Monday, 16 April 2012
PAPER FOR iPAD REVIEW
There's always a new app that gets you insanely addicted and destroys the majority of your time. In my case, this addiction has physically injured me due to the time my neck has been bent down looking at my iPad which has caused a pulled muscle in my neck. Very painful and annoying. But hell, Im just going to jump back on this as soon as I've recovered. Paper by Fifty Three is an application for the iPad which turns your iPad screen into a piece of blank paper on which you can write, sketch and doodle to your hearts content. Yes there are a multitude of drawing apps available for the iPad so what's so special about this one? A huge number of things and that's what I want to go through, to show you iPad users out there that this is a must have application.
Paper is gorgeously simple. Created by ex Microsoft employees who worked on the Courier project before it got cancelled, the App not only works great, its for anyone. You don't have to be a magnificent artist to draw with Paper and get amazing looking results. You get an option of journals which flip open with a pinch gesture on the iPad and you can flick pages to look at drawings you've already created. To create a new drawing just tap the plus sign at the bottom of the screen and you get a blank canvas to start your creation. Pinch again to leave the picture, enabling you to come back whenever you need. You also get sharing options once your picture is complete, with Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter sharing preset. You can also save to camera roll if you prefer to share through a different channel.
The pricing off the app is either loved or hated by most. In app purchases are becoming more and more common through out apps and Paper uses this system. There are different brushes you can use in the app including ink, watercolour, pencil, outline, and text. The app itself is free to download and gives you the ink pen to use with 9 colours.
This app is aimed at everyone and not just artists. The algorithm involved in each brushstroke is nothing short of magical. Even rough sketches look like masterpieces thanks to the app assisting each stroke and making it perfectly curved and effortlessly sublime. The ink brush is perhaps the most dynamic in terms of sketching, whilst the pencil enables you to create amazing sketches which look just like the real thing. The watercolour brush is fantastic. Due to the limited amount of colours, the watercolour brush allows you to mix colours and control how deep and opaque you want a certain colour. The implementation is great and again, the algorithm helps you along whilst you draw meaning anything can look like a watercolour masterpiece. Gestures play a big part with Paper. Most of these come to use when you open and flick through various saved sketches but one gesture can be used during the creation of a sketch.
Many people would argue that you can get a feature rich drawing app for the same price such as Autodesks Sketchbook Pro which is true, but the whole point of Paper is to not have all those features and just provide the tools for basic sketching and doodling. The fact is, that with just the ink brush, the app is free so there's no reason not to try it. It's a fantastic app which will make you want to draw more and more. If you used to be a budding artist back in the day, Paper is one of those apps that will make you fall in love with drawing again. I would definitely recommend this app to anyone who owns an iPad. It seems that even Apple retail stores are pre-loading Paper onto their demo iPads so customers can truly see how great it is an I wouldn't be surprised if Paper was the sole reason why someone purchased an iPad. It really is that good.
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