<p>Yesterday I <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/splashify">announced</a> the release of my Christmas side project <a href="https://splashify.net/">Splashify</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://images.ctfassets.net/9b1r03jrrwqy/1TXCCtl9lIIjwdl79maKBM/3ff8d7ff7a0f69323905510f4a6e5723/1_IVvJUl7LiTxCS9GVRAlCCg.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>At Christmas time I like to build a side project that helps me to learn something new and push me to do something out of my comfort zone. A few years ago I <a href="https://gilbert.pellegrom.me/cow-launcher-e0227040c6cf#.9o1rghibm">built an iOS game</a> and released it on the app store. This year I decided I wanted to build some kind of desktop app for the Mac using <a href="http://electron.atom.io/">Electron</a>.</p>
<p>I love beautiful desktop wallpapers. I have a bit of a thing for them. So I decided to build an app using the <a href="https://unsplash.com/developers">Unsplash API</a> to fetch stunning, royalty free photos and use them as desktop wallpapers. As it was a side project I wanted to build something relatively simple but still useful so this idea seemed to make sense. After a few weeks of evening and weekends Splashify 1.0.0 was released. Here is a short video demo of the app in action:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpPlPbqhc9E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpPlPbqhc9E</a></p>
<h2>Built With</h2>
<p>Here are some libraries and packages I used to build Splashify:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://electron.atom.io/">Electron</a> — For creating cross platform desktop apps using web technologies</li>
<li><a href="https://vuejs.org/">Vue.js</a> — For the app components and front-end</li>
<li><a href="http://masonry.desandro.com/">Masonry</a> — For laying out images</li>
<li><a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/unsplash-js">unsplash-js</a> — For interacting with the <a href="https://unsplash.com/developers">Unsplash API</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/wallpaper">wallpaper</a> — For setting the desktop wallpaper</li>
<li><a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/jimp">jimp</a> — For image processing</li>
</ul>
<p>I’d just like the thank the authors and contributors of these open source libraries for making all of this possible at no cost. You all do amazing work.</p>
<h2>Launch Stats</h2>
<p>Here are some of the stats from “launch day” <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/splashify">on Product Hunt</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Votes on PH: 272</li>
<li>Visits to <a href="https://splashify.net/">splashify.net</a>: 3,653</li>
<li>Downloads: 798 (Mac), 32 (Win)</li>
<li>Stars on <a href="https://github.com/gilbitron/Splashify">GitHub</a>: 25</li>
</ul>
<p>Overall I’m quite impressed with the response. It finished in 5th place for the day on Product Hunt and was in the top 4 for most of the day.</p>
<p>If you haven’t yet tried Splashify you should go ahead and <a href="https://splashify.net/">download it now</a>!</p>
