Hasta La Ideas

Image above courtesy of Paper

We had the opportunity to preview the new sketching application Paper by FiftyThree for the iPad. The web video showing their application makes it look easy and beautiful, but, as they say, art is hard. Our previous efforts with iPad sketching applications (Alias Sketchbook Pro) looked nothing like Jim Lee’s Batman. No surprise there.

The finger has always been a blunt instrument, unless you happen to be gifted with especially pointy ones. Transparent Capacitive styluses allow a slightly better correlation between the visible contact surface and the actual point, but there is no substitute for pen and paper (though the Wacom Cintiq comes close).

Paper favors gestures to click menus and “napkin” sketches race by compared to other applications we’ve seen. The ability to overlay watercolor on existing drawings makes highlighting and indication a breeze. Much as they may try, design professors attempting to make students “loose” often fail because we can’t help but be precious. By limiting the toolset, and especially due to the absence of layers, zoom and brush size, there isn’t really any way to be fussy with Paper although I certainly tried. Instead of spending lots of time with one idea, the hope is that you create many.

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