this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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TL;DR:

Semple, a multi-disciplinary British artist, promised to build “a brand new suite of world-class design and photography tools, with an uncanny similarity to the tools you’ve been indoctrinated in.”

“There’s a really urgent need for a suite of creative tools for creators that they actually own rather than rent. In a way, this first started when Adobe and Pantone decided to paywall the Pantone colors and I created Freetone — which was a free color plugin so creators could continue to access their palette,” he says.

“I have lawyers, and I’ve taken advice. We have solid plans in place. I would also point out that nobody has seen the final branding and no software that infringes on any of Adobe’s trademarks has been produced,”

“I have successfully challenged IP owned by Tiffany and Co, Pantone, Mattel, and others over the years. I feel we have a good and thorough understanding of where the legal line is and an ability to get as close to that as possible without overstepping it.”

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[–] [email protected] 240 points 1 year ago (20 children)

I'm highly sceptical of this shipping in a state that can compete with Adobe at the end of it all. The branding itself is asking for trouble, which is just plain stupid if you are serious about long-term and sustainable development of the whole suite, and 180k is not enough to even put together a competent alternative to Illustrator, not to mention Photoshop and InDesign.

And before people start claiming that you can fund this by outsourcing to Eastern Europe / India etc, please bear in mind that you usually get what you pay for. A competent developer with enough experience to actually make this happen won't come cheap, and opportunistic juniors with big ambitions won't deliver.

I wish this project all the luck it can get, but I'm personally banking on Graphite and Inkscape from the FOSS world and Affinity suite from (as of yet) less corpo commercial offerings.

[–] [email protected] 149 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Case in point. I’m still waking up and thought that said adobe is taking on adobe

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Same, actually! And that happened even after I had my morning coffee too.

I especially like how “legal issues” is not even in “Risks and challenges” section on Kickstarter.

What can possibly go wrong?

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It took until reading your comment and then going back to check the title again for me to realise it didn’t say Adobe twice.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Just to add in here, a few years back I decided to make a project to cut adobe out of my life.

I wanted to start by giving all the FOSS tools a go first.

In the end, I decided none of them were up to scratch. Inkscape is clunky AF, gimp is a PITA, darktable was pretty clunky but usable.

In any case I landed on the affinity suite for a PS, Illustrator, and InDesign alternative, and I got very cheap / free versions of Skylum Luminar for Lightroom although that's going to shit with every release.

DaVinchi for video editing. Not yet found a competent replacement for AE.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

and opportunistic juniors with big ambitions won’t deliver.

Have you ever heard about photopea.com? Made by ONE guy.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've never heard of that project, looks pretty cool! To be clear, I do not say that "one guy" cannot possibly make great software. Passion projects are a thing. What differentiates them from the Abode situation, in my opinion, is that passion projects rarely have strict deadlines and paying backers who expect software that is Adobe-level in terms of quality and polish in a roughly 1 year.

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[–] [email protected] 123 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Took me 3 reads to notice that ABODE is not ADOBE

Maybe I'm a little dyslexic after 8 hours of work.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bruh, till I read this I was so confused, like Adobe is taking on Adobe? lol, what?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought the article was going to be about a trademark dispute, lol.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Jesus Christ thank you. I thought I had a stroke.

[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 year ago (5 children)

tfw dyslexic people trying to read this post

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Affinity is available today. The products are great, the pricing is reasonable, and it is not subscription based.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (9 children)

If I depend on yours software to work, I'm not willing to pay a subscription. Period.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (1 children)

as a dyslexic person I had to read that 6 times to see the difference.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

I'm not dyslexix, and I didn't realize the issue until I saw your comment.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think he'll just deliver some reskinned FOSS projects at best.

Its one thing to make a color chart, its a whole other thing to make all of Adobe.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This wouldn't be a bad thing. If someone had the money and time to alter GIMPs interface and layer handling to work more like PS and reduce the learning curve, it would be very nice.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He says it will be closed source on the kickscammer page

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So ultimately the goal is to just lock people into his own ecosystem. Nice.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Well Stuart Semple is someone who has generally been quite reliable in what he does and a fairly prominent artist, so he presumably understands how the Adobe tools work. He probably doesn't have the technical know-how on how to build it. The article mentions that it's a team of sixteen people right now without the funding presumably.

I mean the worst case is they pick an existing project like gimp, krita, darktable or inkscape and brings in enough features to Adobe parity. That isn't a bad outcome at all.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This article confirmed I’m still dyslexic

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I read the title 10 times and was still confused until I saw your comment. And I'm not even dyslexic.

Or am i...?

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

One of my many gripes with Inkscape is the steep learning curve. If this new application fixes it, I'd see myself using it as long as I don't have to rent the software.

Till then, Inkscape all the way.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Inkscape is one of the better open source UIs IMO. There's a lot to learn about vector vs raster graphics but that's not the fault of Inkscape.

Gimp took a while to figure out.

Blender has got the be one of the steepest learning curves out there though. Not that the UI for Blender is bad. It's just that there are 5-6 different sections and each section is like learning a new app. It's huge and does everything.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Agreed. Why does FOSS feel like they have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to UI. Just take what people know and run with it. It's literally the same functions (Béziers, splines, etc)

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

how about working with already existing adobe alternatives and help get them better

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

He's right, Adobe's grip on users is bullshit. I just doubt that he's gonna be the guy to fix it.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

Kinda off topic but the title of this post made me think; Do you think Adobe HQ is referred to as the “Abode”?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, it's that guy. The "Semple vs Kapoor" stuff was funny.

Before I recognized who was doing "abode" I was going to say that name was just asking for trouble, but yeah, he knew what he was doing.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I kind of wish he'd just raise money for or contribute to existing FOSS Adobe alternatives that are still feature-lacking.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

It's not FOSS but I've been using Photopea since I ditched Adobe years ago, it's a decent alternative.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Color me skeptical

The Foss community already tried for years. And the gap is widening even more thanks to AI.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Speak for yourself. GIMP rules, and DaVinci Resolve (not OSS, but still free) does just fine.

Fuck Adobe.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Does anyone else think this will go to court over copyright infringement? Purposefully similar name and same industry.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Poor timing in light of the recent Supreme Court Ruling. Stupid name, stupid decision, all of that Kickstarter money essentially gone.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Oh look, i dropped my 🏴‍☠️

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately I think the name is kinda poor. I get why they named it but the SEO is always going to be bad against Adobe.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Great idea, but the money they have is barely enough to make a dent in the development scope they are aiming for.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How can you even take them serious when their name is literally "Abode"?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Adobe are awful. I hope they go soon and bring their shitty Reader in the same way Flash went.

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