I was just about to upgrade to the new version of Sip, when I noticed that it’s now advertising as “per machine”. I know sometimes things get lost in translation with the Sip guys, but can anyone who has upgraded confirm: Is the licence now locked to a single machine?
I have Sip on my three daily usage machines, so if the app is now locked to a single device, this is going to be costly upgrade!
My version is 4.5.2
What’s the latest one?
Not exactly sure. It’s marketed at v2, but like you, I already seem to be on v4!
Yeah, it’s difficult to work out. I think the new one is v2. So the first question should be - what’'s the difference / benefits of v2? Then - are they worth the upgrade and pay per machine?
I went to the website and downloaded the .dmg
When attempting to install it asked to replace my existing Sip so I quit. So it’s not obviously v2.
Also on the pricing page the main option - $10 - only promises updates for 1 year.
Getting back to a quasi subscription model. Very topical.
I tried the demo a few days ago, but it seemed fiddly and unintuitive. For whatever reason it didn’t work like 1.1.6, so I uninstalled it. If you want to try them side by side, just rename the original one to something like Sip Old.
Sip is on SetApp which allows for 2 machine installs with the base subscription. Of course, SetApp itself is a subscription, but can be a great value if enough of the apps work for you.
The SIP versions are, in fact, a little confusing!
I began with version 4.4, but then discovered a newer version which was labeled 1.4 (which then updated through to version 1.6) The newest version is 2.0.
Initial cost $10 for the first year — per machine. Follow-up cost $5/year.
The predominant improvements:
Pros: Once you’ve worked out the basics, SIP’s easier to use than than older version 4
(IMHO) — copying colour history into a new palette for instance.
Cons: •Will import colour palettes from V1, but not from V4
To “import” colours from V4, you first need to start V2, then start the (renamed) V4, then copy individual colours into V2.
• clicking Esc or the space bar does not deactivate the colour picker (but F1 will!)
The versioning of SIP is very strange indeed. I think I have purchased the full version and then subsequent updates about 3 times now. I only use it on one machine. So you can perhaps see my hesitation against forking-out an annual subscription to continue receiving updates. I’ve given the developers of SIP quite a bit of money already and never asked them for support or bugged them with feature requests.
And regarding features, this is the other thing. I’d say that currently I only use about 20% of what SIP can do. I use it to launch the Mac OS colour picker from toolbar. If I am starting a new project, I may create a new color palette. But I can honestly say I have not created new colour palettes since December.
Possible alternatives I am exploring and some options of interest to others:
To launch the Mac OS Colour picker (which can be a surprisingly powerful tool in its own right) more easily, open Apple Script editor (find it with Spotlight) and type:
choose color
Then File > Export. Give it a name. Save it to somewhere like your Applications folder. Set the File Format to Application. Leave the code signing options as they are.
Now in future when you open your little ‘app’, it launches the Mac OS Colour picker ‘standalone’ for you, like this:
If you want to, you can give it a custom icon and pin it to your dock. I mostly access mine through Spotlight whenever I need it.
The other alternative I’m looking at (in the light as a possible replacement to SIP) is ColorSlurp:
http://colorslurp.com/
Mostly I am looking at this for its ability to create simple colour collections and choose colours in different formats. So far I am only on the free version. But I am quite impressed with what it can do and I’m considering upgrading to the Pro version, to get those extra colour formats.
SIP is ideal for colour sampling, it is precise and fairly simple to use, but it’s not aimed at colour palette creation.
If I want to create a colour palette, I use Pikka http://www.pikkaapp.com
Good recommendation Rob - although I have Sip V2 i am not that impressed with it - it still remains quirky and clunky imo - Pikka seems to tick the boxes I am looking for
Paul
Hi Will
I’m totally loving colorslurp too - other than not being able to name colours I cant find much wrong with it - I emailed the developer and he said that its on the ‘to-do’ list but unsure of ETA
Paul
Its a great shame that the colours curated appear not to be able to be dropped into colour wells
