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Drawing app with no undo?
- Thread starter jsx97
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It seems like a really unusual ask to not have any possible way to undo something. I think you need to actually explain why you need it.
I don't think that is enough to get what you want. It makes no sense (to 99.99999%) on a drawing app in particular to have no way of undoing something.
Friends, this thread is about to help me to find an app. Let's keep it constructive.
I am curious, why not just have the discipline to not use the “undo” feature? Not trying to bring you down, but as a previous user said, having an app that has zero way to undo something is not something you are likely to find.
Many programs allow for setting e.g. the undo level and memory assigned to undo, e.g. here: Gimp settings. I suggest to check wether you can set the level or assigned memory to ”0”.
You could also just remap the Undo menu shortcut in System Preferences to something else in the app you're currently using.
@jsx97: If you are willing to try an iPad only app, you definitely owe it to yourself to give Exsto a try (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/exsto/id6444933770). It’s an unconventional vector drawing app with minimal controls and no undo by design. It’s a serious, very immersive drawing tool that was made for someone like you who is not afraid to eschew convention. Here are some examples of designs produced using Exsto (the dolphin is my own creation after 1 hour of playing with Exsto):
🙏🏽
@LeeW Try Exsto — a drawing app with no undo by design (https://exsto.app/) — and you might change your mind about the utility and sensibility of a drawing app with no undo. Apart from the OP’s legitimate desire to work around his OCD, having no undo actually enhances creativity and immersion while drawing with it.
🙏🏽
https://exsto.app/ 🙏🏽
Can't speak for the OP, but based on what they've told us already I'd guess that the reason is specifically that lack of discipline. OCD gets used a lot of different ways in these forums but commonly it's a stand in for an inability to deal with imperfection. If that's the case here, I can see how it would be very hard to make progress on a drawing if one is constantly undoing and trying to refine the last stroke. If there's literally no way to back up, then the only way is forward.
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Thanks for sharing that potential explanation. I was struggling to comprehend but interested to better be aware how OCD and undo feature might be impacted.
You’re welcome @eltoslightfoot. It takes a little experimenting to get the hang of using noise and symmetry, but once you do it is very effective and enjoyable. I hope you like it.
@heretiq Thanks a lot for Exsto. Not exactly what I need, because it doesn't work on Mac, but at least it works on iPad.
@eltoslightfoot I haven't gone; I'm here :‑)
@eltoslightfoot I haven't gone; I'm here :‑)
You’re welcome @jsx97. I don’t know if a Mac version is planned, but hopefully you can try it on an iPad.
Hi, I am one of the devs on the team (of 2) behind Exsto.
Yes we do plan on adding Mac support but doing this properly (so that the ux is smooth and responsive) is a big challenge, we did just ship a big update to Exsto 2.0 (of iPad only still) also launched on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/exsto
The update focuses even more on the creative flow, with a few key changes.
1) Each new canvas starts out with a randomly selected (from a crafted collection) color set so that you can start creating without fiddling around finding the color you like.
2) Brand new Metal backend that provides much more responsive panning and zooming (after all the canvas is infinite and I have creations with well over 50k strokes)
3) A short on-boarding tutorial just to get users used to the strokes and how different it is to other apps
4) Apple Pencil pressure and tilt now subtly influence the `noise` level of the brush, this is intentionally very subtle, the lighter you touch the streen the more noise and the more inclined the angle of the pencil to the screen the more noise. and of course the inverse, the more pressure the less noise on that part of the stroke and if you have the pencil perpendicular to the screen that is also less noise. We found with these changes I can in most cases avoid needing to adjust the noise setting while creating.
We aslo cleaned up what UI a lot thanks to some great feedback we got from sessions with apples app design team.
Thanks for the update @hishnash and thanks to the Exsto team for providing such an inspired app! 🙏🏽
Good luck! This app deserves to exist and deserves to be discovered by every iPad creative and aspiring creative.
It could be OCD or OCPD (which people confuse with OCD, OCPD is where people are a perfectionist/super organized).
As someone who used to suffer from legit OCD it could be his trigger. It could be something like "for every pen stroke I have to hit undo twice or everyone I love will die". (OCD is utterly stupid like that and you know it's stupid but you can't help but give in to whatever ritual it is).
For me mine was anything with an on/off, up/down or open/close state. I had to turn lights off "correctly" or repeat it a million times until it felt correct. Same with opening/closing doors. Then on the TV I could only turn the channel up, never down even if it meant cycling through hundreds of channels.