Millennia ago, all you needed to get a point across to your buddies was charcoal and a cave wall or a pointy stick and some sand. Now, we sit for hours crafting passive-aggressive emails to make a point that once was communicated with an arrow and a grunt. There’s beauty in that simplicity. Let’s return to it.
Say hello to Skitch for iPad, available now for free from the iTunes App Store!
What is Skitch?
Skitch is the amazingly fun and surprisingly powerful way to move your ideas and projects forward using fewer words. With Skitch, annotate and draw on just about anything that you see, whether it’s a new or existing photo, a webpage, screenshot, map, or a blank canvas. Then, share your work with friends, colleagues or save it all to Evernote. It couldn’t be simpler.
Skitch for iPad
The Skitch for iPad home screen gets you started. Here’s are your options:
Photos and Camera
Choose to work on an existing image from your camera roll or take a new photo with your iPad. Use the camera to take photos of things that inspire you or to draw a mustache on a friend. If you have an iPad 1 with no camera, then the camera option won’t appear.
Screenshot
Skitch for iPad has built in smarts that help it identify recently-made screenshots. Taking a screenshot on your iPad is easy, simply press both the power and home buttons at the same time. The screen will flash and the screenshot will be saved to your camera roll. Open Skitch, tap the Screenshot button, annotate the image, then share it with your team. This is great for everything from mobile app design to showing off your latest Angry Birds score.
Web
Skitch for iPad has its own web browser designed to help you mark up any webpages you encounter. After tapping the Web icon, you can either go directly to a URL or type in a search. When you find the page you want, tap on the Snap icon. Now you have an image of the webpage to annotate. Use this to provide feedback on a web project or to point out something you want to buy.
Map
Have you ever struggled to explain exactly where to meet someone or which building on campus is yours or how to find the best hiking spot? Then the Skitch Map option is for you. Pinch and zoom into the map, then use the Skitch drawing tools to point out a landmark or draw a path. You would be surprised how often the exact place you need isn’t easy to locate without some additional help. With Skitch, you can put an end to driving in circles or walking for hours.
Blank
Sometimes you just need to start fresh. Open the blank canvas and sketch to your heart’s content. Use the shapes, arrows, drawing tools, and colors to compose a work of art or to play a killer game of Pictionary.
The drawing tools
Skitch comes with a number of touch-friendly drawing tools that are designed for speed.
- Finger: Use the finger tool to grab and manipulate any object that you’ve drawn and move it around. You can also tap on an object and rotate it or pinch and zoom to resize it. Using two fingers to rotate and resize Skitch rectangles is surprisingly satisfying. We don’t know why.
- Pencil: The pencil is your go-to for freehand drawing.
- Arrows: Draw the famous Skitch arrows to point out what’s important.
- Text: Select the text option, then tap wherever you want your text to appear. Enter it into the text box and tap Done.
- Shapes: Choose from circles, squares and lines. Drag you finger on the canvas to draw your shapes.
- Crop: Crop your canvas to any size you wish with this tool.
- Color and thickness: Tap on the colored dot to choose a color and line thickness for your arrows, shapes and text.
- Trash: Select something with the finger tool, then tap trash to remove the item, or tap without selecting to clear the canvas.
Save it all to Evernote
All of your drawing and annotations are saved in the Skitch for iPad app, but if you’d like to have them available to you everywhere, then you should save them into Evernote. Save your images individually or by tapping on the elephant icon.
Share to Twitter, email…and AirPlay!
Skitch for iPad gives you a few different ways to share your drawings. You can send them to your friends over email and you can post them to your Twitter stream. One additional option is sharing over AirPlay, which lets you mirror your iPad onto any screen with an Apple TV attached. This is perfect for giving presentations, demos and for teaching.
iPad first
We built our iOS version of Skitch first for iPad because it’s the ideal form factor for tactile annotation. Fear not, Skitch for iPhone is in the works. In the meantime, go try it out. Use it for work, for play, for school, for design. Use it to plan your wedding layout or to build your house. Use it to communicate when you don’t speak the same language. Just use it and you’ll be amazed by how much a few simple shapes and arrows can do. Enjoy.
