mac Feature Request: Borders and Drop Shadows

[Michael Hyatt 13]

I love everything about Skitch except for one thing: the lack of borders and drop shadows. These are essential for me.

 

I write a lot of documentation. I have to have a way to make my screen shots stand out from the page. If I take a screen shot with a white background, then it gets lost on the page.

 

In terms of workflow, this means I have to move my screenshots to another tool to create the border and drop shadow.

 

These features existed in Skitch before the Evernote acquisition. Can you bring them back, please? Thanks.

[Joe Lopez 108]

@Michael - Thanks for the feedback. This is a feature set we've been considering bringing back.

[Michael Hyatt 13]

Great. I’d love to see it. Thanks!

[Sebastien Couture 0]

I would also love to see this feature. Basically it needs to take the same screenshot as the built in Mac tool, rounded corners, shadows and all. Of course this mean incorporating transparency. 

 

I would also like to mention that it would be nice if somehow the same keyboard shortcuts used to launch the OS X screenshot tool could be used to launch Skitch. This way we could use it as a full replacement.

 

Thanks!

[Chetan Sachdev 0]

+1 I just downloaded Skitch and found this basic feature missing. I was looking for a replacement to Greenshot in OSX. Greenshot allows to annotate, add borders and upload the edited image to Dropbox, Picasa, Flickr etc. A complete workflow where you edit, upload to a location and get the absolute URL in clipboard 

 

Would love to see these features in Skitch 

[Sebastian Mohila 0]

I would like to have this feature in skitch too

[GrumpyMonkey 4,229]

Indeed. The lack of drop shadow is one of the reasons I have not upgraded yet to the new Skitch.

[Joe Lopez 108]

Just let you know this feature is still in our backlog to address.

[Michael Hyatt 13]

Any progress on this? This is the one feature that keeps me from switching from SnagIt to Skitch. Even an outline would be helpful.

 

I am writing some software documentation right now. The screenshots all have a white background. As a result, when I paste them into my document, you can’t see where the background ends and the screenshot begins.

[Joe Lopez 108]

@Miachel - It's still in our list, but I can't give you an ETA on when we'll have something. We've got a lot of other things in front of this feature (ex: Mavericks release) and have yet to come up with a design we are truly happy with that will deliver on what we want. 

[Michael Hyatt 13]

Thanks, Joe. I appreciate the update.

 

By the way, I have loved the recent updates to iOS7 versions of Evernote. The UI is joy to work with.

 

Thanks again.

[Joe Lopez 108]

Thanks Michael!

We worked really hard on delivering what we feel is a true touch interface. Pro tip: You don't have to tap to use our tools and color/size menus. You can place a finger, or thumb (which is awesome for 1-handed use on an iPhone) and drag your finger to the tool/color/size and release to select. Try it with an object selected and you can slide your finger through color and size changes without closing and re-opening.

[Michael Hyatt 13]

Very cool, Joe. I’ll have to try it out. Thanks.

[DaveMo 0]

+1 the restoring drop shadow, and framed timed snapshot while you are at it!  This may seem like a low-priority task item to the Evernote team, but the app's ease-of-use and simple drop-shadows were two of the most distinguishing features that really set Skitch apart from its competing optioins in the screen-snap space. 

 

Drop shadows may seem like an terciary toss-off, but being able apply them quickly and consistently to screen grabs really helped to add an element of pop and polish to images embedded in emails and documentation.  I cannot understate how useful this feature was in professional life.  To be able to quickly and consistently produce marked-up image examples for distribution to development teams, collaborators, stakeholdders, users, etc., was invaluabe on a regular basis.  None of the alternatives did this nearly as slick or or intuitivively as Skitch used to.  I now have to fire up PhotoShop or Gimp and go through time-consuming process to produce and save-out equivalent results, which really sucks when Skitch used to do it so well and effortlessly.

 

It appears that this app is now being over-thought and unecessarily/unfortunately over-wrought.  Every "upgrade" seems to come with: the loss of one or more features that sold me on Skitch in the first place, a more cumbersome/clunky UI, and more stuff that a fair amount of the user base probably don't really want or need.  Its a shame to lose the truly useful features for 'pixelate', which can be handy on occasion, and stickers - meh.  THe KISS principle comes to mind and the regrettable, inevitable result of fixing what ain't broken.

 

I am sure the the Evernote team has a grand integration plan, its just unfortunate that many of the things that made Skitch great seem to be being disregarded in the process. 

 

Cheers,

-dm

[Joe Lopez 108]

@DaveMo

 

I've posted similar response as the this one in other threads, but I hope you'll bare with me if I'm repeating myself. We give a great deal of thought to what features are in and what features are out, or how we change features. Keith, one of the founders of Skitch, is still here and works side by side with me on Skitch as the design lead. We debate every change and every update to the app and are constantly focused on how we can work to improve the app as its audience grew (and continues to grow) from thousands to millions.

 

The reason drop-shadows were removed was due to the technical re-write and the usage of the feature. The decision as the time was spend time getting other functionality in then this feature. It is on our design board to bring back and one that all of feel is important. This feature isn't lost on us, and we aim to bring it back along with enhancing the app and adding new ones.

 

There is no disregard for Skitch here, in fact everyone at Evernote holds it in high regard. And Keith is still here working to continue to enhance the product and move it forward. We just have a limited set of resources and want to make sure we're focusing on the right issues at the right time. 

[Taylon 0]

It's funny because with all of the features that the new Skitch has, as Michael Hyatt pointed out above the lack of drop-shadows is the sole reason I still use the old version of Skitch and not the new. I understand the technical rewrite involved (I'm a programmer), but when I'm marking up something and setting it inline with other documentation I want it completely understood that it's an image sitting there and not just more text (since that's what I'm generally marking up and not pictures).

 

I'm sure it doesn't matter to many people, but it's important to me so I'll continue to keep an eye out for it and move to the new version when it's finally added.

[Michael Hyatt 13]

Thanks, Taylon. You said it well. Do you know where I can download the old version with the drop shadow capability? This is the one thing holding me back too.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,229]

Thanks, Taylon. You said it well. Do you know where I can download the old version with the drop shadow capability? This is the one thing holding me back too.

I use the old version as well for the same reason. Mouse over the arrow next to the green button and the dropdown menu that appears will have a light gray link to the previous version.

http://evernote.com/skitch/

[Michael Hyatt 13]

Thanks. I wish there was a little more control over the shadow itself, but this is a start. Thanks.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,229]

Thanks. I wish there was a little more control over the shadow itself, but this is a start. Thanks.

True, but then you are headed into Adobe space, and you'll be better off with something tailored to the needs of graphic artists.

[Milo123 0]

Would also love to see the drop shadow feature. At present, I use Snagit for grabbing screen captures to use in presentations and Skitch for on-the-fly quality assurance. If Skitch had the shadow/borders feature, I'd probably dump Snagit altogether. 

[H. Technical Publicationa 0]

The entire-and-only reason for me to use Skitch is to have fast drop-shadows. Evernote is shooting themselves in the foot by eliminating this feature.  

 

(I would love to just use the old version, but my upgrade to OS X Mavericks somehow killed my old version of Skitch and I cannot find my old copy to reinstall. Is there a place/URL were I can find an old Skitch version?)

[dinky 1]

Just reverted to Skitch version 1, mainly because of the drop-shadow feature. 

[Kyle Heironimus 0]

I hate to namedrop, and I'm sure he does to or he would have already, but do you guys realize who is asking for this feature? http://michaelhyatt.com/ He has a pretty huge following.

 

This is a guy who would likely rave about your product and write blog posts about it if it was good. He raves about Evernote quite often and even mentions Skitch vs. Snagit here: http://michaelhyatt.com/startup-programs.html

 

Maybe you already knew that or it has no bearing on your decision, but just telling you.

[chukar22 0]

I've missed the border and drop shadow features ever since switching from Snagit to Skitch. Please add another vote to prioritizing that feature.

[nfarrar 1]

+1 On this feature request. It would be really awesome to be able to add borders & drop shadows.

 

Specifically for this workflow:

When doing home improvement projects, I create a new note, take some pictures of what things look like now - copy the pictures into skitch, resize them, drop them in the evernote notebook. They would look much nice in the notebook if I was able to put a border & dropshadow around them.

 

And improvement to this feature request would be an automatic "thumbnail" generator:

 

1. Copy a full-resolution picture into skitch

2. Have an option for "generate thumbnail"

3. Select options (border/dropshadow/sizing)

4. Skitch would generate the thumbnail image and the HTML for a link to the original high resolution image.

5. Copy and paste image w/ HTML into evernote notebook.

[dinky 1]

What I really don't understand is that this discussion is already going on for more than a year and that nothing has happened in the meantime. I am still using the old Skitch version and will continue to do so until I find something better or this feature request is finally honored.

[wtbates 1]

Where are we on this?

 

I love Evernote, but the old Skitch was much more useful in many respects. Drop shadows and boarders are key to how-to and training documents. Skitch could be THE goto app for this. The integration with Evernote is great. This is a HUGE miss and a major reason why we haven't deployed Skitch to our entire staff. Skitch is good for some minor quick and dirty docs, but not for doing real work. 

[Taylon 0]

Drop shadows must be one tough feature to implement, or it's so far down the list of TODO items for the developers it's just not going to happen. I posted in this thread previously in Oct 2013, and the thread itself started June 2013.

 

To this day I still use the old Skitch because it has drop shadows, so I guess there's really nothing in the new Skitch I actually need. Just astonished the feature is still missing.

[selfishy 5]

Wow this still isn't fixed. Really makes Skitch seem half-arsed (still!)

[Wet Coast 0]

Just checked in with Skitch 2.7.5 to see if this had been implemented yet. Can't believe it's still not there. So, once again choosing to stick with Skitch 1. Drop shadows are one of the main features that I use with every screen grab I take every single day. I've been a loyal Skitch user on the Mac since its early days and I have to say that I'm not impressed by what Evernote is doing, or not doing, with it.

[MichaelFordTX 0]

Had to upgrade to Mavericks from Snow Leopard due to virus issues and ... after upgrading my apps ... was surprised and Greatly disappointed to find the loss of drop shadows from Skitch.  

 

After finding this thread, I was further blown away to find that something as simple to code as a drop shadow has still not been implemented in the span of a year.  That would take 4 hours of coding time at most, right?

 

After discovering Skitch two years ago, I fell in love and dropped Snapz Pro X like a hot rock.  Now I'm forced to use that again because, as Michael Hyatt so aptly indicated 15 months ago, non-drop shadow images get lost on the page.

 

This is an everyday tool for me that I can't use any more for that reason.

 

Please listen to your community of users and add drop shadows back.  Still SMH on the loss of that feature.  Maybe you poll your users the next time you're consider removing features??  Just a thought.

 

Have a great day!

[Brent Warner 0]

Just want to bump this up. We are now at 2 years since the switch to Evernote and still no drop shadow, no borders.

 

I was reading an article online about how ineffectiveness may be costing global citizens billions of dollars (if not trillions) a year.

 

No joke, but just as a thought experiment, I wonder what the lack of this feature is costing skitch users:

 

We know that Skitch has millions of users, but lets be conservative and say it's 1 million. Now lets imagine that 2% are doing extra work to get their drop shadows or borders back on their work - so 20,000 users. Lets again be incredibly conservative and say those people spend an average of an extra 1 minute per day (perhaps they have an Automator script set up) adding the requested shadows/borders to their images. 

 

So now we've got 20,000 minutes per day being wasted. The average household income is $52,000 a year, even though skitch users are demographically likely to make more. There's roughly 120,000 working minutes in a year, which means that the average salary is about $0.43 per minute

 

$0.43 cents a minute times 20,000 minutes a day times 250 Word days a year = $2,150,000 lost from the global workforce every year. Since this thread has already been up and requesting for more than 2 years, Skitch alone has cost the world economy $4,300,000 by not implementing this requested (and previously available!!!) feature. 

 

I realize my math is simplistic. but I did my best to be conservative. It's not about the specific numbers, but the idea behind it.

 

Please seriously consider reinstating these features.

[dinky 1]

You assume every Stitch user is using the new version, but I'm sure a fair percentage is not: they are still using the old version, that supports shadows/borders. As long as the guys from Evernote refuse to listen to their users, many of us will cling to the old version. It does all it needs to do. 

[Brent Warner 0]

I'm assuming a lot of things - almost everything - it's purely a hypothetical mind experiment. 

 

I'm also assuming that Skitch is aware of how many people are using their old version vs the new one and making decisions based on that info as well.

[rahul286 0]

Is there any progress on this?

Also, I am not able to find old Skitch version. Is it removed?

Ironically, I was a paid customer, who paid for a feature (drop shadow) which was removed when Evernote released new version! :-(

Anyway, if there is any link to download old skitch, please share.

[dinky 1]

Evernote has become champion in removing features you paid for, the most recent one being you can only use it on 2 devices, unless you upgrade. At additional cost, of course)

Still they ironically address us as "most valuable customers"

I am using the old Skitch as well

[wtbates 1]

Skitch is quickly becoming irrelevant. Sadly, id doesn't have to be. Adding boarders and drop shadows is absolutely not a difficult software engineering task. Even just a quick stroke (inside/outside) of the image would be a great start. Sure there are lots of ways you can do this with other apps, or even in Skitch with a box, but as was pointed out earlier in this thread, all wasted time. It is functionality that should be built into the app.

[hakont 5]

Is there a good alternative to Skitch, then?

On Windows, we have Snipping Tool with a built in feature of always use a preset border around every clip.
I use black, and I think this is helpfull when I use the clip somewhere (like, when there is white on white).

In Skitch I have to use a square rectangle with black color, ending up with not equal thick lines in the edges.

[ppzpzpp 1]

1 hour ago, hakont said:

Is there a good alternative to Skitch, then?

The best one is Greenshot (for Windows it's the very best), and they promised to implement borders and shadows on Mac app soon.

[DaveMo 0]

+1 for Greenshot on Windows, -1 for allowing this feature request/restore to languish for four years that so many people have voice as essential to the app's usefulness.

 

[prosim 1]

Evernote - you had a very modest request from a famous user four years ago, a long series of other users requesting the same feature, yet still nothing?  What does it take for users' requests to get prioritized? Every thread I find like this just ends in frustration. 

[DTLow 4,981]

3 hours ago, prosim said:

What does it take for users' requests to get prioritized?

One factor in priortization is the user support for a feature request, as indicated by the votes received

You can indicate your support using the voting buttons at the top left corner of the discussion