Buoys:

Implicitly Anchored Sketches in Flowing Text

Text editors, email clients, and note-taking applications have become a daily touchpoint for most computer users; each relies heavily on the line-wrapped, or flowing, text paradigm for data entry and digital communication.

Over the past decade, advances in touchscreen and stylus inputs have brought with them a growing set of applications that allow users to annotate (or completely replace) their typed text with freeform drawings. Combining typed text and hand-drawn sketches is a natural progression – the two forms of input complement one another to provide a means of communication that can be fast, precise, and expressive.

Unfortunately, the reality of combining flowing digital text with sketches in a single interface is often tedious. The problem lies in the relative versus absolute positioning of the two paradigms.

To address this we created Sketchwrite, a minimalistic sketching and drawing application that lets users freely move between line-wrapped text entry and drawing (with a set of 6 basic drawing line types).

Watch the Video Demo

Alternatively, you can view an archived Sketchwrite note.