phrase.it

Creative

photo editing

SHOW HN2013

phrase.it

my useless weekend project, add speech bubbles to images

phrase.it

#speech bubbles#photo editor#image captions#meme maker

225points
95comments
#58of 1,739 in 2013
Top 4%of 2013 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

39 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 12 critical, out of 75 comments about the project. Thread score +0.38.

Idea: 20 for, 1 againstExecution: 4 for, 8 againstDesign: 5 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Fun, simple and quick to use

    From 4 comments
    • >> Add cartoon style speech bubbles to photos within minutes I think you are underselling here... I don't think you'd be lying if you said "in seconds". I can't imagine any…
      arscan on HN
    • I concur. It took me maybe 10-20 seconds, because it's very intuitive to use and I don't have to upload to give it a try. Plus, the site has no loading issues, which is rarer…
      kaybe on HN
    • simple idea, beautifully made, love it!
      joren on HN
    • This is fun and works nicely.
      Gobitron on HN
  • Not useless; good learning project

    From 3 comments
    • It's sad that people call their little/fun projects useless. I just used your project and thought it was awesome. And even the worst project ever is useful for you. It's how you…
      kurtvarner on HN
    • Exactly this. If the op learned anything at all from this project I would argue that it is in fact far from useless. Great job on setting a goal and creating something, op!
      thisisdallas on HN
    • This is pretty awesome. A friend of mine wanted me to look into doing something exactly like this. And this is definitely not useless. Great job!
      bryanjos on HN
  • Business or viral potential

    From 3 comments
    • I think this could actually have utility in a business setting: many folks doing presentations, newsletters, etc... don't have image software (or the know-how) to create this…
      mijustin on HN
    • Very cool and lots of business potential. My nephew loves to 'make' comics. I can see parents uploading their kids drawing and adding speech bubbles.
      qxf2 on HN
    • facebook would love this
      jaequery on HN

Objections

  • Showed NSFW random images

    From 4 comments
    • It can fetch images that may not be safe for work. I had to immediately close the window. Will check out in the evening after work.
      sushantsharma on HN
    • This loaded a fairly NSFW random image when I tried it. Sort of uncool.
      kevincennis on HN
    • same here as well. It did find a random image that was not safe for work. Please do add a warning somewhere above.
      mind_heist on HN
    • for god's sake .. add a nsfw tag for the auto generated pics ... not cool man
      gokulk on HN
  • Cannot add CJKV characters or more fonts

    From 2 comments
    • Unfortunately, I can't add Japanese character for this. It seems that this application don't have CJKV fonts.
      Inetgate on HN
    • Turn this into a Facebook app that lets you make comics and it could be big. Also, add some more fonts ;)
      instakill on HN
  • Cancel flow forces restarting to skip an image

    From 1 comment
    • I've tried it 10 times, and have only been given two different images to work with. I suggest- A: more images B: a faster, more intuitive way to skip an image, rather than…
      fastball on HN

Requests

  • Facebook app or social integration

    From 4 comments
    • Why don't you create a facebook app for this? It could be quite viral if you give it a shot...
      dfgonzalez on HN
    • This is simple enough to catch on with the tweeny Facebook crowd. Make is more SOCIAL NETWORK and with luck it may go viral.
      sergiotapia on HN
    • You could add an option to select a photo from one of my existing albums on Facebook, make changes on top of it and then upload it back to Facebook as a new image. Nice…
      alagappanr on HN
    • Turn this into a Facebook app that lets you make comics and it could be big. Also, add some more fonts ;)
      instakill on HN
  • More images or a next-image button

    From 2 comments
    • I've tried it 10 times, and have only been given two different images to work with. I suggest- A: more images B: a faster, more intuitive way to skip an image, rather than…
      fastball on HN
    • Good point about the cancel button! Once i find more pictures i can put to the stock i'll definitively add a "next image" button.
      chezmo on HN
  • Pull photos from Instagram, Flickr or webcam

    From 2 comments
    • Simple and nice. I would suggest adding a third option to take a photo from webcam.
      ya3r on HN
    • Either webcam or from Instagram/Facebook/Flickr, like Picplum does.
      MasterScrat on HN
  • Embeddable image links and imgur upload

    From 3 comments
    • Yes, I think it has potential. It could also be nice to be able to directly embed the image in forums, so have a direct link to the image (might also be useful for reddit ?). I…
      Gmo on HN
    • I agree, this isn't useless. I know my mom used to buy stick-on thought bubbles to put on pictures of her kids in baby books and such. If she wanted to do that now she's have to…
      nvr219 on HN
    • I think reddit would go crazy for this sort of stuff. In fact, have it load images from imgur. Also, nice work.
      orangethirty on HN

Questions

  • What technology stack was used and is it open source?

    From 3 comments
    • actually its quite usefull project. Do you know. we can use this for campaign like we love Iran. http://www.weloveiran.org/ can you share the techonology stack or how its built.…
      sandeepeecs on HN
    • @chezmo I'd love to see a write up on the technology stack used for this project!
      Pezmc on HN
    • Good work. What did you use to build it?
      bharad on HN
  • How the final image is rendered

    From 1 comment

Alternatives named

  • Comic Life desktop app

    From 1 comment
    • If anyone’s looking for something like this but more flexible, the $30 desktop app Comic Life (http://comiclife.com/) also lets you add speech bubbles to images, as well as…
      roryokane on HN
  • Mustachify

    From 1 comment
    • Before clicking, I thought as though it would be like http://mustachify.me/ with a prompt/variable to render the bubble text.
      hashtree on HN
  • Bubbleshare

    From 1 comment
    • Some useless weekend projects are worth big money! There was a company called bubbleshare built around this feature a few years back. It was acquired by a company called Kaboose…
      kitcar on HN
  • Picplum

    From 1 comment

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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