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Chris Messina

Lunacy Editor 3.0 - Free Windows app that opens, edits, and stores .sketch files

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Top Hunter

The Icons8 team rolls out a global update for Lunacy, a native Windows app that opens, edits, and stores .sketch files. In short, it’s long-awaited Sketch for Windows. It helps design teams working on different operating systems and improves the transition from design to development. It's a beta version. And it’s completely free.

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Pavel B.
I’d love the same tool for macOS, bc I’m pissed what Sketch-team does in the recent times: shitty features, no bug fixing and performance degradation :( So if you’ve managed to make it work on Windows (hopefully it’s a wrapped webview) — it’s easy to make it work on Apple devices.
Ivan Braun
Maker
@inlinecoder Hi! Since it is a native Windows app it won't be easy to create it for MacOs. Hopefully Sketch creators will fix those bugs and performance degradation soon. And it is not a webview :)
Pavel B.
@visualpharm oh I see. Thanks for the response. There’s no hope for Sketch to fix outstanding issues.
Vincent Battaglia
@visualpharm Maybe the best move for you would be to switch to Figma?
Ivan Braun
Maker
@vinch or XD, or couple more. Cons: once we switch, we have to leave the Sketch ecosystem, the de-facto standard for design.
Vincent Battaglia
@visualpharm Sorry I mentioned you, my comment was meant for @inlinecoder. There are indeed many (new) design tools these days to choose from. The de-facto standard 5 years ago was still Photoshop so I don't think that it would be a problem for designers to adapt to something new. Nevertheless, Sketch is still one of the best design tools out there and I think it's probably here to stay, even though it has some issues (but they all have). Anyway, congrats on the great product and keep up the good work, I'm a big fan of what you guys do at Icons8!
Ignacio
Oh man this is amazing, I would pay big money to be able to use this on Linux !
Ivan Braun
Maker
@sabarasaba thanks man! It is still a beta version, we have a long road ahead to make it better.
Igor Gritsenko
Maker
@sabarasaba find 1000 more friends with linux and I promise that I try to port Lunacy there)
Pavel B.
@sabarasaba @igor_gritsenko1 can I find 1k for you to try to port it to macOS?)
Igor Gritsenko
Maker
@sabarasaba @inlinecoder will they all want to pay big money either? ;-)
Pavel B.
@sabarasaba @igor_gritsenko1 why not? macOS\iOS users are the most paying users, aren't they? I want a Sketch replacement so bad, that I'd work on it for myself. As I mentioned before, I'm so pissed that Sketch-team doesn't fix child bugs and at the same time performance gets worse and worse update to update.
Ariel
- Automatically downloaded missing Google Fonts This should be native Sketch function. So simple and clever. I don't use Windows, but this software for sure gonna help a lot of people since Sketch is becoming so popular these days. Very nice!
Ivan Braun
Maker
@ariel_jedrzejczak thank you for calling it clever :) I wish we were that clever too, but we've invented it the hard way. First, we've done it traditional way (with an ugly dialog asking for missing fonts) last summer. Then we added a button downloading the fonts automatically sometime in October. Then we thought: wait a moment, we don't need this ugly dialog anymore.
Ivan Braun
Maker
Features of this beta: - Reading any .sketch files of all versions (13 months of testing!) - Automatically downloaded missing Google Fonts - Publishing assets directly to a CDN - Saving .sketch files (alpha) - Inspecting .sketch elements - Showing margins and distances between elements - Organizing Pages and Artboards in your document - Basic typography tool available - Drawing, joining, and aligning vector objects - Exporting assets in PNG and SVG - Exporting CSS and XAML code - Coming July 2018: help porting the functionality of the major Sketch plugins
Amos Gyamfi
I have tried the portable version. Very well done!!!. @visualpharm Does it export only png?
Ivan Braun
Maker
@amos_gyamfi thank you 😚 also SVG
Amos Gyamfi
@visualpharm The portable version seems to export only png. I do not see the option for svg.
Ivan Horev
Maker
@amos_gyamfi You can export selected element to SVG and PNG only on the export tab. However, you can export only PNG to a CDN. I will add SVG support in our next release if you wish. PS. Also, you can copy CSS and XAML
Amos Gyamfi
@horevivan Ok, I will check. Thanks.
Konstantin Vlasov

finally I don't need a Mac to work with our designers

Pros:

free and windows compatible

Cons:

it's just a beta

Ghost Kitty
Comment Deleted
Ivan Braun
Maker
@itsnblackburn thank you, thanks a lot!
Abadesi
Hi @visualpharm @nab0y @igor_gritsenko1 @kirill_kazachek a year ago you hunted Lunacy 2.0 -- how has the product changed since then?
Ivan Braun
Maker
@abadesi Hi! Lunacy 2.0 was just a viewer - you could only open .sketch files on Windows. Now it is an editor :)
Lionel Cordier
That's one of the reason I switched to Figma months ago :-)
Pavel B.
@lionel_cordier are you okay with storing all files in their cloud?
G G
Wow just wow. This product opens up a world of possibilities. A huge thank you!!!!
Ivan Braun
Maker
@androidlove oh thank you :) you've made our day. Even more: 1.5 years or work are worth your comment.
Md Zahid

Some personal opinions: A bit laggy. Also you can not lock something horizontally/ vertically by holding SHIFT. Some expected keyboard shortcuts doesn't exist (like ctlr+L to lock). Zoom-in & out speed could be a bit faster.

Pros:

It's on PC! Works like butter.

Cons:

Beta. Missing some important features. (But I'm sure they will be fixed soon)

Ivan Braun
Maker
TODO: - Improve the speed of zoom, especially for documents with large/many bitmaps - Find some better list of shortcuts that includes Ctrl+L - Check Shift lock - I'm positive we have it; I've just checked and it's still there. Could you record a short video of the test case?
Ivan Braun
- Performance - done. It's fast to scroll, especially with effects. - Shift-drag - done. Along with many other shortcuts: https://github.com/icons8/Lunacy... TODO: Support of symbol libraries + great, great rework of symbols.
Pavel B.
Do you plan to Open Source it?
Ivan Braun
Maker
@inlinecoder we open source stuff (examples: https://icons8.com/line-awesome https://icons8.com/c/animated-icons), but not this one so far.
Mariappan Kumar
Smart move. Software has Great compatibility and works smoothly. Kudos team.
Ivan Braun
Maker
@mkarrfan thanks, man!
Santosh Maharshi
I have been waiting for this . My mac gave up with OS updates and only thing I was missing on Win10 was sketch. Super news for all sketchy users like me :)
Ivan Braun
Maker
@santoshmaharshi Happy that it found its perfect user ;)
Scott Riley
This is gosh darn incredible.
Kyrylo Kazachek
Maker
@scott_riley Nice to hear that!
Dalpat Prajapati
This is awesome. I just checked. Box Shadow is not rendering. Also there is some minor bugs! But Well done! Overall its Awesome!
Kyrylo Kazachek
Maker
@dalpattapaniya Tanks! We will bring shadows and other effects soon!
Ivan Braun
Maker
@dalpattapaniya right: shadows, fancy strokes, and type gradients are on the list; they are not even rendering. But we're moving fast, will do soon. Thank you! PS You know how to inspire!
Kaan Çalışkan
Maybe it would be "too much" but I wish that it will have a Mac version and version control feature for Sketch files (sync with OneDrive.) Or just a Sketch plugin which do version control between Lunacy and Sketch's Mac version. BTW, great job! :)
Ivan Braun
Maker
@kcaliskan we must think about it. Sketch file is basically a JSON file, so updating it carefully, maybe Git will do the thing. I've googled and here it is: https://github.com/mathieudutour... I wonder if it works for you: if we add support for Git on our side, and you'll use this plugin on the Sketch side. Does it?
Eugene Leskov

Sometime ago I just dreamed about such software, now it's real. Thanks guys, you're awesome!

Pros:

working on PC

Cons:

lack of supported features

Ivan Braun
Maker
Thank you! You inspire. Which features do you miss most?
Justin Deardorff

This is still in the early stages but I like what I see so far! As a product manager constantly working with designers, I can now open design files on PC for quick screen views, exports, etc. If that's your primary need this will be perfect!! If you are looking for a full featured Sketch replacement, it's not there quite yet.

Pros:

It works on Windows! Opens sketch files, provides CSS and YAML as well as most basic Sketch functionality. Portable version available. FREE

Cons:

A bit laggy and keyboard shortcuts are not all the same. It's still in beta though. This will only get better.

Ivan Braun
Maker
Justin, you know how to motivate! Thank you. Quick update: the next release addresses the shortcuts. The release after will bring speed as we'll start to cache the unaffected objects as the bitmaps.
Piotr Szwach
nice work fellas!
Ivan Braun
Maker
@piotrszwach thanks, mate!