or cursor sets).

Future of RealWorld Paint

"I must simplify RWPaint, no new features, it is too big already." That's what I keep telling, but it does not work. I just cannot overcome my nature, 'cause this one new function would be so cool and I simply must add it to the software. Oh, well.

Deleting your sets

In the past months, multiple icon and cursor authors have asked me why they cannot delete their own sets and wished there were a button for this. Today, there is a solution. Sort of.

Rise of the cursors

Hooray! The cursor library here on rw-designer is now #1 on Google when searching for "cursors". This is good news for every cursor author, because their creations will be seen and downloaded by more people. It took the effort of numerous cursor authors, reviewers and fans and long 7 years to reach that #1 spot and I want to use this opportunity to express my thankfulness to all of them.

Beta 2 of RWPaint available

The release of the next RWPaint is one step closer and you can get your hands on a newer preview right now.

Closer to PSD

Importing of PSD images is one of the most important functions of RealWorld Paint. The current version does a relatively good job importing raster layers, including some of the layer styles. Although RWPaint will never be able to import every PSD without losing anything, an improvement is planned for the next version.

The end of colors

There is one thing every image editor has - a color picker. In a lot of cases, it occupies a premium place in the application window and is always visible. But here is a curious observation: the older the image editor, the smaller the color picker.

I still can't develop for tablets

The last couple of days was full of tablet news. First, Microsoft released its Surface with Windows RT and then Google announced the Nexus 10 tablet with latest Android. They are both very nice products, possibly powerful enough to run a scaled-down version of my image editing software. And I would love it if my software worked on tablets, but sadly it is not going to happen in the near future. Here is why.

Colors are forever

There is something about image editors and color pickers. Every image editor on the planet has at least one, some have more than one. Yet, despite the obvious necessity of color selection widget, there is no ideal solution. Maybe the quest for the perfect color picker will never end.

If I were a TV manufacturer

I have an empty place on a wall where a TV set should be. I just can't find the right TV, all of them have these obvious flaws I just can't stand.

Google trouble

You have probably noticed that the ads served by Google on the pages in the Gallery section disappeared 3 days ago. These ads have been bringing a little money and helped to keep the site running. Now the ads are gone and Google does not seem to like rw-designer anymore. So, until the situation is resolved, you'll see a very different kind of ads. Ads that are not really ads.

The first tentacle

Supporting vector layers in the next RWPaint is only half of the solution. Sure, you can draw your vector pictures, rasterize them and save them as PNGs, but wouldn't it be better if there were a more direct way to interact with the outside world?

Slightly better Polygon

The Polygon tool will be a bit better in the future version of RWPaint and other RW apps.

To help you get started with your user icon, I have uploaded a new tutorial that makes use of the new features in beta version of RWPaint. Enjoy.

User icons changing

As you may have noticed, that gray icon displayed to the left of all user comments is finally gone. Replaced by another gray icon. That's what I call progress.