[UPDATE] – 27/08/08 (19.46pm GMT)
LateNightSoft has announced it’s 1.3 update of Sketches is now in review and should be available soon.
This update is said to bring the following new features to Sketches:
– Text input
– Web Sharing
– Easily locate shapes (New Algorithm)
– New ‘Office Items’
– Tip system
– Bug Fixes and Optimisation
[UPDATE] – 01/08/08
I recently e-mailed LateNightSoft to notify them of the usage of material they own the copyright for, within this article.
The response I got back included information of future planned features!
“… Many thanks for letting us know, and for calling our attention about such a thorough review of our application! We’ve put a lot of effort into Sketches and feel proud and happy whenever we know people like it. The suggested features in the final section of your article are very interesting. I can confirm that we are now working on the ability to export to e-mail, so you can expect that in a future release. It hasn’t been available yet because Apple has not yet released an approved way to send an email with attachments from within a third party app. The only feature available in the official SDK is to launch the Mail application, but this would mean quitting Sketches AND losing the attachment data, so we have no option but to create our own mail delivery interface. It is not an optimal solution (it will look different than Apple’s Mail application; we won’t be able to automatically retrieve your mail account configuration from the system), but we hope it will get the job done.
Other features we are working on right now are the ability to enter text using the on-screen virtual keyboard, and an eraser tool. Many other ideas are planned for future releases, I hope you like them!”
Thanks again!
—
Pedro – LateNiteSoft
cases@latenitesoft.fogbugz.com …
Great Stuff!
…
Original Article:
– Need to jot down a note?
– Highlight your party venue location using maps?
– Or simply need to cure boredom?
Get Sketches.
New to Sketches?
From: Sketchesapp.com
“Would you like to jot down notes on your iPhone’s gorgeous touch screen? Are you missing a way to sketch a simple diagram as a quick reminder? Will your children like to draw on your iPhone, maybe on top of a picture you shoot with the camera? Sketches is a native iPhone application that will allow you to do all that.
Jot down your notes, scribble your thoughts and annotate your pictures using only your fingers and your imagination! Illustrate your ideas with simple but colorful diagrams, notes and sketches.
Place shapes using multitouch gestures, zoom in for those accurate little details, save your creations in your personal corkboard or send them to others. Use Sketches for business, creativity or simply share it as a pastime with your friends.”
Brought to you by ‘LateNiteSoft’, Sketches is a highly polished,
and well implemented drawing utility for iPhone.
Visit Sketches at: http://www.sketchesapp.com/
Features
– Freehand drawing using your finger.
– Multiple ink colors and sizes.
– Multitouch shape drawing. Draw lines, arrow lines, ovals and rectangles in a breeze.
– Multiple backgrounds to chose from: background library, current location map, a web site, solid
colors or pictures.
– Zoom in to increase the precision that you work with.
– Store multiple drawings and manage them with ease, using the integrated corkboard.
– Integrated picture taking. Use the iPhone camera to take a picture and use it as your drawing
background.
– Photo album integration. You can use your pictures as backgrounds or save your drawing into the
photo album, so you can export them to your computer.
– Send your art to your friends using Twitter or export it to your PC or Mac. Email is coming soon!
I’ve had this application for a while now, so as well as the basic review of features, I can also comment on how well they work, and what I’d like changing in a revision to the App Store.
The Walkthrough
The application resembles any other paint-like application, but seeing as though the UI is custom-made to function with iPhone, it’s looks, as an application, are second to none. To start drawing you simply tap the plus button in the top right of the start-screen (the cork board). You are then brought to a blank sketch which is can do, as you please. Drawing is as simply as touch and drag. To change the ink of your pen, select the second icon from the left on the bottom easel.
As well as changing the colour of your ink, Sketches also features an option to add objects to your sketches. To add an object to your sketch, select the center button on the bottom easel. A preference box will appear (pictured above). All you do is tap the object you want to add, place two fingers on the screen, and now you can drag and position your object wherever you want, on your sketch – pretty kool eh? – There’s more.
Not feeling that creative? – Sketches allows you to use multiple sources as the base background for your new sketch. Whether it be a web page, map, existing photo, a solid colour or you can take a photo with the built in camera. Sketches will import your background .. and of course .. you can draw over it.
Oh, I nearly forgot, you can also zoom in anywere on your sketch, too – for that needed fine detail!
… and Finally (are you ready for this):
In Summary
After purchasing a few paint-like applications for the phone, I can say Sketches is leading in features and looks currently. The application itself is very intuitive in it’s approach to it’s user, it does what it says in the tin, and for such a low price, I can’t argue with it for a 1.X release.
Additions I’d like to see added to Sketches in the future include;
– Ability to crop
– Ability to export to e-mail
– Ability to change nip of pen (pencil/paintbrush/calligraphy etc)
Feel free to leave the sketches you’ve done in the comments, or better yet, e-mail them to me.
I’d love to see what you all can come up with (better than my attempt I’m sure) …
Rating: 9/10 (Highly Recommended)
Grab Sketches on the App Store: here
For £3.49 ($5.99)
R-Fly
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