One of the coolest things you can do on your iPad in my opinion is to use it as a digital sketchbook. The iPad allows you to ditch the traditional pen and paper and keep an infinite number of sketches and artwork digitally. There are tons of different apps you can use to do this from but for this review, I’ll be looking at SketchTime, a simple yet powerful pen and paper app. This app simulates the use of an ink pen and markers on photo realistic paper.

SketchTime keeps things simple by only including 2 drawing tools, a pen and a marker. Both tools can be set to various tip sizes as well as several predefined colors. The pen tool works pretty much exactly like an ink pen or gel pen and writes very smoothly. The marker too works exactly like how a marker should work where you color over an area and if you go back and overlap over that area with the same color, it will get darker where it overlaps. You can always see the color underneath, unless you go over it enough times where it becomes opaque.

The app only includes 1 type of paper you can use and it’s an off white. They made it simple like a real sketch pad so it doesn’t offer up a variety of different paper types. What you can do though that is neat is import a photo into the app and use it like tracing paper. You can adjust the opacity of the photo and just trace it using your pen and marker. When done, you can remove the photo. Another neat aspect is the ability to zoom in and out of your work area so you can sketch in more detail if your work requires it. Last, there is a palm rejection feature you can enable that appears at the bottom corner of the app. It’s supposed to stop accidental drawing with your palms.

I like the fact that all your sketches are saved in the apps gallery, which you can go back to and edit later. You can also export your sketches to your camera roll, email them, or post them directly to Twitter.

Overall, I really love SketchTime. It’s one of my favorite pen and marker apps on my iPad mainly because of it’s simplicity and ease of use. It also helps that it actually does look like you are sketching with an ink pen and coloring in your sketches with a marker. There really isn’t much not to like about it except maybe for next update, I’d include a custom color picker so you aren’t just limited to the preset colors. I’d also include more export options to other social networks and not just Twitter. Again, with most of these drawing apps, I suggest using a stylus.

App Store Link: SketchTime
Version: 1.2
Developer: Hansol Huh
Price: $1.99
Compatible Devices: (Universal App) iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

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