Insert text and proper arrows

[pepev-nrt]

Hi, a chemistry PhD student here.

Would it be possible to implement the addition of text in the program? I think that the current title tag is enough for simple molecules but not sufficient to draw complete reactions. In the draws we use to write papers is necessary to add text everywhere. Also, the reaction arrows are weird as they are now, maybe the ability to place them independently and make them a standalone object? With text it would be possible to add things like a molecule and then '+ CO₂' with an arrow.

Here I show a example of how that addition would make JChemPaint to be able to create reactions like the ones that we find in day to day papers.

JChemPaint

The paper

Close source molecule drawing program

Regards.

[johnmay]

I plan to add this but no timeline I am afraid.

The tricky thing is ideally, this would be interpreted chemically but it's hard because it mixes line formula and names and a temperature. What I mean is when you export the SMILES it should really put the reagents in there.

I did have a way to put the conditions in using data Sgroups in CXSMILES but I wasn't happy and no longer seems to work.

>> |SgD::cdk:ReactionConditions:Heat
Hv|

[johnmay]

I will add the arrow in the main rendered is better - i.e.

```C1=CC=CC=C1C(Br)C(=O)Cl>O=C(O)c1ccccc1O>C=1C=CC=C(C1)C(C(=O)OC=2C(=CC=CC2)C(O)=O)Br````

at https://www.simolecule.com/cdkdepict/depict.html

Unfortunately the way reactions are done in JChemPaint is a little different so it doesn't currently benefit from the better arrows.

[pepev-nrt]

That Friedel-Crafts acylation in the web looks really really nice. How could I create that with open source projects?

I would see myself switching over JChemPaint or any alternative if I were able to do something like that. But yeah, I totally get that this kind of developments takes a lot of time and in the case of the developers, time is their personal free time or money. In the case of drawing molecules, I'm really tired of close source programs that are shipped with a subscription fee not accessible for normal users, just by companies. I think that we know what program I'm talking about.

This month the license we have in the university is going to expire. Talking with my thesis director I asked if there was an alternative and his literal words were "It's a monopoly". That really hit me. Because with the subscription that we pay to the companies is only used to do "enshittification" on their products, but if Universities or companies supported the development of open source tools we could have really good software that only would get better instead of a paid program that only gets worse for the users.

[johnmay]

How could I create that with open source projects?

Well that is using CDK which is what JChemPaint uses, it is just JChemPaint uses some older parts and so doesn't get as nice arrows, the contractions are also tricky to handle in the UI.