The developer of the free image editing tool 'Photopea' with more than 1.5 million monthly users arrives at 'Do you have a question?'

" Photopea " is a tool that runs on a web browser and allows free image editing similar to Adobe Photoshop . Leading bulletin board of overseas " Reddit specialty planning" AMA (Ask Me Anything?: What Questions) "of" the developer of Photopea appeared, from the technical stuff to everyday things, to answer a variety of questions It was.

Ask me Anything!: IAmA
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9urjmg/i_made_a_free_alternative_to_photoshop_that_is/

You can tell what kind of tool Photopea is in one shot by looking at the following article.

I tried using a multi-function tool "Photopea" which can squash the image similarly to Photoshop from the browser free of charge - GIGAZINE

◆ Q: Why did you start programming?

Mr. Ivan Kutskir's response (below):
When I was a child, I loved mathematics. Also, I was interested in technology such as machinery. Programming brought together these two worlds.

◆ Q: It was amazing that I made this at 28 years old! By the way, what languages ​​did you use to make Photopea?

answer:
Thank you! Photopea is developing with JavaScript and GLSL . However, it does not matter which programming language to use for programming.

◆ Q: How did you learn JavaScript? Are you satisfied with your code?

answer:
Thank you! It took several years because programming itself was acquired at the university. I learned JavaScript over a week in an online tutorial. Which programming language to use is not important to me, but performance is important. If there was no way to speed up the process, I would not have used JavaScript. Some parts of Photopea are very complex and ugly and are made up of functions with hundreds of digits of code. It could not be simplified over several days. I am frightened of the day I have to look into that part.

◆ Q: Well, it is interesting. Do you use the GPU calculation library?

answer:
Photopea uses the GPU via the WebGL interface. Otherwise, you can not render a 10 megapixel document with lots of layers at 60 fps. It is because it is necessary to redraw smoothly when moving a layer.

◆ Q: Where did you find the course to learn JavaScript in a week?

answer:
I learned on this site . Before learning JavaScript, I knew ActionScript and many other programming languages. However, learning JavaScript does not mean learning Web interfaces such as DOM , WebGL, and JavaScript libraries.

by Christiaan Colen

◆ Q: What is the open source library you thought useful for developing Photopea? And what was the most impressed?

answer:
I am using the JPG decompressor which is part of the PDF.js library. In addition, although I am making a library called UZIP.js by myself, I often use pako.js which is a library that compresses and decompresses data with a deletion algorithm.

◆ Q: Are there any plans to make Photopea open source?

answer:
I already published about 30% of Photopea's source code as a library on GitHub . However, I do not intend to release everything.

◆ Q: Do you develop anything other than Photopea?

answer:
Previously I was making web games . Also I did some experiments on the web. And I am also developing a JavaScript library called Ivank.js . This is a substitute for pixi.js , but as programming it is close to Adobe Flash and it can be handled easily for me.

◆ Q: Do you have something you like using your program?

answer:
I hardly use programs I made. However, if you use about 10 minutes, you can find 5 bugs.

◆ Q: Have you ever pressured Adobe Systems that developed Adobe Photoshop?

answer:
No. By keeping in touch with developers of Adobe XD , it became possible to correspond to Photopea's XD format. This function is a new one and it is still under development, but it is already implemented in Photopea. I am trying to compete with all image editing software, but at the moment Adobe Photoshop is still the most popular. That's why Photopea is eager to support PSD format files.

◆ Q: Do you have any opinions on PSD format files?

answer:
I know that everyone complains about PSD format files. If we now have to achieve an equivalent format, we will create a much simpler and better format than the PSD format. However, the fact that the foundation of PSD has not changed for thirty years is very wonderful

◆ Q: Are you still using Photoshop? Also, what are you doing for other income?

answer:
I am not a designer like Photoshop. I still use Photopea. After graduating from college, Photopea is my only income source.

◆ Q: How much income do you earn from Photopea that 1.5 million people visit in a month? I think that much of the income is spent on hosting expenses, but are you using AWS?

answer:
I am using Google AdSense and earn approximately 2 dollars (about 230 yen) per 1000 PV as revenue. For hosting we pay about $ 20 (about 2300 yen) per year. Since Photopea works perfectly on the client side, there is no need to calculate on the server side. Once Photopea.com is loaded, there is no need to communicate with the server after that, you can disconnect from the Internet and use it offline.

◆ Q: How did you get to know your website all around the world?

answer:
In March 2014, the number of visitors was about 3000 a month, but doubled every 6 months. It took many years before Photopea was known to everyone. I posted my site on my blog, Reddit, Hacker News etc. There are many fans now on Facebook and Twitter.

◆ Q: Have you contacted the company that you wanted to purchase Photopea's right?

answer:
People who wanted to purchase Photopea had several times come closer. Everyone who approached had a careful plan to make Photopea even better, but I declined thinking that there is a bigger offer in the future. Besides, at this moment I do not need much money.

◆ Q: Can Photopea work with smartphones?

answer:
I am designing Photopea to work well with all kinds of devices. In fact, 15% of Photopea users are using mobile phones. Although it can be executed from a mobile browser, I think that it is difficult to control on a small screen.

◆ Q: What is your ideal breakfast?

answer:
I finish eating cereal with milk. Because I do not want to cook. I admire people who like cooking!

Q: What do you think is the roof that is perfect for my garage?

answer:
I do not know! However, I always wonder why the garage is priced much higher than the car. Is it that the gift wrapping box is higher than the gift? That is very strange.