over 8 years ago from Mikel van den Oord, Visual Designer
Hi everybody,
I am a visual designer and i would like to know how you guys save websites and elements you like to save for inspiration.
I tried evernote for a while but i hate the chrome plug-in. RIght now i just bookmark stuff but that is not working out.
Indeed, I use Dragdis too. It's so easy to bookmark things - just drag and drop. No need to click buttons, no need to open things and then close them. I use it since the first launch and my bookmark archive and usage improved since then.
There were Iceber.gs, it was quite like Dragdis but Yahoo bought them and closed unfortunately.
And for Ember, although it may be a good product, I wouldn't pay for a bookmark manager if I have awesome free competitors.
+1 for Dragdis. Although the search and tagging system is somewhat lacking, the ease of dragging and dropping compensates for it.
Confession: I've been slowly transitioning my bookmarking back to Evernote, mainly for the amazing search and tagging ability. And it also doesn't hurt to be able to access your collection from any device.
This. I love Dragdis, and have been using it almost exclusively, but find the tagging system and the fact that everything is cropped to a square (not really helpful, when you're relying on visual memory to find something) a bit glaring.
Dragdis is very useful!
Hey Mikel,
Check out http://getstache.com. I think it might be what your after.
Stache is a Mac/iOS app which archives web pages (as full-page screenshots and webarchives) and has some cool features like full content search to make it quick and easy to find the pages you bookmarked in the future.
Stache for Mac and iOS are currently on sale (over 30% off), so it's a great time to pick them up!
If you have any questions, fire away!
This is terrific. I've been on a lazy hunt for something like this for who knows how long. Purchasing now.
Thanks Will!
Problem with Stache: It doesn't save the actual webarchives/screenshots in iCloud so once you reinstall the app you'll either run into troubles or have to backup some random containers in ~/Library. Otherwise you'll just end up with a bunch of links but no snapshots.
I'm a fan of Pinboard for archiving pages — it's only $25 a year and the cached versions are really, really great. Plus it gives you full text search of the entire cached page.
Hey Thomas. This is by design, at least initially. All those screenshots and archives start to eat up space and with most people having limited iCloud storage we decided to sync only what's really necessary for all devices.
Apple have since dropped their iCloud pricing now, so it's definitely something we're reconsidering.
You can re-generate the screenshots and web-archives by right clicking a bookmark (or a selection of many) and choosing 'Reload'. And, as always, we do recommend keeping backups of your data. Time Machine will handle this out of the box, otherwise our support docs indicate which files to keep backed up. Hope this helps!
I got some problems with syncing, I wish I can sync with iCloud Drive.
And after I added a bookmark I have to open Stache app to edit the tags..
When I selected some tags on the left sidebar, I got results that contains the selected tags
Not filtering the tags
Hi Ray,
Stache works fine with iCloud Drive. Where did you read otherwise?
We're working to improve the Stache workflow and plan to add the ability to tag from the browser extensions.
We had some trouble getting filtering to work and found it to be a little unintuitive in the workflow we had so we scrapped it for v1. Other features have taken priority since but it's definitely something we plan to revive.
Thanks for your reply Oliver.
The problems with syncing means Users can't figure out how the syncing works.
I search about Stache sync on Twitter i got many similar feedbacks. And bring them all to Zendesk is not the best way to let users understand or solve problems.
However Stache is one of my favourite App, i'm using it everyday, i hope Stache will be better and i trust it can be.
THanks for your response. This is exactly what i need! 1 question, how does the syncing works? Can i use it on 2 computers? And where does it saves the screenshots?
Hi Mikel,
There's more on sync here: https://stache.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/200597052-Troubleshooting-iCloud
You can use it on as many devices as you wish. All screenshots are saved in your user library but are not supposed to be accessible this way. Specific locations of your data can be found here: https://stache.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/201599822-Backing-up-Stache-Data
You can export screenshots by selecting the bookmarks and choosing Bookmark > Export Screenshot.
Hope this helps!
Easy! I use LittleSnapper for that. Nowadays it is transformed into Ember. It's looks quite expensive but it is worth the investment. You can arrange by pattern, platform or any given tag. Easy retrieval of your inspiration.
Start building your library from now on and it will become really valuable in the future!
http://realmacsoftware.com/ember
PS: You can buy this bundle with Ember for only $29.99! https://specials.9to5toys.com/sales/the-mac-to-the-future-bundle
+1
I asked this same question awhile back. Was using Icebergs. Switched to Dragdis. Tried Ember and switched to that. Go with Ember.
Thanks for the tip about the bundle. Been on the fence because of the price, but at that price point its a no brainer!
Dragdis is my tool of choice. Its effortless to just drag and drop urls and create new folders.
Ember, now it syncs with Dropbox which means I get all my inspiration I've pulled on all of my devices. Its a bit pricey, but totally worth having inspiration at your fingertips all the time.
Tried pretty much all the tools and eventually bought ember, never looked back. Excellent for collecting anything you like and easy to find back. I use it a lot for client inspiration, just make groups, use tags, whatever you like and you can check it back at any time on any device. If website inspiration for you only means bookmarks it might be a bit overkill, but if you collect images, screenshots (responsive full site screenshots build right into ember), copy writing, and all sorts of webdesign related inspiration I would advice ember for sure. Sometimes paying for something is worth it. Ow and ember also lets you add rss feeds of websites (dribbble, designspiration, etc.) so you can just open ember and slide through the latest batch of inspirational images.
Btw.. for just bookmarking interesting articles I use the wunderlist chrome plugin.
Inboard. Replaced Little Snapper/Ember in my workflow.
It's not a Swiss knife. We focused on making just the most essential features to reduce clutter and let your images shine.
I heard Inboard has been abandoned?
They're stuck in development hell and are desperately searching for a developer. Sucks balls, because their Pinterest-style browsing was perfect for me. I even submitted a feature-request to Ember for it!
This looks nice 'cause it's free!
Dropmark all the way!
I'm currently using raindrop.io. It's got a few hiccups, but it's been pretty sweet so far.
Vote for this one. So far it's the only app I can actually really use in practice.
Delicious
I use Evernote in a pretty simple way for that: I just make a screenshot of every element I see on a website and adore and paste it into a single Evernote note. I have different categories there and paste the element wherever it fits best. Of course the note gets quite big over time, but this way I see everything in just one glance if I need some inspiration.
I use Pocket a lot. https://getpocket.com/ And a slack channel for sharing with the team. https://slack.com/
Oh no!
I have a Flickr account with private albums where I store inspiration and other morgue-file type stuff. I just take screenshots, then batch upload them later. Things like Dragdis or Stache may be faster, from a process standpoint, but I like the simplicity of just a photo album.
Dragdis is Unique Tool, Thanks Guys !
If you want to save webdesign inspiration, you have to take screen shots. Trust me I try every possible tools. The best solution I found so far: take screen shot with Shotpin chrome extension and then share it on Pinterest. (I'm using secret boards, if needed just invite my colleague to my secret board. )
Hi there Mikel,
If you're on a mac, this could also be an option: http://realmacsoftware.com/ember
Cheers!
Mikel, I have used number of fancy tools mentioned here - LittleSnapper, Dragdis, Gimme Bar, Iceberg etc., and spent quite sometime with each of them. Their interface and feature set is pretty much the same and one extremely important thing they all of them lack is performance to deliver a smooth ux.
I’ve been in ‘shut up and take my money’ mode for years for whoever resolves this problem.
I keeping coming back to using screenshot shortcut commands in Mac and saving them in Dropbox by default. Who has got time for tagging, organising et all. Hope that helps. Thanks.
Pocket for reading and Delicious for websites, found it to be the perfect combo for referring back to things on multiple devices :)
[ᴅᴇʟᴇᴛᴇᴅ]
I used Evernote before (with add-on Skitch), but these days I'm happy with Ember (Mac only). It's really good to keep your inspirations in on place (AI, PSD instant preview is a good feature too)
Have you tried Skitch with Evernote? That's what I use. Super easy to screenshots in and you still get the organizational benefits of Evernote. https://evernote.com/skitch/
Hi everybody,
Last year i asked you guys what is the best tool for saving design inspiration. After reading the discussion i chose to use Ember. I bought the tool but now they stopped with the development. This results in a tool that does not work on el capitan and can't sync between my work computer and personal computer.
So my question to you all is again: What tool do you use for saving inspiration and why do you like it?
Cheers
Mike
Bought stache, but it was not working at all. Right now i am trying ember but the screenshot function is not working good. A lot of elements are turing black when i use the browser extension. Any idea what i do wrong?
Wow thanks for all the response! I didn't thought you guys would help me this much in such a short time.
Did some research and i think there are three options that are doing what i want: ember, stache and raindrop. The price of stache is not that bad and i think that is what i need. But how does the syncing works? Because i want to use it on my personal computer and my computer at work.
Raindrop does what i need but it is a web app. Personally i would like a native app. So i don't dependent on a internet connection.
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