TextFrame
Creative
animated documents
SHOW HN2021
How HN took it
13 positive, 7 neutral or asking, 7 mixed, 5 critical, out of 32 comments about the project. Thread score +0.26.
Idea: 9 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Animations make the example papers engaging and easier to understand.
From 3 comments
I heavily disagree with this. I went through the example papers on the website and found that the animations made a huge positive impact on my experience. While people who prefer…
htshnr on HNI found the Bitcoin paper example to be very compelling - really awesome work! You have a great eye for design. I signed up and liked the familiar Notion-style interface, however…
primitivesuave on HNThis is a really interesting and deceptively simple idea. "Animate technical papers" seemed (to me) like a silly concept as a one-liner, but the example really does the media…
mceoin on HN
No-code editor and Notion-style interface are appealing.
From 2 comments
Very cool. I was impressed with the no-code aspect - especially for WYSIWYG based tech writers. Have you considered integrating with DocFX, Jekyll, Read The Docs and the ilk. I'd…
np-complete on HNI found the Bitcoin paper example to be very compelling - really awesome work! You have a great eye for design. I signed up and liked the familiar Notion-style interface, however…
primitivesuave on HN
Objections
Animations can trigger unexpectedly while scrolling, causing missed content.
From 4 comments
Congrats ! I think you should make sure an animation stops before the next one starts, or something similar. I am a burst scroller (read the full page, then scroll), and sometime…
carreau on HNReally cool, but the examples don't work well for me. One scroll step with my mouse on Windows is enough to scroll past some of the intermediary animations. A lot of information…
Xevi on HNThere's a lot of information happening and there's a huge chance I might miss something because the scroll animation is quite sensitive but I'm really amazed by the idea.
braramod on HNnice idea but I think not knowing exactly when the animation will change is really a negative. it's fine if you are reading and scrolling slowly in a linear manner, but whenever…
oolonthegreat on HN
Not printable or degrading gracefully to PDF/print.
From 2 comments
Technical frills are nice and all, but I wish some effort would be put into degrading gracefully. It's impossible to print this paper, for example.
marginalia_nu on HN"this needs to degrade gracefully for PDFs and printed media." It does not. I can't remember the last time I printed out a tutorial video. Just because this media describes…
iandanforth on HN
Lock-in risk: no way to export or self-host the paper.
From 1 comment
I like the idea, but as someone who might use this type of tool, you need to say somewhere fairly early on that there is a way for me to download my "paper" and host it myself.…
CJefferson on HN
Target market unclear; many readers of technical papers don't want animations.
From 1 comment
I like the approach and it looks cool, but you might struggle with the target market here. Most people reading technical papers care absolutely zero about the animations in…
sgt on HN
Requests
Add an export to static HTML or a self-hosted download.
From 1 comment
That's definitely something I've been thinking about. I'm currently working on a feature to export to static HTML.
Outofthebot on HN
Add more scroll resistance or clearer animation triggers.
From 2 comments
Love it. Personally I would love a slightest bit of resistance while I scroll to the next page or animation pane. The fluidity is kinda weird to me.
anyfactor on HNnice idea but I think not knowing exactly when the animation will change is really a negative. it's fine if you are reading and scrolling slowly in a linear manner, but whenever…
oolonthegreat on HN
Integrate with docs tools like DocFX, Jekyll, Read The Docs.
From 1 comment
Very cool. I was impressed with the no-code aspect - especially for WYSIWYG based tech writers. Have you considered integrating with DocFX, Jekyll, Read The Docs and the ilk. I'd…
np-complete on HN
Questions
Which part of the product was built first, editor or output page?
From 1 comment
Super impressive Wysiwyg editor. Which part of the product did you build first? Did you build an example output page first the the editor, or did you start from the editor itself?
lab on HN
Alternatives named
slides.com
From 1 comment
One system which works really well for this (for me) is slides.com Paid accounts can sync to Dropbox, and the files in Dropbox are enough for me to view my presentations -- I…
CJefferson on HN
Idyll framework
From 1 comment
This is awesome! I also recommend Idyll, a JS / React framework for creating scrollables: https://idyll-lang.org/docs I am a backer in the open collective :]
skadamat on HN
Distill.pub interactive articles
From 1 comment
Love it. Personally I would love a slightest bit of resistance while I scroll to the next page or animation pane. The fluidity is kinda weird to me.
anyfactor on HN