Explaining Sketch and DrawIt
Many people asked me after the Sketch announcement what will happen to DrawIt and why I made them into two applications instead of one. Let me explain that.
Is DrawIt now dead?
Absolutely not. DrawIt is in fact very distinct from Sketch and I hope both will coexist happily. Both will continue to be updated.
Then what’s the difference?
DrawIt is vector based but with bitmap effects on top of that. That means that if you zoom in, your document will look pixely. Having these bitmap effects allows us to do the neat stuff with double shadows etc.
Sketch on the other hand is entirely vector based and it has only those effects that make sense in a vector environment. There are less effects available but the application is a lot more flexible and really a lot faster.
Why are there two apps?
At first, we worked on integrating a vector ‘mode’ in DrawIt we added a big switch that decided how your document would be rendered; pixels or vectors.
This was a bad idea. Apart from making the application more bulky and adding complexity, it just didn’t make sense. The unique thing about DrawIt is its idea of stackable filters letting you both arrange the order in which they are rendered, and add multiple effects if the same kind.
Both these were impossible in vector mode; you cannot add multiple shadows and a different rendering order also made no sense.
Instead we put it into a separate application. One that should be focused on vector editing alone. During that time I was really on a minimalist approach and I deleted everything from the UI that was not needed to be in view at all times. I was left with blank window, and I absolutely loved it. I hope you will agree with me.
James Gill
This should really help people understand the differences – DrawIt feels much more like it does everything I need for web design – building nice pixel perfect icons and buttons etc, while Sketch seems to be what Illustrator will never be – a lightweight vector tool that has everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Both apps are fantastic, and both are well and truly glued to my dock.
Keep up the awesome work you’re doing – it’s brilliant.
Balint Fulop
I undertsand your logic, but make sure you don’t get caught up in the implementation model vs. mental model.
As a user I would like to have both and in one app possibly: easily work with vectors and the possibility to apply filters to my shapes.
It’s just more logical for the workflow and the kind of work i do every day: web design and illustrations for web sites.
Pieter Omvlee
The problem in fact was not the implementation model, but the mental model; stacking and rearranging makes no sense in vector environment; users would drag-reorder, add multiple shadows and nothing would happen.
It sounds like you would use DrawIt instead of Sketch because you need filters; no problem.
vineet
This is a very good software for students to enjoy with fonts.
vineet
vineet
Now the time for write in good manner with this font.
vineet (Dalmianagar) INDIA
Chen Luo
Sketch vs Drawit just like Illustrator vs Fireworks.
Balint Fulop
Actually in Illustrator for example you can have several effects like stroke or dropshadow and rearrange them and it does change the appearance.
I don’t want to sound too harsh… I love your work, it’s fantastic!
Pieter Omvlee
Indeed @Chen, that’s a fitting comparison.
@Balint, I didn’t know that, but that seems not to be possible in Sketch, for one SVG does not support this.
Andy
Will Sketch use SVG natively?
I’ve been searching a lot lately for a good Mac app with native SVG… — and I can’t find one!
I’m mainly interested in designing SVGs to use in modern browsers — Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome all support SVG 1.1 now, and Internet Explorer too with Google’s SVG Javascript library.
(Google is making a big push for SVG on the web. Maybe Internet Explorer 9 will have it even natively.)
So, will Sketch offer us web designers this SVG goodness for our sites?
Pieter Omvlee
Sketch will be able to import and export to SVG to a certain degree. SVG will not be the native format though.
isralonso
Mmm, one question about DrawIt: where is the “noise” effect? I used to make some textures with this effect :S
Pieter Omvlee
@isralonso 3.9.1 just released which adds the noise effect back. Little mistake I made there. Apologies
isralonso
@Pieter Omvlee: thanks
Mike
Do you have any more room for the beta of Sketch? I would love to check it out.
Mike
Disregard my last comment. I found the link in your other post…
Stepan
I just installed 3.10.1 and can’t find the Noise effect, either. Is it gone again or am I looking in the wrong place?
Pieter Omvlee
The Noise effect is indeed gone in 3.10. The old version is incompatible with Snow Leopard. I have been working on a replacement and here is a first beta: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/93762/Noise.bundle.zip
Put this in ~/Library/Application Support/DrawIt/Plugins/Effects
Let me know how that works
Eric Santos
Hi Peter,
Congratulations on Sketch. Great software even on a beta version. Very simple and no pollution at all. Is there a place where we could post feature requests?
Pieter Omvlee
Thanks. We have our support forum at getsatisfaction.com and there’s also a section there dedicated to Sketch: http://getsatisfaction.com/bohemiancoding/products/bohemiancoding_sketch
Samuel Wejchert
I’ve tried the beta and it looks great! I just have a few questions about its release:
1) Do you have any idea when Sketch will be released?
2) Price range?
3) Will come as part of a bundle (like FontCase and DrawIt)?
Thanks!
Pieter Omvlee
1: I hope to release Sketch soon. Really soon.
2: Price range will be similar to Fontcase but there’ll be an introductory discount
3: There’ll be bundles offered with DrawIt & Sketch for example yes.
Phil Worthington
Just stumbled on DrawIt and Sketch in my search for a replacement for Adobe.. and I think you guys are really on to something. Well done! However, I’m not convinced about your decision to keep layered non-destructuve bitmap effects out of Sketch. Sketch offers design and layout flexibility that DrawIt does not, but to really make it viable as a web-design tool I think the layer effects will be critical. It’s the missing link that Adobe never figured out.. the reason web designers are torn to choose between overly flat looking designs from Illustrator, or poor vector support from Photoshop. A paradigm that merges vector and bitmap workflows effectively could position your software as the defacto web design tool for the next generation of designers. All you need to do is add the non-destructive bitmap layer effects into the Sketch workspace and you will already have a killer product.
Pieter Omvlee
I appreciate your comment. Once we add non-destructive bitmap layer effects to Sketch, we’ll basically have DrawIt. After Sketch is released I’ll get to work on DrawIt to make it work with larger documents etc, but I think designers looking for bitmap layer effects could do very well with DrawIt.
Phil Worthington
Adrian
Sketch is great, but I really need importing of SVG, and actually sketch does the import with all the layers, but I cant see the layers and I cant see the object on the layers. As soon as sketch will do that, I will buy this great app.