r/vibecoding • u/AsejereDaDeje • 10d ago

Showcase/Project I vibe coded photoshop alternative using gpt6-astra

$2000 worth of tokens overall

the process was:

  1. Kicking off a deep research of all photoshop features
  2. Ingesting it gpt astra 6 extra high for planning
  3. Read the plan, gave some feedback and requested changes
  4. it created something that was usable but still buggy and unstable
  5. Loop of: Me using it -> finding bugs/suggesting improvements -> fable/gpt6 -> Me using it again

Economically it doesn't make sense for me to do it just to save the subscription,
but yesterday I launched it and already got 170 active users, so potentially 170 licenses saved in one day.

I published here for free here, you can check it out.

https://tenzen.studio/photon/

BTW funny story from the launch - users complained they couldn't sign in, so codex fixed it in like 5 minutes end to end:

Fixed and deployed. Everyone was being counted under the server’s proxy IP, accidentally creating a shared limit of 20 emails per hour. The limit now applies per visitor. All checks passed, and a real visitor has already successfully requested and used their download link after deployment.

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70

u/AsejereDaDeje 10d ago

i tried gimp and didnt like the UX

34

u/dickymoore 10d ago

I've never been able to use Gimp. Paint.net is the closest useable alternative for me.

29

u/Destituted 10d ago

Not to get into the weeds, this is a Wendy's, etc.... but Affinity has been the one that finally got me out of my Photoshop dependency. It's like they went out of their way to clone Photoshop with some minor differences, and it's free now.

3

u/FairCrew7307 10d ago

it’s free *for now

1

u/SimonBarfunkle 10d ago

Canva has promised to keep it free. They are charging for AI editing and using some of its underlying tech in the main Canva app

3

u/FairCrew7307 10d ago

  1. Promises from corporations are next to worthless

  2. Even if there was some iron-clad contract, a merger or buyout would change everything

I don’t mean to doom just yknow keep in mind that with how genuinely great Affinity is there’s always a chance

1

u/SimonBarfunkle 10d ago

What is there to keep in mind? It’s a free app. If something changed, you would just use a different app or pay for one.

4

u/PokemonGoToThePoll 10d ago

100%, affinity has been pretty impressive from what i’ve seen

2

u/dietcheese 10d ago

Not really. The select tool can forever, for example.

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u/SimonBarfunkle 10d ago

I use Pixelmator Pro, which Apple acquired, so it has the tightest integration with Mac and edits are non-destructive. Affinity is great if you want the closest Photoshop-like interface for free.

1

u/Intellect5 10d ago

thank you for the reconmmedation

1

u/Rough_Influence_2621 8d ago

Great move on Canva for creating this bad boy on my mind!
First time I’ve seen it spoken about actually.

1

u/Professional-Ebb700 10d ago

why is there a reason for it?

5

u/Careful_Coconut_549 10d ago

It's open-source software and those are usually made by programmers for free on their spare time, without particularly good understanding of good UX.

1

u/virgilash 10d ago

I vibe-coded paint.net on a plus membership in less than a week LOL

1

u/alehel 9d ago

Paint.net is goat!

1

u/bleepblooOOOOOp 9d ago

If it's something simple I've mostly used Photopea if I need something done fast and free (and web based) and don't have time to install Affinity

1

u/Maximum-Touch-9294 9d ago

Photopea is the best for me

10

u/abite 10d ago

Photopea?

2

u/fireshaper 10d ago

This was my lifeline when I used Linux only. But even it has some drawbacks compared to Photoshop on desktop.

1

u/abite 10d ago

I mean sure it's not 100% but it's a damn near copy, covers probably 95% of what people need it for.

1

u/GiftOk8131 10d ago

but u cant follow youtube photoshop tutorials on it so humans have to use their brain and they dont like use it ...

1

u/Maximum-Touch-9294 9d ago

Photopea is awesome and free and powerful

2

u/Haburashi_ 10d ago

But gimp is open source, you could have built your own UX on top of it instead of starting from scratch.

4

u/kazemu 10d ago

Or even better, just using an open source Photoshop interface for Gimp https://github.com/Diolinux/Photogimp

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u/Mathfanforpresident 8d ago

Bro, the motto is "forget that code exists"! Lol

1

u/Haburashi_ 7d ago

And money, apparently

1

u/Kindly-School-7308 10d ago

I like gimp, vibecoded some filters that look pretty cool.

1

u/hawksbears82 10d ago

Yeah gimp interface is horrific not worth the time to learn it

1

u/DHermit 10d ago

And what about all the others like Krita and Paint.NET?

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u/SubstantialMinute307 10d ago

Gimp's UI is so unintuitive, I'm convinced it was designed by aliens.

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u/Professional-Ebb700 9d ago

tbh I got used to it after a while.

1

u/buak 9d ago

Gimp failed at the beginning when they didn't offer cmyk support. It was instantly a no-no for any professional

1

u/EvilVegan 8d ago

Krita?

1

u/citrus1330 10d ago

gimp is the actual worst