Hi everyone ā I'm Roman, the maker behind Colir.
A bit of philosophy behind it:
Not every tool needs to be the star of your workflow. Colir is the one that's quietly there for when the built-in gradient picker isn't cutting it. Simple to pick up, smooth learning curve, and the kind of results that feel effortless. Think of it like a good hammer ā nothing flashy, does its job well, and you'll still be reaching for it years from now.
I built it after years of brand and motion work where every gradient tool I tried gave me the same flat linear stops. So I made the one I actually wanted to use.
Would love your feedback ā both on the tool itself and anything you'd want added. Happy to answer questions in the thread.
ā Roman
@busmark_w_nikaĀ Thanks Nika! That gap is exactly what made me build Colir -most gradient tools converge on the same linear stops, so I tried a different angle with curves on X/Y axes. Glad it's coming through.
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I tried the app and it's really cool. For the future - how will it handle animations? What export options will you support?
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I am working on a similar side project involving animated gradients, and there are many tricky aspects. I'm curious to know how you handled that challenge! Congrats on launch!
@antoninkusĀ Thanks Antonin, glad you tried it! Animations are already tested internally but not released yet - I want to make sure the static experience is at its best before adding them, so the UI doesn't get overcomplicated.
The plan is something like a separate tab/mode where you animate the gradient you built either with keyframes or automatic presets. For export: MP4/WebM for the web, plus an embed-code option that renders the animation natively in the browser for best quality.
Now this is a pretty interesting and unique product! It's kinda refreshing in this day and age of sloppy content to see a nice & well thought tool to create interesting visual elements and this is something I would definitely buy!
But it's probably where my issue lies: I would love to buy a downloadable version of this product even if I have to pay 100$ (so more than the annual fee) to use as a local app but I don't see myself paying a subscription to generate gradients, no matter how interesting it is, as I could do this with Illustrator in some ways.
I think you have a very interesting tool, but I'm not sure you got the appropriate business model. I know everyone want to have their monthly revenue and therefore go for the subscription model, but it's not appropriate for all businesses, and some products are better suited for one-time purchase with yearly updates that you can pay for if you choose to (Xnapper is a real good example of this and got my purchase immediately).
I wish you the best, and if you decide to offer an alternative way of purchasing your product for local usage without requiring subscription, you already got a customer for that!
@juanggzĀ Thanks Juan - really appreciate the thoughtful comment.
Quick correction that might flip your read: Colir already has a perpetual license at $49, tied to your account. Less than half your $100 ceiling, with all features and lifetime updates included. Worth a second look at the pricing page if it wasn't visible.
The subscription tier is mostly there for designers who need higher export volume during an active project (a brand sprint, a campaign) but aren't ready to commit to perpetual yet. Most users who plan to keep using Colir go straight to perpetual ā same logic as Xnapper, which is a great call by the way.
On web vs local: Colir runs on WebGL, which is what makes the real-time curve manipulation feel instant. A native rewrite from scratch isn't on the roadmap right now. But ā if I ever sunset Colir for any reason, every perpetual license holder will get a local downloadable build of whatever the final version was. So the perpetual is genuinely yours, even in a worst-case scenario.
Web also lets me ship features and fixes continuously instead of app-store release cycles, which is the other reason it stays browser-based for now.
Either way ā thanks for pushing on the model.
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@roman_tsymbrylaĀ Indeed, I totally missed the perpetual license, looking at the page again, I think the overall design for the "7$/month" caught the eyes so much it eclipsed everything else. š
Now this is more something I can get being and actually putting your product on my buying list. I also understand your decision regarding the browser-based approach, I'm the kind who think Browser is the ultimate application, it's mostly that for my graphic design goal, I like to work locally and switch between creative software rather than switching tab (+ softwares in the end). Tho, wouldn't a Docker and a localhost/web-sever do the trick instead of rewriting the whole app to be native.
Regardless of this, I'll check your perpetual license, it's definitely the kind of product & work I want to support and appreciate to see online. š
@juanggzĀ Thanks. That pricing-page feedback is genuinely useful - if the perpetual is getting eclipsed by the monthly tier visually, that's a design problem on my end, not a comprehension problem on yours. I'll take a hard look at the hierarchy.
And thanks for adding Colir to your list. If you do pick up the perpetual, would love to hear how it fits into your workflow.
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As a fellow maker currently building in the Ai Image space, Iām wondering if we could use this as a tool to give our customers a little more control over their templates. How easily does it plug into other work flows? We've built in Mind Studio but are also going 'headless'
@couldashouldawouldaĀ Thanks Fraser- interesting use case. Right now Colir is intentionally focused as a standalone tool for regular users, not an embeddable integration or SDK. There are still a bunch of core features I want to build, and Iād rather make sure the product itself is genuinely useful and polished before expanding into API/SDK territory.
Deeper workflow integrations could definitely be interesting later -just not the main focus yet.
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Very cool - love products like this that don't try to do too much but nail simple functionality. Clicked the link and played around with it for half an hour without even realizing
Replies
Colir
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
I do not think that there are so many solutions like this. So it is even more unique :)
Colir
@busmark_w_nikaĀ Thanks Nika! That gap is exactly what made me build Colir -most gradient tools converge on the same linear stops, so I tried a different angle with curves on X/Y axes. Glad it's coming through.
I tried the app and it's really cool. For the future - how will it handle animations? What export options will you support?
I am working on a similar side project involving animated gradients, and there are many tricky aspects. I'm curious to know how you handled that challenge! Congrats on launch!
Colir
@antoninkusĀ Thanks Antonin, glad you tried it! Animations are already tested internally but not released yet - I want to make sure the static experience is at its best before adding them, so the UI doesn't get overcomplicated.
The plan is something like a separate tab/mode where you animate the gradient you built either with keyframes or automatic presets. For export: MP4/WebM for the web, plus an embed-code option that renders the animation natively in the browser for best quality.
@roman_tsymbrylaĀ thank you! good approach!
Now this is a pretty interesting and unique product! It's kinda refreshing in this day and age of sloppy content to see a nice & well thought tool to create interesting visual elements and this is something I would definitely buy!
But it's probably where my issue lies: I would love to buy a downloadable version of this product even if I have to pay 100$ (so more than the annual fee) to use as a local app but I don't see myself paying a subscription to generate gradients, no matter how interesting it is, as I could do this with Illustrator in some ways.
I think you have a very interesting tool, but I'm not sure you got the appropriate business model. I know everyone want to have their monthly revenue and therefore go for the subscription model, but it's not appropriate for all businesses, and some products are better suited for one-time purchase with yearly updates that you can pay for if you choose to (Xnapper is a real good example of this and got my purchase immediately).
I wish you the best, and if you decide to offer an alternative way of purchasing your product for local usage without requiring subscription, you already got a customer for that!
All the best buddy š
Colir
@juanggzĀ Thanks Juan - really appreciate the thoughtful comment.
Quick correction that might flip your read: Colir already has a perpetual license at $49, tied to your account. Less than half your $100 ceiling, with all features and lifetime updates included. Worth a second look at the pricing page if it wasn't visible.
The subscription tier is mostly there for designers who need higher export volume during an active project (a brand sprint, a campaign) but aren't ready to commit to perpetual yet. Most users who plan to keep using Colir go straight to perpetual ā same logic as Xnapper, which is a great call by the way.
On web vs local: Colir runs on WebGL, which is what makes the real-time curve manipulation feel instant. A native rewrite from scratch isn't on the roadmap right now. But ā if I ever sunset Colir for any reason, every perpetual license holder will get a local downloadable build of whatever the final version was. So the perpetual is genuinely yours, even in a worst-case scenario.
Web also lets me ship features and fixes continuously instead of app-store release cycles, which is the other reason it stays browser-based for now.
Either way ā thanks for pushing on the model.
@roman_tsymbrylaĀ Indeed, I totally missed the perpetual license, looking at the page again, I think the overall design for the "7$/month" caught the eyes so much it eclipsed everything else. š
Now this is more something I can get being and actually putting your product on my buying list. I also understand your decision regarding the browser-based approach, I'm the kind who think Browser is the ultimate application, it's mostly that for my graphic design goal, I like to work locally and switch between creative software rather than switching tab (+ softwares in the end). Tho, wouldn't a Docker and a localhost/web-sever do the trick instead of rewriting the whole app to be native.
Regardless of this, I'll check your perpetual license, it's definitely the kind of product & work I want to support and appreciate to see online. š
Colir
@juanggzĀ Thanks. That pricing-page feedback is genuinely useful - if the perpetual is getting eclipsed by the monthly tier visually, that's a design problem on my end, not a comprehension problem on yours. I'll take a hard look at the hierarchy.
And thanks for adding Colir to your list. If you do pick up the perpetual, would love to hear how it fits into your workflow.
As a fellow maker currently building in the Ai Image space, Iām wondering if we could use this as a tool to give our customers a little more control over their templates. How easily does it plug into other work flows?
We've built in Mind Studio but are also going 'headless'
Colir
@couldashouldawouldaĀ Thanks Fraser- interesting use case.
Right now Colir is intentionally focused as a standalone tool for regular users, not an embeddable integration or SDK. There are still a bunch of core features I want to build, and Iād rather make sure the product itself is genuinely useful and polished before expanding into API/SDK territory.
Deeper workflow integrations could definitely be interesting later -just not the main focus yet.
Very cool - love products like this that don't try to do too much but nail simple functionality. Clicked the link and played around with it for half an hour without even realizing
Colir
@saadhaq Thanks! Appreciate the feedback.