Author Topic: Notestudio - BETA  (Read 1264 times)

Lucky Clan

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Notestudio - BETA
on: December 20, 2024, 10:09:37 AM
The beta version of our new iOS app, Notestudio, is now available to everyone! Notestudio is a minimalist note-taking app built on our cutting-edge ArtKit graphics engine and ArtUI UI library. We’re planning to port Artstudio Pro to ArtKit/ArtUI soon.
https://testflight.apple.com/join/adzHmR32

Waiting for your feedback! I promise to reply to all questions here immediately!

Icezimy

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #1 on: December 20, 2024, 06:32:02 PM
What will be the benefits/differences for Artstudio Pro once it's ported to the new graphics engine?

PhoenixDragoon

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #2 on: December 20, 2024, 10:20:53 PM
How long will it take to port Artstudio?

Notestudio seems good so far, does it also have iCloud support? Maybe having a text tool option would be good? Also a way to detect and correct grammar 🤔

Lucky Clan

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #3 on: December 21, 2024, 02:40:10 PM
What will be the benefits/differences for Artstudio Pro once it's ported to the new graphics engine?

1. We wrote ArtKit engine from scratch, in pure Swift, while Artstudio Pro is written in obj-c. Here is the list of advantages:
- it is in pure Swift and supports both OpenGL and Metal, so it will be possible to make Artstudio for Windows / Android, but don't expect that soon
- faster - because Swift is faster than objc)
- faster and more memory efficient - we had a lot of experience from Artstudio so we made many thing in a different, more efficient way
- we separated stroke processing from other things so we have better control on stroke stabilization / smoothing / dynamics etc, we may add more options in brush editor
- we implemented texture compressing so the memory usage will be lower and it will improve performance in large documents (a lot of layer, big dimension) because it will first compress layer data on low memory, then save it to disk if there is still no free memory
- besides we learnt a lot of things when working on a new engine and on Notestudio which is vector based app

2. We switched to SwiftUI in Notestudio and wrote separate framework for the UI - ArtUI. It will improve UI a lot
- we made draggable panel mechanism (used in Notestudio), we are going to use it in Artstudio too
- SwiftUI has better support of localizations, light/dark mode, controls refreshing, small animation here and there etc

Things in iOS are changing very fast. To make Artstudio alive we had to make really big steps every few year. First Artstudio was released in 2010, then rewritten almost from scratch in about 2015, then rewritten almost from scratch again in 2019 and released as Artstudio Pro, it seems it's time for the next big step...

Lucky Clan

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #4 on: December 21, 2024, 02:59:50 PM
How long will it take to port Artstudio?

Notestudio seems good so far, does it also have iCloud support? Maybe having a text tool option would be good? Also a way to detect and correct grammar 🤔

I think it may take about a year.

Notestudio - we are working on synchronization through iCloud, and iCloud backup. They will be available in version 1.0.

Text tool - yes, it is the main missing feature in Notestudio, we will add it in version 1.1.

Grammar correction - today we need a kind of AI to do it well. As we are in the time of AI revolution we will rather not spend too much time on that. Fortunately Apple added "Apple Intelligence" in iOS 18.1 with tools like "Writing Tools" which allow to fix written texts. It is support on any "text field" in any app, so we will make it work in Notestudio text tool too.

PhoenixDragoon

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #5 on: December 21, 2024, 06:17:43 PM
How long will it take to port Artstudio?

Notestudio seems good so far, does it also have iCloud support? Maybe having a text tool option would be good? Also a way to detect and correct grammar 🤔

I think it may take about a year.

Notestudio - we are working on synchronization through iCloud, and iCloud backup. They will be available in version 1.0.

Text tool - yes, it is the main missing feature in Notestudio, we will add it in version 1.1.

Grammar correction - today we need a kind of AI to do it well. As we are in the time of AI revolution we will rather not spend too much time on that. Fortunately Apple added "Apple Intelligence" in iOS 18.1 with tools like "Writing Tools" which allow to fix written texts. It is support on any "text field" in any app, so we will make it work in Notestudio text tool too.


A year? Dang lol

So next year ArtStudio will only have bug fixing and what not and no new features then? I’m guessing. 🤔

Very excited to see what is coming from Notestudio and Artstudio! Been a heavy user of Artstudio for years now. And you guys deliver great experiences with your app (:

Anyway happy holidays 😉👍

Lucky Clan

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #6 on: December 22, 2024, 06:19:55 AM
Yea,we will rather not publish new features before switch to new engine.

I’d be happy to learn what we should take from Notestudio from the testers ;)


Pikachu

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #7 on: December 22, 2024, 07:53:48 PM
Wow, a new engine is exciting to hear.

Currently I believe Artstudio has the best brush engine out of any program in the app store by a mile, especially when it comes to importing and displaying photoshop brushes. So I hope the new engine doesn't mean the dynamics and current feel will change too much.

Lucky Clan

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #8 on: December 23, 2024, 08:39:10 AM
We will keep all options from current brush system and abr import

And i'm going to add few more, like color brush stamps
Color brush stamps gives a lot of options - like great looking 3d strokes.

MisuzuisbetterthanTomo

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #9 on: December 24, 2024, 09:48:37 PM
I love the idea of Notestudio, but it very much feels incomplete for something that is a 0.9 build.
- Janky scrolling (no inertia and have to first zoom to pan around)
- No individual page setting
- No option to import a custom page background
- No search
- No bookmarks
- No export option for individual pages

Not important but nice to have stuff:
- Please add accent colors like Art Studio Pro

Don’t get me wrong I’m still getting this app when it comes out because I am in the market for a new note taking app.
Last Edit: December 24, 2024, 09:50:40 PM by MisuzuisbetterthanTomo

Lucky Clan

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #10 on: December 25, 2024, 12:19:57 PM
Thanks for your suggestion, it is very helpful.

Export of individual pages - it is available from Pages panel.

Scrolling has intertia if you use two fingers. Did you mean bouncing? Or maybe scrolling using trackpad?

The rest - we will consider adding them, in version 1.0 or 1.1

I love the idea of Notestudio, but it very much feels incomplete for something that is a 0.9 build.
- Janky scrolling (no inertia and have to first zoom to pan around)
- No individual page setting
- No option to import a custom page background
- No search
- No bookmarks
- No export option for individual pages

Not important but nice to have stuff:
- Please add accent colors like Art Studio Pro

Don’t get me wrong I’m still getting this app when it comes out because I am in the market for a new note taking app.

MisuzuisbetterthanTomo

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #11 on: December 25, 2024, 06:10:58 PM
Oh yeah I meant from the trackpad. Also I did not know about the individual page exporting, maybe make it clearer by calling it “export page” rather than print? Thanks for the reassurance though, I’ve been wanting to rewrite my notes in a different app for a while now. Went from Goodnotes to Element Notes then back to Goodnotes because Element Notes is kinda buggy, really smooth when it works though.

Pikachu

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #12 on: December 27, 2024, 11:09:38 PM
I tried it out, here is some feedback

-After undoing with two finger tap there is a pretty annoyingly large window where you can't draw immediately after. This doesn't happen if you use the buttons on the bottom left

-the manual brush adjustment option is pretty buggy, sometimes trying to draw after adjusting the brush size moves the page, sometimes it draws, and if it draws then sometimes undoing afterwards crashes the app

 

Icezimy

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #13 on: January 03, 2025, 09:43:20 AM
What will be the benefits/differences for Artstudio Pro once it's ported to the new graphics engine?

1. We wrote ArtKit engine from scratch, in pure Swift, while Artstudio Pro is written in obj-c. Here is the list of advantages:
- it is in pure Swift and supports both OpenGL and Metal, so it will be possible to make Artstudio for Windows / Android, but don't expect that soon
- faster - because Swift is faster than objc)
- faster and more memory efficient - we had a lot of experience from Artstudio so we made many thing in a different, more efficient way
- we separated stroke processing from other things so we have better control on stroke stabilization / smoothing / dynamics etc, we may add more options in brush editor
- we implemented texture compressing so the memory usage will be lower and it will improve performance in large documents (a lot of layer, big dimension) because it will first compress layer data on low memory, then save it to disk if there is still no free memory
- besides we learnt a lot of things when working on a new engine and on Notestudio which is vector based app

2. We switched to SwiftUI in Notestudio and wrote separate framework for the UI - ArtUI. It will improve UI a lot
- we made draggable panel mechanism (used in Notestudio), we are going to use it in Artstudio too
- SwiftUI has better support of localizations, light/dark mode, controls refreshing, small animation here and there etc

Things in iOS are changing very fast. To make Artstudio alive we had to make really big steps every few year. First Artstudio was released in 2010, then rewritten almost from scratch in about 2015, then rewritten almost from scratch again in 2019 and released as Artstudio Pro, it seems it's time for the next big step...


All of that sounds very exciting, but especially that it will be even faster and that bigger documents will perform better! Can’t wait to see what the future of Artstudio Pro will bring and also what new features will be available :D

Will some of the longer requested features, e.g. color coded layers, clipping mask for groups, etc. be released together with the new graphics engine, or will the new engine come first and then other new features after?

I also wonder if the draggable panels might decrease or limit the amount of tools that can be put into the tool bar right now? (Hopefully not) Also probably an option somewhere in the settings to reset the panels to “default position” and an option to “lock” them in place, so you can’t accidentally move them while drawing, would make sense.

And please whatever you guys do, please never add any kind generative AI tools to Artstudio😅🙏

Thanks for all the hard work, Artstudio Pro has been my main painting program for years and it’s the best! 😊
Last Edit: January 03, 2025, 09:45:28 AM by Icezimy

Lucky Clan

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Re: Notestudio - BETA
Reply #14 on: January 07, 2025, 03:39:48 AM
Generative tools / AI are not planned. However you should know that current Edit > Inpaint is a very basic of generative fill - the difference is that it is searching for content in current image only, and AI generative fill is searching in mulitple images...

Draggable panels - of course we want to keep option to add custom tools, and we will have to make panels not only draggable, but also resizable. Panel system will be extended for new artstudio. And resizing option is on the first place of planned improvements.

Using groups as clipping mask - it is rather not possible to make such option directly because there would be unexpected results for Group using "Passthrough" blending mode. Besides we don't want to break PS compatibility. The plan is implementing "Smart Object" option, so you can convert group to smart object and then use it as Clipping Mask. Smart Object doesn't support "Passthrough" blending, it is treated rather like normal Layer with option to edit it content.

We want to work on all changes together to save time - i mean the big update will have both new UI, new engine and new features.

One more thing we want to change is the file system. Now we use iCloud Documents (like Pages / Numbers). Unfortunately it has very old system bug and sometimes you can see "Saving Problem" alert, mainly when working on large files. I reported that to Apple, but it was ignored. I'm sure the bug comes from system because i can easily repeat it in Pages / Numbers, i even repeated the during live conversation with Apple, with iPad screen sharing. Of course the only advice I had was "please reported the bug in our bug reporting tool - feedbackassistant.apple.com". I did that on March 2023 and have never receive any feedback. I'm not sure if anybody from Apple has ever read it...
So the only solution is to resign from iCloud Document and implement custom gallery, probably with option to synchronize using CloudKit. Documents will be stored on local disk, and will not be visible in Files anymore.
The open problem is how to make a transition from iCloud Documents to custom gallery... Maybe we will have to release new version as a separate app however i'm not sure if it is possible to keep full version for users who have already bought Artstudio Pro.