Paper is an application developed by the company “53”, which is also the maker of pencil, one of the most versatile and top rated stylus available. I downloaded the application in order to use it with an Ipad Air, while I was taking my illustration class.

When I opened the application, it was very different from what I was expecting.

First of all, is not a dedicated art app, like a simple blank canvas. You can use the drawing canvas with just one tap of course, but the app itself has many other uses, such as taking notes and organizing office tasks.

In order to properly test the app, I bought an stylus. Doing some research I went with the Adoni Jot Pro – one of the pictures shown below – which I found very responsive, though I was lacking the ability to control pressure, which would have been very well received.

I started by recreating some pencil illustrations that I did for my class; I was able to recreate them without much effort. The stylus and Ipad were very responsive, but I still wasn’t feeling the same natural, organic sensation that I was hoping to find. A little bit of delay, and intermittent strokes; blame the Ipad or the stylus, but the result wasn’t everything I was expecting.

One of the things that called my attention was the simplicity of the interface, I give 53 credit for that; simple, yet effective. Another positive feature is how easy is to integrate pictures or even take pictures from the application, in order to create gorgeous compositions.

After recreating the drawing I proceeded to color and save; everything was easy to do, and highly intuitive.

Overall, I give a pending 3.5 stars to this app. I love the simplicity of the interface, and easiness of use; but, in order to give it a fair review, I would have to test it with the 53 stylus, probably that would make it my favorite one.