Hi! Hope this form of promotion is acceptable here, but if not, I'll gladly remove the post. I've been working on a new drawing app for a while now - the initial sketches I made back in 2023, and...
Hi! Hope this form of promotion is acceptable here, but if not, I'll gladly remove the post.
I've been working on a new drawing app for a while now - the initial sketches I made back in 2023, and I've been teaching myself Swift and SwiftUI until I recently dusted off the project, polished it a bit and registered to be published on the App Store, so here it is!
Cassini is an intentionally limited drawing app with a skeuomorphic design inspired by the Teenage Engineering OP-1 (readers familiar with my work will be aware I'm a little obsessed with it). It's an intentionally limited app, and it encourages you to see these constraints not as limitations, but as opportunities to make something you wouldn't make otherwise.
For example, every Cassini canvas is 1000x500. That's it. No other resolutions exist, no other aspect ratios. If you want to make a portrait piece, you will have to physically rotate your device. Cassini offers a 12-colour palette, and comes with 16 palettes preloaded. There's no layers, only your drawings and a background, you can not import images, and there is a single undo state.
Likewise, you can save files, but you can't name them. They will get a randomly assigned nonsense name, which you can reroll. You can add real time filters to your artwork, but the parameters are cryptic and require experimentation. You can add patterns, if you like one of the 15 procedural ones.
Cassini is free to download and currently on TestFlight as I want to collect some feedback before I actually submit it to the app store. As such, some bugs are to be expected. Please email me if you find any, or use the built in feedback tool.
I don't know when that became a feature on Paint, but you can change the size of your drawing by dragging the tiny square in the corner. I do know that feature has existed for a very long time,...
For example, every Cassini canvas is 1000x500. That's it. No other resolutions exist,
I don't know when that became a feature on Paint, but you can change the size of your drawing by dragging the tiny square in the corner. I do know that feature has existed for a very long time, but I don't know if it was there when Paintbrush was created.
It was, even apps like DPaint on the Amiga had variable canvas sizes, but the fixed canvas in Cassini is 1. I think a fun limitation to work around and 2. makes the design of the virtual "device"...
It was, even apps like DPaint on the Amiga had variable canvas sizes, but the fixed canvas in Cassini is 1. I think a fun limitation to work around and 2. makes the design of the virtual "device" more consistent
I’m excited to have a play with this, I’m enjoying the design quite a lot on first load. It comes across as somewhere between game and app, and I really like the way you’ve implemented the manual!...
I’m excited to have a play with this, I’m enjoying the design quite a lot on first load. It comes across as somewhere between game and app, and I really like the way you’ve implemented the manual! I’ll need to dust off my gen 1 apple pencil and charge it up to have a proper play, as this (presumably deliberately?) doesn’t support finger input. More feedback to follow when I’ve done that :D
Thank you very much! Yeah, Pencil support is mandatory, mainly because I want to encourage precise pixel placement - I feel like the pixel tool and the brushes at 1x or 2x would be unusable with...
Thank you very much! Yeah, Pencil support is mandatory, mainly because I want to encourage precise pixel placement - I feel like the pixel tool and the brushes at 1x or 2x would be unusable with the finger.
Yeah, I figured that was the reasoning. I definitely wasn't tipping and tapping at the canvas for about ten minutes trying to figure out why my finger wasn't working before realising it was a...
Yeah, I figured that was the reasoning. I definitely wasn't tipping and tapping at the canvas for about ten minutes trying to figure out why my finger wasn't working before realising it was a pencil-only app!
App Review told me I had to implement finger drawing, so it's there now. Build should be on the TestFlight in an hour or so. Thought I should let you know
App Review told me I had to implement finger drawing, so it's there now. Build should be on the TestFlight in an hour or so. Thought I should let you know
I understand the decision, but it is a little annoying to me to NEED to use a specific type of stylus in order to use the app. Would love to test it further, but I don’t have a pencil.
I understand the decision, but it is a little annoying to me to NEED to use a specific type of stylus in order to use the app. Would love to test it further, but I don’t have a pencil.
Gorgeous app and website! I love the skeuomorphic UI, especially the keys as they really do show their Teenage Engineering inspiration. I'm also a sucker for serif fonts in tech, much like old...
Gorgeous app and website! I love the skeuomorphic UI, especially the keys as they really do show their Teenage Engineering inspiration. I'm also a sucker for serif fonts in tech, much like old Apple designs, and it's tastefully used here. I don't think I've seen your work before so I explored your website and I absolutely love your stuff haha, especially the Hypermetro wayfinding map and the ISA branding!
It's apps like these that make me miss having an iPad. I love my Android tablet but there just aren't as many beautifully designed apps available for it, understandably so as the market is tiny. I've been thinking about switching back to an iPad (even if my Android tablet works fine) just to be able to experience apps like this haha.
High praise! Thank you, it means a lot. I gotta be honest - the indie app scene is the main reason I switched to the iPhone in the first place. Android tablets are just hateful, the app situation...
High praise! Thank you, it means a lot. I gotta be honest - the indie app scene is the main reason I switched to the iPhone in the first place. Android tablets are just hateful, the app situation is awful and I can't fault developers for not wanting to support such a badly fragmented platform with unique and beautiful apps when every skin of android can break that easily.
The Android tablet app situation definitely does suck compared to iPadOS but it's honestly fine if you only really rely on the most widely used platforms and apps. But yeah, I do miss having...
The Android tablet app situation definitely does suck compared to iPadOS but it's honestly fine if you only really rely on the most widely used platforms and apps. But yeah, I do miss having access to various indie apps that made the iPad experience fun.
Even then there's sometimes very odd edge cases, like apps that don't scale properly or act weird on larger displays. Not that the iPad way of forcing an iPhone simulation for unsupported apps is...
Even then there's sometimes very odd edge cases, like apps that don't scale properly or act weird on larger displays. Not that the iPad way of forcing an iPhone simulation for unsupported apps is necessarily a better idea, but it's definitely not as janky as some screens i've seen on android (Instagram on folding displays, anyone?)
Definitely true, can't argue with you there haha. Even once you get out of the tiny circle of apps that are designed to be tablet native, you just get blown up phone apps. Even Samsung, who make...
Definitely true, can't argue with you there haha. Even once you get out of the tiny circle of apps that are designed to be tablet native, you just get blown up phone apps. Even Samsung, who make the most popular Android tablets, don't put effort into making tablet-native versions of their apps.
Lovely website. The app’s design looks cool too. Your buttons especially reminded me of Teenage Engineering’s OP-1. My iPad is quite old, I’m waiting until March when Apple releases the new ones,...
Lovely website. The app’s design looks cool too. Your buttons especially reminded me of Teenage Engineering’s OP-1. My iPad is quite old, I’m waiting until March when Apple releases the new ones, and when I do, I’ll be sure to give it a try!
Hi! Hope this form of promotion is acceptable here, but if not, I'll gladly remove the post.
I've been working on a new drawing app for a while now - the initial sketches I made back in 2023, and I've been teaching myself Swift and SwiftUI until I recently dusted off the project, polished it a bit and registered to be published on the App Store, so here it is!
Cassini is an intentionally limited drawing app with a skeuomorphic design inspired by the Teenage Engineering OP-1 (readers familiar with my work will be aware I'm a little obsessed with it). It's an intentionally limited app, and it encourages you to see these constraints not as limitations, but as opportunities to make something you wouldn't make otherwise.
For example, every Cassini canvas is 1000x500. That's it. No other resolutions exist, no other aspect ratios. If you want to make a portrait piece, you will have to physically rotate your device. Cassini offers a 12-colour palette, and comes with 16 palettes preloaded. There's no layers, only your drawings and a background, you can not import images, and there is a single undo state.
Likewise, you can save files, but you can't name them. They will get a randomly assigned nonsense name, which you can reroll. You can add real time filters to your artwork, but the parameters are cryptic and require experimentation. You can add patterns, if you like one of the 15 procedural ones.
Cassini is free to download and currently on TestFlight as I want to collect some feedback before I actually submit it to the app store. As such, some bugs are to be expected. Please email me if you find any, or use the built in feedback tool.
I don't know when that became a feature on Paint, but you can change the size of your drawing by dragging the tiny square in the corner. I do know that feature has existed for a very long time, but I don't know if it was there when Paintbrush was created.
It was, even apps like DPaint on the Amiga had variable canvas sizes, but the fixed canvas in Cassini is 1. I think a fun limitation to work around and 2. makes the design of the virtual "device" more consistent
I’m excited to have a play with this, I’m enjoying the design quite a lot on first load. It comes across as somewhere between game and app, and I really like the way you’ve implemented the manual! I’ll need to dust off my gen 1 apple pencil and charge it up to have a proper play, as this (presumably deliberately?) doesn’t support finger input. More feedback to follow when I’ve done that :D
Thank you very much! Yeah, Pencil support is mandatory, mainly because I want to encourage precise pixel placement - I feel like the pixel tool and the brushes at 1x or 2x would be unusable with the finger.
Yeah, I figured that was the reasoning. I definitely wasn't tipping and tapping at the canvas for about ten minutes trying to figure out why my finger wasn't working before realising it was a pencil-only app!
App Review told me I had to implement finger drawing, so it's there now. Build should be on the TestFlight in an hour or so. Thought I should let you know
I understand the decision, but it is a little annoying to me to NEED to use a specific type of stylus in order to use the app. Would love to test it further, but I don’t have a pencil.
I might add a toggle to the setup menu, but it's really a pencil first app. I'll let you know when/if I do
Gorgeous app and website! I love the skeuomorphic UI, especially the keys as they really do show their Teenage Engineering inspiration. I'm also a sucker for serif fonts in tech, much like old Apple designs, and it's tastefully used here. I don't think I've seen your work before so I explored your website and I absolutely love your stuff haha, especially the Hypermetro wayfinding map and the ISA branding!
It's apps like these that make me miss having an iPad. I love my Android tablet but there just aren't as many beautifully designed apps available for it, understandably so as the market is tiny. I've been thinking about switching back to an iPad (even if my Android tablet works fine) just to be able to experience apps like this haha.
High praise! Thank you, it means a lot. I gotta be honest - the indie app scene is the main reason I switched to the iPhone in the first place. Android tablets are just hateful, the app situation is awful and I can't fault developers for not wanting to support such a badly fragmented platform with unique and beautiful apps when every skin of android can break that easily.
The Android tablet app situation definitely does suck compared to iPadOS but it's honestly fine if you only really rely on the most widely used platforms and apps. But yeah, I do miss having access to various indie apps that made the iPad experience fun.
Even then there's sometimes very odd edge cases, like apps that don't scale properly or act weird on larger displays. Not that the iPad way of forcing an iPhone simulation for unsupported apps is necessarily a better idea, but it's definitely not as janky as some screens i've seen on android (Instagram on folding displays, anyone?)
Definitely true, can't argue with you there haha. Even once you get out of the tiny circle of apps that are designed to be tablet native, you just get blown up phone apps. Even Samsung, who make the most popular Android tablets, don't put effort into making tablet-native versions of their apps.
Lovely website. The app’s design looks cool too. Your buttons especially reminded me of Teenage Engineering’s OP-1. My iPad is quite old, I’m waiting until March when Apple releases the new ones, and when I do, I’ll be sure to give it a try!
It’s too bad this requires iPad OS 26! This is right up my alley.
I currently run a VM for sketching in macOS but this looks so much better.
Using a bunch of exclusive SwiftUI methods that require 26, but I could conceivably port it to macOS. No promises though
Well, App Review slapped my fingers with a ruler and told me to implement finger drawing. It'll be on the Testflight in an hour or so.