When you say Pixlr, what comes to mind? Of course, there are a possible number of things — a cereal brand, a photography editing app, a name for a fancy protein shake… but does it surprise you to know that Pixlr’s a brand that has been helping people around the world explore their creativity?
From humble beginnings in Sweden, the brand was a suite of creative tools readily available online for both professionals and non-professionals alike. That was 2008. In 2019, Ola shifted his vision toward the creative future of educators and youth.
The story so far…
8 years ago, the founder of Pixlr, Ola Sevandersson sold what was the top free online photo editing software to Autodesk. At the time, it was 100% Flash-based, a thing of the past now that we think about how far our web browsers have come.
Growing over 60 million users back in 2012, Pixlr was THE web browser editing program that everyone and their father flocked to. No lie — tech-savvy parents still use Pixlr tools for simple and easy edits. And not just parents, either — teachers, students, children, and educators find this free tool incredibly useful.
But then everyone who worked with Pixlr during Autodesk’s acquisition were either reassigned or left… and that left Pixlr with millions of users per week, but no one who really cared enough to cultivate or nurture the existing Pixlr community. Upon realizing the sudden drop in interest, Autodesk sold it for near to nothing and the new owners asked if Ola was interested to slide back in on the Pixlr project. Thing is, Ola pushed his plans into motion — building a completely new product from scratch since the original was only a month away from a certain Flash-based death.
And with Flash dead to us, what’s the new Pixlr all about now?
Follow the founder’s messages on this HackerNews thread:
“It’s 99% Typescript and we don’t use any premade js frameworks, everything was written from scratch (except for some font loader and zip), ui, rendering, webgl filters etc.
All the knowledge of how Photo Editing works came out of building the original products back in the day, there is more information about the field today to be found written online but much is still secrets kept at a few companies. The browsers are really a shitty environment to be writing this kind of apps in, performance is a struggle in every step :)”
So whoever’s in the business of browser-based programs will be in the know. But if they aren’t, it’s not a widely known creation technique. Why browsers, you ask? Why not a downloadable program that people can, well, download?
Not everyone can do that. Not everyone has the tech capacity to do that. But with WiFi, even without being tech savvy, you’re in good hands when it comes to Pixlr. With basic, user-friendly and functional tools at the ready for someone who’s never used Photoshop before, this online tool is the best for quick and easy editing on images. To be fully functional and based in WebGL or Canvas, Ola plans for Pixlr to reach greater heights by enabling elders and children alike to get creative.
When asked if he ever regrets selling Pixlr in the first place, Ola responded with “Not even the slightest, so much fun stuff I’ve gotten to do due to this product, as myself, at Autodesk and now with the new owners.”
Having fun while making image editing easier for everyone?
Check. Ola has this in mind as he works on developing and programming every little piece or element to fit into Pixlr’s tools. Giving everyone boundless creativity and allowing them to bring ideas to life? Tick that checkbox right there, too. Empowering people of all ages, from children to elders, to boost creativity or tap into their creative prowess is part of Ola’s main goal.
In the wake of the machine learning and AI tsunami we’re experiencing today, education plays a major role in our human interest. Pixlr gives back to the society where the community learns for free with its SAAS objective.
That brings us to the next question… what did all of this take?
Thanos said everything, but Ola spent the better part of a year with his brother working on creating a stunning little spin-off from the actual Pixlr product — Pixlr X, a simplified, more bare-bones version of the main tool. The root behind Pixlr X developed by this tiny two-man team was to introduce the basics of utilizing creative software to the general masses.
In short, everyone will be able to use it, and everyone will definitely benefit from it creative-wise. Even if you’re not a designer, or all that into designing, there are times when you’ll find yourself in need of a simple tool that gets the job done. These are parts of the problems that Ola aims to solve with Pixlr.
With a newer, speedier, and updated Pixlr Editor already on the way, Ola has big plans to lovingly pack this tool with more features and usability, while making it all accessible to the masses. Be a part of his creative vision. Try out the tools right here.
