Adobe Ideas Drawing App for iOS

_{Version Reviewed: Adobe Ideas 1.2}

Cost and Compatibility:
$5.99. Additional $0.99 in-app purchase can enable layers. Universal app compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 3.1 or later.

• Very responsive; no lag in pen strokes.
• Well-designed, uncomplicated user interface.
• You can email vector PDF files and open them at any resolution in Photoshop or Illustrator.

• No eyedropper for choosing colors from canvas.
• No flood fill tool.
• Layers feature costs $0.99.
• Could benefit from more tools--simple shapes, straight lines, square pen tip, text.
• Meanings of unlabeled icons are sometimes vague. Could benefit from in-app help.

• Draw and sketch using a simple pen tool with adjustable tip size and opacity. Also an eraser.

• Drawings are vector-based and lines are automatically smoothed out.

• Create and save color themes based on an image. Also choose colors from standard color picker.

• Drawings can be emailed as PDF files, which can be opened at any resolution in Photoshop or Illustrator.

• Canvas saves to photo library as JPEG at a size of 2048 x 1536 pixels.

• 50-level undo/redo.

• Organizer lets you browse thumbnails of your ideas, and duplicate, delete, or open them.

• Standard version allows you to work with one drawing layer and one photo layer. Import photo from camera or album.

• $0.99 in-app purchase allows you to work with up to 10 layers, including layer transformations, and a photo layer.

Adobe Ideas provides only one type of pen, but it offers adjustable size and opacity and feels a lot like working with a marker. You can adjust brush size and opacity as you're drawing by drawing with one finger, and sliding the controls with the thumb of your other hand. Your pen strokes are automatically smoothed out as you draw, which is a nice touch. In addition to the pen controls, there is a variable-size eraser, a hand tool for pan and zoom, and a layer transform tool.

When starting a drawing in Adobe Ideas, you only see a fraction of the giant canvas, and you can zoom out to allow as much space as you need for your sketch. Adobe Ideas is vector-based, which means your strokes are crisp and sharp even when you zoom in.

One neat feature of Adobe Ideas is the color scheme generator. You can take a photo with your built-in camera, or choose one from the photo library, and the app will create a color scheme from the photo. I found it kind of fun and addictive to see what colors it pulled from various images. You're not limited to the color schemes, however; a full color picker is also available.

With an additonal $0.99 in-app purchase, you can add layers functionality to the app, giving you 10 drawing layers and one photo layer to work with. Layers have adjustable opacity and can be reordered, moved, rotated, and hidden.

I personally enjoy the added flexibility of having layers. However, I would like to see some additional tools made available as another low-cost in-app purchase. The absence of a flood fill and eyedropper tool are significant shortcomings.

You can email your drawings from Adobe Ideas as PDF files, and open them to any resolution in Photoshop or Illustrator, and view them in any PDF reader--on or off your device. You can also save your sketches to your device's photo album, and they will be saved as a 2048 x 1536 pixel JPEG files, no matter how much of the canvas you have used.

Adobe Ideas is great for doodling and quickly jotting ideas, but it also can be used for creating more elaborate art in a distinct style. If you like a medium that resembles marker, you'd probably enjoy working with Adobe Ideas.

Adobe Ideas started out as a free download but has since increased in price to $5.99 for the basic app, with layers costing an additional $0.99. At this price, I'm not sure it's the best value vector drawing app in the app store, and it's disappointing to see Adobe make this change.

Adobe Ideas in the iTunes App Store