Gravit - Official Announcement

[gravit]

Hello all,

I'd like to officially announce Gravit, a design tool goaled towards print as well as screen design and event prototyping in the Spirit of Freehand and Fireworks.

We've recently published an early alpha version which you can try online by going to

http://www.gravit.io

As you can see, the following features are implemented and working closely / equal to Freehand and / or Fireworks:

- Multiple Pages
- RGB, CMYK colors in same document
- Path Tool
- Bezigon Tool
- Path Editing
- Ellipse Editor
- Rectangle Editor
- more

Have a look at it and let us know what you think

Alex

[FFH Mark]

Posted this on FFHs Twitter today.

https://twitter.com/FreeFreeHand

[Bertrude]

@ gravit

Thanks for posting the links to the beta in the Affinity thread. I'm sorry you've felt that the support for Gravit has been dwindling but I'm sure a public Beta will help reignite people's passions and allow people to feel involved, just don't ask us to choose a name . I wasn't even aware of the private Beta.

I've downloaded the Mac version as I would much prefer to work locally on an app rather than use my browser. I will endeavour to post my thoughts here (I don't want to create a GitHub account thanks).

First impressions (apologies if these are already known):

• 'CMD +' doesn't work to zoom in.
• No rulers/guides.
• Colours always default to RGB - frustrating if working on a CMYK document. I think I find Freehand's swatches palette much easier/flexible to use. I could create the colours I needed for a job (whether they be Spot, CMYK or RGB) and simply drag them to desired shapes using a key combo to choose the type of fill. Or I could drag them to the line or fill box at the top of the swatch palette. Your current method results in more clicking - draw object, select colour, open mixer, change to cmyk, mix colour etc. Draw new object and do it all again. I might be approaching it wrong at this stage but it seems a bit long winded.
• No spot colours or Pantone library - absolutely essential for print designers and something often missing from the various vector apps available. This would heavily influence my choice in software.
• I tried to drag a style from one object to another and it resulted in a crash. The crash window won't even let me copy the error text to show here. Please see attachment 'gravit-crash-01'.
• Backspace key doesn't delete.
• Delete key deletes but sometimes causes crash (see 'gravit-crash-02' attachment).
• Pen drawing doesn't work quite as expected. It might be down to node recognition but in Freehand I'd be drawing a shape and press alt and click on the last placed node to turn it into a sharp point before continuing the shape. Gravit seems to have trouble with this, creating extra paths (see underside of shape in 'gravit-example-01' attachment and the extra lines protruding out).
• Limited text control, kerning etc. CMD + A won't select all text once in text mode.

These are some basic things I've noticed with a little playing about, I hope they help in some way.

It's running on a 2011 iMac with OSX 10.6.8.

I'd like to spend some more time with it later and will be very interested in the public beta. I hope it's developing nicely.

EDIT: Additional observations

Freehand had the ability to move an object with Space key depressed whilst drawing. You could drag out an ellipse for instance then press space to move it. Let go of space and you can continue to drag/shape the object. I kind of do this by default and such a function would help make Gravit feel more like Freehand.

[gravit]

Thanks for the feedback. Some of those issues have already been addressed in the forthcoming beta 3

[ricardobmotta]

Hello from Brazil to all,

I'm new member in this Forum, but an old Freehand user looking for solutions and possibilities to use other great tool. It's nice to know about Gravit! I'll test it to bring more questions.

About old buddy Freehand, if necessary I can help with instructions in Portuguese.

See you!