Didn’t Make the Cut:

Paper was one of the original sketching apps created for iPad back when all we had to play with were those awful rubber stylus’. It wasn’t great, but it was better than nothing. Paper has retained the skeuomorphism style of that period of apps which can sometimes be disorienting. The basic app is free, but the real reason I can’t recommend it is that they’ve put the advanced tools and iCloud syncing behind a subscription paywall that costs $11.99 for a year or $7.99 for six months. Bad, FiftyThree. Bad

Adobe Photoshop Sketch…what a ridiculous name. It’s not Photoshop, and it’s sketching capabilities aren’t that impressive. The main selling point here is it’s a way to quickly get some ideas down and then have those ideas accessible to your suite of Creative Cloud apps, providing you’re a subscriber. Without being invested into Creative Cloud, there isn’t much reason to use it compared to all the other great options.

An app designed specifically with architects in mind. It’s an impressive app in the vein of Concepts, but unless you’re an interior designer or an architect, it’s nothing that you’d really need. It also uses a subscription model for unlimited access to all the tools which is why I couldn’t recommend it. You guys are killing me with these subscriptions. Knock it off.

That’s all my reviews of the standouts of drawing apps for the iPad. I’m working on another post that will discuss all the vector apps worth talking about. I left them out of this post because vector apps are typically used for graphic design purposes rather than freeform drawing or painting. Plus this post was getting crazy long if I included those. Until the next one…