Michal Ždanský File organization can be messy at times, whether you're trying your best to separate files into their proper folders or color code them correctly. OS X Mavericks makes this a lot easier thanks to tagging, but the classic file structure will still be a confusing jungle for many users.
Apple solved this problem with iOS in its own way - it concentrates files directly in applications, and we can see a similar approach on Mac. A classic example is iPhoto. Instead of sorting individual events into subfolders in the photo item, the user can easily organize them directly in the application and not worry about where the files are stored. At the same time, the application can provide a much better and more logical overview than a classic file manager. And it also works on a similar principle ember, a relatively new app from Realmac Software.
To be precise, Ember isn't all that new, it's basically a redesign of the older LittleSnapper app, but released separately. And what exactly is Ember (and LittleSnapper was)? Simply put, it can be called iPhoto for all other images. It is a digital album where you can store images downloaded from the Internet, graphic works created, sketches or screenshots and sort them accordingly.
The sorting process in Ember is about the simplest imaginable. You add images to the application by simply dragging them, or from the context menu in Services (Add to Ember), which you access by clicking on the file. New images are automatically saved to the category Unprocessed in the left bar, from where you can then sort them either into prepared folders – Screenshots, Web, Photos, Tablet and Phone – or into your own folders. Ember also includes so-called smart folders. The existing Recently Added folder will show recently added images to the application, and in your own smart folders you can set the conditions according to which images will appear in this folder. However, Smart Folders do not work as a folder itself, they should be seen as a filtered search.
The last option for organization is labels, with which you can assign each image and then filter images according to them into smart folders or simply search for images in the ubiquitous search field. In addition to labels, images can also have other flags - a description, a URL, or a rating. even those can be a factor for search or smart folders.
You can not only add images to Ember, but also create them, specifically screenshots. OS X has its own screenshot tool, but Ember has a bit of an edge here due to the added features. Like the operating system, it can take a screenshot of the entire screen or a section, but it adds two more options. The first one is a window snapshot, where you select the application window from which you want to create a snapshot with the mouse. You don't have to make an exact cut-out so that the background of the desktop is not visible on it. Ember can also optionally add a nice drop shadow to the captured image.
The second option is the self-timer, where Ember visibly counts down five seconds before taking the entire screen. This is especially useful if you want to record the action of dragging the mouse or similar situations that could not be recorded in the normal way. The still-running application in the top bar is used for scanning, where you can choose the type of capture, but for each type, you can also choose any keyboard shortcut in the settings.
Ember takes special care in scanning web pages. It contains its own browser, in which you open the desired page and then you can scan in several ways. The first of them is to remove the entire page, that is, not only the visible part, but the entire length of the page up to the footer. The second option allows you to remove only a certain element from the page, for example only an icon, image or part of the menu.
Finally, the last option to add images to Ember is to subscribe to RSS feeds. The application has a built-in RSS reader that can extract images from the RSS feeds of various image-oriented sites and display them for possible storage in the library. For example, if you are looking for inspiration for your graphic work on certain sites, Ember can make this search a little more pleasant, but it is more of an additional feature, at least I personally could not use its potential too much.
If we already have images saved, in addition to organizing them, we can also add annotations to them or edit them. Ember is capable of classic cropping and possible rotation, for further adjustments, look for a graphic editor. Then there is the annotation menu, which is quite questionable, especially for LittleSnapper users. LittleSnapper offered several different tools - oval, rectangle, line, arrow, insert text or blur. One could choose the color arbitrarily through the color picker in OS X, and with the help of the slider it was possible to set the thickness of the line or the strength of the effect.
Ember strives for a kind of minimalism, but Realmac Software seems to have thrown out the bathwater with the baby. Instead of several icons with tools, here we have only two - drawing and inserting text. The third icon allows you to choose one of six colors or three types of thickness. You can draw freehand or use the so-called "magical drawing". The way this works is that if you roughly sketch a rectangle or square, the shape you create will turn into that, the same goes for an oval or an arrow.
The problem arises as soon as you want to work with these objects further. Although it is possible to move them or change their colors or line thickness to a limited extent, unfortunately the option to change the size is completely missing. For example, if you want to precisely delimit the button on the screenshot, you will struggle with the magic drawing for a while, until you prefer to open preview (Preview) and do not annotate here. In the same way, it is not possible to change the font or its size of the text. Additionally, the tool that gave LittleSnapper the upper hand against Preview - blurring - is completely missing. Instead of adding features, the developers have completely stripped down a previously excellent annotation tool to the point of being useless.
If you manage to create some annotations, or if you have at least cropped the image to the desired shape, you can not only export it, but also share it to various services. In addition to the system ones (Facebook, Twitter, AirDrop, e-mail, ...) there is also CloudApp, Flickr and Tumblr.
As I said at the beginning, Ember is more or less a recolored and stripped down LittleSnapper. The change in the user interface is positive, the application has a much cleaner look and behaves more quickly than its predecessor. The problem, however, is that for previous LittleSnapper users, a fresh coat of paint and an extra RSS service isn't enough to make them invest an extra $50 on a new app. Even regardless of LittleSnapper, the price is overpriced.
But in the end, the buried dog is not in the price, but in the functions, the list of which simply cannot justify the price. Annotations are significantly worse and more limited than in the previous version, then there are other limits that LittleSnapper didn't have, such as the inability to resize thumbnails or specify the image size when exporting. If you already own a previous LittleSnapper, I recommend staying away from Ember, at least for now.
I can't recommend Ember for everyone else either, at least until an update brings back at least the original functionality. The developers revealed that they are working on fixing the flaws, especially in the annotations, but it could take months. After more than a week with Ember, I finally decided to go back to LittleSnapper, even though I know it won't get any updates in the future (it was removed from the Mac App Store), it still serves my purposes significantly better than Ember. While it's a solid app with a nice and intuitive user interface, none of that excuses the current flaws that make Ember that much harder to beat at $50.
[app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/ember/id402456742?mt=12″]
A reminder about the mentioned absence of removing the application window by native scanning by the operating system itself...
Just activate the viewport mode (ctrl + shift + 4) and switch the mode to capture the application window with the spacebar. It will be "cropped" to the window itself, without a background and with a shadow. Even the Dock itself can be scanned this way.
I have a question, where does Ember store embedded images? For example, I would expect a library in pictures like iphoto has.