Hello everyone!

Today I’ve good news for you.

I’ve finally implemented the feature I am requested too often – custom shapes on the Tagul site.
You no longer need to subscribe to API to create clouds with custom shapes.

The custom shape support is not that good to allow you to create clouds with complex images (like portraits or arbitrary pictures) but anyway it allows you to create beautiful clouds like in the gallery.

Tagul clouds now can be viewed on devices without flash support like ipad, iphone, etc. It is done by delivering SVG instead of flash to such devices. SVG version doesn’t support animation but it looks the same and still clickable.

New embedding code is available in the same place in the cloud generation form.
If you have already embedded your cloud it is recommended that you update its embedding code on your web page.

Hope you enjoy it!

Hi everyone!

Now you can make your cloud’s background color transparent. Just go to “Colors and Animations” and move the slider to zero (or whatever transparency level you want):

If you already embed your cloud you should update the embedding code. As always you can find the correct embedding code in “Grab and Share!” -> “Place on a web page” section.

Thanks for using Tagul,
Alex

Hi everyone!

Since Tagul launch I start receiving complaints from users that it is quite complex to create a cloud with Tagul. So I’ve redesigned the cloud creation form from scratch in order to make it easier to use and more user friendly. Recently I’ve replaced the old form with the new one on Tagul site.

New form also contains new features that were commonly asked:

• Save your cloud as png or svg image
• Print your cloud

I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve completely rewritten the code behind Tagul cloud generator. The main purpose behind was to improve the way Tagul handle cloud shapes. Now the shapes should be more precise. Also new algorithms allow to use any kind of custom shapes for clouds. Here is a demonstration of Android shape:

Custom shapes are not available for Tagul site users yet because the front-end cloud building form must be enhanced to handle it. There is a big complaint related to the building form complexity for using. So I am planning to rebuild it to make it easier to build clouds and then add custom shapes support.

BTW custom shapes are ready to be used with the API.

I am glad to announce that the full featured API is available now. If you want to integrate Tagul clouds into your web project – the full featured API is right for you.

Here is how it works in a nutshell:

- Create a specific xml with tag cloud data
- Connect to Tagul VPN
- Send the xml to Tagul API server using XML-PRC request
- Receive cloud ID that can be used in the embedding code
or
- Receive cloud data file that can be directly passed to flash component to be rendered in real-time

API access is not free and is offered at monthly fee that depends on clouds volume being generated.

If you are interested or have any questions please contact me at support@tagul.com for more information.

Alex

Sorry, there has been no update for long time because I was quite busy. But the project is still alive and here is a good news for you. Following a popular demand the amount of clouds you can simultaneously create with Tagul is extended to 20.

Have a good luck!

The short answer is: yes, while in beta.

You know, it costs money to develop the service and keep it running. I am not a big corporation and certainly cannot do it for charity. So eventually I am forced to monetize Tagul. I don’t have the exact monetization strategy by now, but probably it will be some mix between embedded in clouds ads and a paid subscription. Also I have a strong intention to leave it free for non-profit use.

Therefore if you consider using Tagul clouds for your enterprise please be advised.

A month has passed since Tagul became available to public. Since then Tagul has been visited by 5,567 people from 83 countries and virtually a thousand users have registered.

Great result! I couldn’t ever expect such interest in the very first month. It makes me more motivated in improving the service and keep providing you the best tag clouds in the web. Thank you very much for your interest!

P.S. More features are coming soon!

Stay tuned!