Paper

Having a powerful digital sketchbook can be life-changing. From taking notes to putting down ideas, painting, sketching, and creating visuals for all you need, having the ideal app is necessary. Many tools are out there, and most have similar features, but Paper is an exception to the rule. This app is only available (so far) for iOS devices, and it is completely free. 

We are always on the lookout for sketchbook and notebook apps, so of course we wanted to try Paper. In this post, we share with you all the features of the app and our experience with it. At the end of the post, we include a shortcut to download Paper on your iPhone or iPad. 

Paper, a simple but powerful way to digitally sketch

Paper is an award-winning app developed by WeTransfer that helps you to expand creatively with simple tools. It is an app for doing sketches, and it offers you different brushes and tools to do so with a built-in stabilizer to smooth your strokes. You can draw, paint, cut, fix, move, write, and so much more with this app. 

Beyond sketching, you can also import photos and edit them or paint on top of them. If you need to take notes on top of an image, highlight information, or just doodle around it, this is the ideal app. Files can be later exported as a PDF if you need it too. 

Overall, Paper looks like a conventional sketchbook app with similar features and tools that other apps provide. However, what we loved the most about this app is the arrangement of all your files, something that we haven’t seen before. 

Create journals by themes and organize your ideas

What is so attractive about Paper is the organization method. You can create journals to collect all your ideas by theme. So, for example, you can have a journal for your ideas, one for drawings, a vision board, pictures from a trip, storyboards, and so much more! All of them are separated in a cute, customizable, journal. 

We have tried different sketching apps, and regardless of how good they can be, once your sketch is done, this one is exported as an individual image or file and saved on your device. Instead, Paper recollects all your sketches and places them into journals that you can browse like a real-life notebook. 

What is so revolutionary about this is that it resembles an action and activity that you can do with a real notebook, but digitally. Also, your organization is better, and you can create intertwined ideas, stories, and drawings since all of them are located in the same place: your tiny digital sketchbook. 

Templates and help is available

Another feature that we loved is that you can find helping journals with information from artists. You can learn how to draw or get inspired by stories and other people’s creations. This eliminates the fear of the blank page and also motivates you to explore the potential of the app. 

We completely recommend this app, even if it is to create doodles, vision boards, or just to paint on top of your pictures. It is a fun, interesting, and entertaining drawing app that is completely worth it. Paper is available for iOS devices for free, but it also has a Pro subscription that unlocks new features and tools. 

With Paper Pro you will be able to sync your journals across devices, customize your journals, edit photos, access endless color palettes, create your own templates, and even lock your journals. Pro subscription is $11,99.