PaintCode Blog
paintcodeapp.com · Company blog · on HN since 2012
The makers of PaintCode, a Mac app that turns vector drawings into native iOS drawing code, post release notes and iPhone screen guides.
What HN saysHN commenters bring up PaintCode as a tool for vector UI that generates Objective-C, Swift or C#, and one commenter says they paid for it.
40HN people shared it
20linked it in comments
38stories submitted
859story points
5 years agolast shared
2012people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC18 people · 279 points · first shared 2012 · 78 comments on HN
- 2The Ultimate Guide to iPhone Resolutions7 people · 17 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 3iPhone 6 Screens Demystified6 people · 255 points · first shared 2014 · 85 comments on HN
- 4Swift is coming to PaintCode2 people · 51 points · first shared 2014 · 15 comments on HN
- 5PaintCode Trial2 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 6PaintCode 21 people · 126 points · first shared 2014 · 71 comments on HN
- 7Drawing Code for iOS 7 Rounded Rectangles1 people · 54 points · first shared 2013 · 6 comments on HN
- 8PaintCode 2.1 adds support for Swift1 people · 19 points · first shared 2014 · 5 comments on HN
- 9PaintCode 2.3 adds over 15 new features1 people · 17 points · first shared 2015 · 2 comments on HN
- 10PaintCode Telekinesis1 people · 9 points · first shared 2015 · 1 comments on HN
- 11Using PaintCode to draw dynamic lightbulbs1 people · 6 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12PaintCode adds Smart Symbols1 people · 5 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 13PaintCode Plugin for Sketch1 people · 4 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 14Why should you use PaintCode?1 people · 4 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 15PaintCode releases a Sketch plugin1 people · 2 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
Cthulhu_ · 2013-10-24
I wonder what takes up that much space in Photoshop. I suspect the brush files, iirc those take up quite some space. I can imagine Pixelmator uses much more native / vertex images, like those you can create using PaintCode [1], which generates a bit of native Objective C code to produce the image you draw in that app. Paintcode is a great way to reduce the size of your app's downloaded content, btw.
[1] http://www.paintcodeapp.com/
healthenclave · 2013-03-22
Well you could use the usual Photoshop, illustrator .... But also check PaintCode it's a mac only app that helps create vector based UI (in objective-c) for iOs only.
Love to have something similar for Android (no sencha) 'cause the UI for android can be a serious pain.
Basically PaintCode can import svg and photoshop layers and convert them into objective c code. Which can be easily reused, and reconfigured for any new resolution that may come out.
It's not perfect but it's pretty neat http://www.paintcodeapp.com/
billconan · 2019-08-25
I looked at the blog, I think it's pretty good. I have paid for https://www.paintcodeapp.com/ , which is kinda similar.
maybe create a youtube/udemy course on how to use it to build app?
normanv · 2016-09-10
PaintCode (https://www.paintcodeapp.com/) is a drawing app that shares a few of the features of this tool. Particularly the variables and expressions feature (https://www.paintcodeapp.com/documentation/using-variables).
guava · 2015-05-27
For those wanting Objective-C, Swift or C#, PaintCode [1] seems to support SVG conversion.
[1] http://www.paintcodeapp.com/
locusm · 2015-03-21
Thats cool, reminded me of PaintCode which I keep meaning to try out.
http://www.paintcodeapp.com/
klausa · 2014-08-17
Most of the app bundle on iOS are various assets (.pngs, videos, sounds, etc). This looks like it's drawing everything in code, so the app bundle is really small.
Marco's new app, Overcast also has UI drawn almost entirely with code (all icons are generated with PaintCode [1]), and his app [2] is 4.5mb.
[1]: http://www.paintcodeapp.com
[2]: https://itunes.apple.com/pl/app/overcast-podcast-player/id888422857?mt…
jlmendezbonini · 2014-05-28
I don't think you can generate objective-c code from Sketch 3. Maybe you were thinking of Paint Code http://www.paintcodeapp.com ?
gregbarbosa · 2014-05-09
Yup yup. I believe he/she was referring to that.
http://www.paintcodeapp.com/
PixelCut · 2013-10-10
Schwartz looks very nice and polished!
We make the exact "reverse" app - PaintCode, which is a drawing app that instantly generates Quartz 2D code (http://www.paintcodeapp.com/).
Osmium · 2013-05-06
Interestingly, they also make an app called PaintCode which outputs Objective-C code: http://www.paintcodeapp.com
I'm sure they used to be part of the same app; I'm not sure when that changed or what the logic was behind it.
Kwpolska · 2021-07-04
The only scales supported by Apple software are integer scales (1x, 2x, 3x). The iPhone 6 Plus had a 2.6x screen — iOS would render at 3x and then scale the image down to fit. https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified
frou_dh · 2019-09-30
That is illustrated very well by the second row here: https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/ultimate-guide-to-iphone-resolutions
Polyphonie · 2015-05-05
The iPhone 6 Pius actually renders a screen resolution of 2208x1242 (which is then downsampled to the display 1920x1080 native resolution):
http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified
bla2 · 2014-09-11
This is looking really nice. The "No Image" images on http://www.paintcodeapp.com/content/news/2014-09-11_iphone-6-screens-d… look unintentional, though.
Edit: The 1x version looks fine: http://www.paintcodeapp.com/content/news/2014-09-11_iphone-6-screens-d… So this post only looks broken on retina screens, which is a bit ironic :-)
sampo · 2014-09-11
Looks like the images themselves are incorrectly cropped, so everyone should get the same clipping, whatever browser they use:
http://www.paintcodeapp.com/content/news/2014-09-11_iphone-6-screens-d…
serve_yay · 2014-09-11
This write-up (also on the front page currently) is a lot simpler and focuses more on the actual dimensions, instead of frankly half-baked marketing analysis. http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified
VeryVito · 2014-05-07
If you bought it after April 1, the upgrade is free. Email support for info (as seen in the blog post here: http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/introducing-paintcode-2)
aggarwalachal · 2012-03-19
Updates:
Just got an email from their team
Trial version of PaintCode
You can now download a limited trial version of PaintCode at http://paintcodeapp.com/trial.html
Video guides
We've prepared 4 short video guides demonstrating PaintCode in action.
These guides show various basic drawing techniques at: http://paintcodeapp.com/examples.html
Examples
You can also find examples of PaintCode documents at the same page.
Some of the examples include simple Xcode projects.
These projects utilize the drawing code generated by PaintCode.
mrb · 2014-09-11
"there should be no fidelity loss"
Heh. Yes there will be, most notably on webpages, for example those with box borders defined as "1px solid" lines. The lines will look fuzzy and unequal. Check the last image at http://www.paintcodeapp.com/content/news/2014-09-11_iphone-6-screens-d… : it shows a "1 CSS pixel" line rendered as 2 black lines + 2 grey lines (one of the greys is very, very light). Some lines will not be interpolated the same way: some will be 2 black lines + 1 grey line, some will be 1 black line + 2 grey lines, and the shade of the 2 greys will be unequal and will vary depending on their precise alignment on the 1080p physical grid. The end result is that some lines will look slightly thinner/lighter or slightly thicker/darker than others. Heck, on my Nexus 5 which has an even higher PPI (445 PPI) than the iPhone 6+ (401 PPI) I can still clearly notice this effect, when holding the phone at arm's length (and I don't even have 20/20 vision), when simulating the downsampling that the 6+ is going to have to do. I can do it by zooming out[1] to simulate an effective pixel ratio of ~2.61, which is equivalent to what the iPhone 6+ is really doing graphically (1080 physical pixels wide / 414 logical pixels wide = ~2.61).
Contrast this with most Android devices where it is possible to get pixel perfect rendering because most (but not all) of them use a non-fractional pixel ratio (1.0, or 2.0, or 3.0, or 4.0) and to my knowledge none do downsampling…