This is a free Mac drawing app available at the Mac app store. It provides users with professional grade tools to help create images on your Mac computer. SketchBook Express offers Gesture-based marking menus, which make it possible to quickly access tools and commands.
We slogged through seventeen different PDF apps to try and find the one PDF app that would change your life — well, at least change your iPad usage — and the best PDF app for managing, editing, and reading PDFs on your iPad is PDF Expert 6 by Readdle.
PDF Expert is delightfully easy to use, offers the fastest PDF app reading experience, works with many syncing services, and has the most robust toolset available on the iPad.
For almost any contract-based business, PDFs are a way of life.
PDFs also happen to be one of the best and most universal ways to send a document to another person. Almost any computing device can view them, and they will almost always display as intended — with formatting and layout intact — across all manner of platforms and devices.
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This is a boon for design-minded people who want to make sure invoices, contracts, proposals, and brochures come across looking perfect, regardless of what device they’re viewed on. PDFs are the most reliable way to do this, and are an important part of any serious iPad user’s workflow.
Which PDF apps we tested, and how we tested them
For our testing, we included both paid and free apps that were popular or recommended. The apps we tested were:
Our testing for each PDF app involved working with three PDF files: a rental application PDF form, one annotated PDF app, and one 8.2mb 30-page legal-sized scanned lease that had OCR applied to it on scanning.
We imported all three documents into each PDF app and ran the following tests:
Import speed
Speed at rendering pages on swipe
Compatibility with the different annotations and forms
Filling out forms
Redacting, highlighting, adding text, and noting PDFs
Exporting
Re-ordering pages
Merging documents
Organizing documents
Syncing PDF documents between devices/services
Only one PDF app, PDF Expert 6, could do all of those tasks. In almost every task, PDF Expert performed faster and/or more reliably than the other pdf app we tested. There were many apps that could do almost every task, but often fell short in one or more tests — most notably in the merging and form-filling tests.
The Best PDF app: PDF Expert 6
In the previous edition of this review (published March 21st, 2017), Readdle’s PDF Expert 5 was released in the middle of our testing and performed with aplomb in all of our tasks, even adding a new metric to our criteria because it was the only “full-featured” PDF app that could merge PDF documents together. With last month’s release of PDF Expert 6, it has only further cemented itself as our top pick.
In talking with many iPad PDF users, a common theme ran throughout: The most important features of a PDF management app are organization, annotation, and reading. PDF Expert 6 offers the best of class in all three of those categories, and adds yet another: editing.
Managing and reading documents in PDF Expert
The organization offered in PDF Expert is easily the best of any of the other full-featured PDF apps. With PDF Expert you can add favorite files to the sidebar, tag and label your files, view files as a list or as thumbnails, sort by date/size/name, and quickly view recently accessed documents.
Many PDF apps don’t offer this robust set of filing options, yet PDF Expert ups the ante with folder support, making it an app well-equipped for handling many PDF files while not feeling like overkill for someone with few PDFs. PDF Expert also has built-in universal search for quickly finding the file you stashed away, even allowing file type modifiers such as *.doc, *.xls, *.mp3, etc — a lifesaver when you’re suddenly put on the spot in a meeting.
When you first open PDF Expert, you don’t notice that much of a different organizational view than you get with other apps, and it’s not until you start diving into the app that you start to appreciate its robust options. Many of the other apps we tested hide common user tasks with gestures and tap zones the user must somehow learn and remember. For example, in PDFpen you rename a document by double-tapping the file name, yet — even as a long-time user of the app — I often forget that shortcut every time I want to rename a document.
Organization
PDF Expert tries to avoid taps and buttons where it can by clearly labeling things where needed and tailoring the gestures intuitively based on the view the user has chosen in the app.
In list view, swiping on a document will reveal icons to delete or rename the file — a standard iOS gesture that’s easy to remember.
In icon view, tapping a file name allows for editing; dragging the icon (or icons, if you have multiple documents selected) reveals a “Delete” zone at the bottom of the sidebar where you can drop the files to delete them.
In either view, tapping the … button for any document brings up the full pane of actions that can be performed on that file.
PDF Expert makes it easy to tap-hold-and-drag a file to perform actions on it — no need to find the Select button (formerly “Edit”). Like everything else in PDF Expert, moving files around is extremely quick and easy.
Side note: Dragging a PDF file on top of another creates a folder, which is shown via the files changing into a folder icon (nice touch), but we would love to be able to toggle this action into a merging action. Dragging one PDF file onto another to merge the two together would be a better use for this action; after all, folders can always be created by tapping the new folder icon.
When you do find yourself tapping the Select button, be prepared to smile if working with PDFs is a large part of your life, as it is for me. As expected, tapping this button allows you to select multiple files to act on. However, it also opens up a new set of options in the sidebar, including:
Merge files — Tap Select, check all the PDFs you’d like to merge, and tap Merge. The files will merge into a new document and prompt you for a new name, or it will use the name of the first selected file and then append a “(Merged)” tag. The original files are kept in place, which is nice, but we’d like an option for them to be deleted after merging.
Zip files — Want to send a bunch of files to a client? You can zip them up in PDF Expert for sending.
Stars and Color Tags — Just as they sound, you can color-code file names and star documents within PDF Expert, if that helps you stay organized.
Upload — In addition to the normal sharing options (i.e. email, “share/open in”), you can also choose to upload a PDF to any of the web services you have set up in PDF expert, like Dropbox. This is phenomenal for keeping documents backed up.
Not all of these features are unique to PDF Expert, but it was the only app we tested with all of the features together in one app. The most elusive to other apps are the tagging, zipping, and merging features. Even at that, many other apps simply did not perform these actions as easily as PDF Expert does.
(Not to mention, some of these tasks are even easier in PDF Expert on the iPad than they are in some desktop applications for the Mac).
PDF Expert can also store and edit files stored in iCloud Drive, meaning PDF Expert files can easily be shared between iOS apps and Apple devices.
Merging Documents
As mentioned, PDF Expert is the only app of those tested that could merge PDF files together. Though specialized apps do exist for this specific task, we are trying to find a good all-in-one PDF solution.
You can do this in one of two ways:
As mentioned above, you can tap Select from the file picker view and select any PDFs you want to merge, then you simply tap Merge.
There’s another method that’s less obvious but also gives you more control over exactly what you merge and where it gets merged. Go into a document and enter the thumbnail preview mode for that document — it’s the button that looks like a four-box grid — which shows you the pages in the document. From there, select one or more pages, copy them, and then move to the same view in another document and paste those pages in. The benefit to this route is that you’re not forced to merge every page, and in fact, you can place an entire document into the middle of another.
I tried both merging methods on a 28-page OCR PDF, attaching it to the end of a two-page PDF document. In both cases, PDF Expert handled the task quickly and without hiccups.
Annotating and Editing Documents
PDF Expert 6 comes with two main modes for when you want to do stuff with PDFs: Annotate and Edit (the latter of which is only usable if you’ve purchased the $10 in-app upgrade to unlock all PDF editing features). While viewing a document, tap either one from the top-hand toolbar to select that mode.
Annotations
When it comes to annotations, PDF Expert has always had the most feature-rich highlighting engine in our testing. Offering very opaque coloring and dark colors makes it one of the few apps tested that allow you to easily redact lines of text using a black highlight, but do note that you need to flatten the PDF if you want it to remain redacted when shared. This is something the NSA should probably look into.
Annotations are also done very well when moved from platform to platform, but “idea cloud” annotations from the Mac’s Preview app do not render correctly within PDF Expert. (The text is often shown outside the “bubble.”) Luckily, such annotations are rare. The far more common standard PDF comment is handled with aplomb in PDF Expert. Creation of those annotations is also a simple task.
The biggest trouble we’ve run into with commenting was related to positioning. The small nature of the note bubble can make for rather tricky placement with a finger. If you’re one to obsess about getting positioning just right, you may become frustrated when manipulating the note. (On the plus side, the note text is rendered in Helvetica and not Marker Felt.)
PDF Expert also boasts solid signature support, but we wish that we could insert a signature without the tap to hold gesture, which is hard, if not impossible, to do while holding the device with one hand. It is odd that clicking the signature icon in the toolbar is not how you insert a signature, but rather how you create signatures, making it a confusing icon to have persistent in the toolbar.
When you tap-and-hold for inserting a signature, you will see there is also support for “customer signatures,” whereby allowing someone else to sign without saving their signature to your device.
It used to be that you could only stow one signature in PDF Expert. If you wanted to save both your full signature and your initials, the only way to do it was “hack” a solution together by saving one of them as a “stamp” by snapping an image of it. We’re happy to say that it’s now possible to save multiple signatures; from the new signature screen, tap the top-hand button that looks like overlaid windows with a scribble on the front, tap “Add new signature,” write it out, and hit save. Now you can insert any signature you like, whenever you like.
A few other niceties of PDF Expert:
Of the apps we tested, it has the fastest page reordering and deleting capabilities, always operating smoothly and quickly.
Solid support for forms on par with the likes of Adobe Acrobat, which many other apps we tested sorely lacked.
While we don’t know the full extent of PDF Expert’s support for external keyboard shortcuts, we do know that CMD+Z at least works for undoing annotations so you don’t have to tap the on-screen toolbar button, which is nice. (We looked in the app’s support section and on Readdle’s site for any documentation about keyboard support, but couldn’t find anything. We also tried holding down the CMD key in the app to see if it would bring up a list of shortcuts, but that didn’t work either.)
PDF Editing
Yes, you read that right: PDF Expert 6 allows you to actually edit the content within PDF files — assuming, of course, that you’ve purchased that $10 IAP upgrade we mentioned earlier. Doing so unlocks the following features:
Change text in PDFs — Ever wanted to change a single word or number in a document? How about an entire paragraph or more? With this feature, you can do exactly that. It’s even smart enough to automatically detect the font, size and opacity of the original text.
Edit images and links — Lets you insert images within PDF text, and convert images and text into links to web or PDF pages.
Black out or erase sensitive content — This isn’t merely a black highlighter like the annotation tool we mentioned above; this is true redaction for permanently removing sensitive text and/or images from documents you share. One nice touch is being able to search for and redact all instances of a word, character, or phrase throughout an entire document.
Overall, PDF Expert presents a powerful editing and markup tool for PDF users.
Reading PDFs
PDF Expert allows you to switch between vertical and horizontal scrolling modes, both of which perform admirably. To switch modes, tap the “ᴀA” button in the toolbar and select whichever one you like.
Prior to the 6.0 update, the vertical scrolling mode required an extra tug to get to the next page, which was both annoying and disruptive when reading long documents. Thankfully, that issue has since been resolved and vertical scrolling now performs exactly the way you want it to.
Another welcome update is the ability to zoom out past the width of the page in landscape mode. It used to be that in landscape, the document would simply fill the width of your device, with no option to zoom out and view the entire page. It’s great to see such an odd usability wrinkle rectified.
As in previous versions, PDF Expert 6 offers Day/Night/Sepia reading modes that make for a great reading experience in any lighting situation — as does the app-specific brightness control — and a nice clutter-free reading interface. Overall, the reading experience is solid, offering one of the fastest renderings of large PDF files we tested.
To The Cloud
One of the most important factors when choosing a PDF app is: How do you manage your files?
As with just about every other PDF app, you can use the iOS standard share button to send PDFs from Safari, Mail, and others directly to the app. However, PDF Expert also has built-in support for the following services: iCloud (which also works with Readdle’s own Documents 6 app), Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, Windows SMB, Office 365, and Yandex.Disk.
In other words, no matter what your office uses, you can probably sync your documents in the app.
PDF Expert works very well with Dropbox shared folders. If you have several different people you collaborate with on certain PDFs, you can all share a folder in Dropbox and that folder can be added to your Documents tab in PDF Expert. Then, any changes, updates, or other annotations you make to PDFs are synced to everyone else, just like you’d expect.
If you are worried about this opening up a security hole in your file storage, PDF Expert also allows a user to set an app passcode that will lock immediately (Settings → Security → Passkey Lock). The app also allows you to enable iOS Data Protection file-encryption system. These are great options that help keep access to your cloud storage secure but easily accessible to you.
PDF Expert is the best
Of all the PDF apps we tested, PDF expert was better in almost every way because of its modern design, fast PDF support, and the most robust PDF toolset available on the iPad. In many cases, working with PDFs in PDF Expert on the iPad is better than working with them on a Mac.
PDF Expert is $10 on the App Store and is the best PDF app for the iPad.
PDF app Runner-Up: PDFpen 2
PDFpen on the Mac is the staple app for PDF users on the desktop, so it’s only natural for the iPad version to also be a popular option in the iOS realm. The iCloud syncing between your Mac and iPad alone makes it a valuable tool, though one could just as easily use services like Dropbox to achieve a similar solution with PDF Expert.
However, in our testing, PDFpen fell short of PDF Expert in the following two areas:
WebDAV support didn’t work in our testing. Using the same server tested on PDF Expert, we were unable to connect to a standard Mac-based WebDAV server. (This will vary from server to server as configurations vary greatly; our server worked with no changes with PDF Expert and other apps, but not PDFpen.)
PDFpen is also missing major features that PDF Expert offers that we see as very important for serious PDF users. It has very limited organization options, in that you can only order documents by name or date. While you can create folders, there is no list view, favorites, or recents. This makes PDFpen better suited for smaller collections of PDFs.
Additionally, there is no universal search for PDFs, nor is there a tab bar for quickly switching between several different currently-open PDFs in the app.
But don’t get us wrong, not all is bad with PDFpen. It offers strong export options and import sources, and our favorite feature is the media library.
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Whereas most apps use “stamps” to add graphics and imagery to PDFs on the iPad (thus allowing you access to your device camera roll), the media library in PDFpen is robust and full of clip-art-like vector imagery that you can drag-and-drop into your document. There is a standard set of items like those found in other apps: comments, text, arrows, boxes, lines, and camera roll. There is also a massive set of proofing markup icons for proofreading documents.
However, unlike the stamping tools in other apps tested, PDFpen can use iCloud to sync over media from its Mac counterpart. This is a fantastic ability that we’ve used to sync over signatures stored in our Mac (allowing for both signatures and initials to be saved) and letterhead images, which we can quickly apply to PDF documents created on the iPad to add our own letterhead without needing to mess with templates.
The media library alone is a solid enough reason to pick PDFpen if your use-case necessitates such activities, but PDFpen doesn’t stop there. Smile has also included support for a handful of pressure-sensitive styli, giving PDFpen a nice edge for those that would like a more “realistic” annotation interface.
Unlike PDF Expert, PDFpen presents Mac users with the familiar PDF thumbnails on the left edge and page view on the right side view option, mimicking Preview on the Mac. Additionally, PDFpen comes with a library of proofing markup tools that are sure to be a boon to serious reviewers.
PDFpen is a solid, well-designed offering, and we have no doubt that with future updates it could knock PDF Expert out of the top spot. However, it’s got a bit of an uphill climb ahead if it ever wants to come out on top. It’s available on the App Store for iPad and iPhone.
Conclusion
PDF Expert is better in almost every way than every other iPad PDF app we tried. It has a modern iOS design, it’s fast, and it has the most robust and easy-to-use toolset available on the iPad. The editing features alone are killer, if you choose to unlock them. In many cases, working with PDFs in PDF Expert on the iPad is better than working with them on a Mac.
PDF Expert is $10 on the App Store and is, without a doubt, the best app for managing PDFs on the iPad.
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Autodesk SketchBook is a painting and drawing app that’s been designed to get your ideas down on “paper” as quickly as possible. It’s an expressive drawing app for doodlers, artists, and designers looking to rapidly capture their inspiration and design ideas.
In 2018, Autodesk made the full version of SketchBook free to all. Previously the software used a subscription model, but now all you need is a free Autodesk account.
In this article, we take a look at the app, what it can do, and what makes it so unique.
What Is SketchBook?
Autodesk SketchBook is a drawing app available on desktop and mobile. It’s a bit like Photoshop and its many alternatives15 Free Alternatives to Adobe Lightroom, Illustrator, and Photoshop15 Free Alternatives to Adobe Lightroom, Illustrator, and PhotoshopWould you like to get Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Illustrator for free? Here are some of the best Creative Cloud alternatives.Read More since it’s a raster image editor, but what makes it unique is its heavy focus on drawing, painting, and rapidly creating artwork. Unlike Photoshop, SketchBook isn’t aimed at image manipulation or photographyThe 8 Best Free and Paid Image Editors for MacThe 8 Best Free and Paid Image Editors for MacHere are the best free and paid Mac image editors, whether you're a professional professional or amateur shutterbug.Read More.
Instead the app includes a wide range of tools aimed at artists and designers—from drawing and line-work tools, to brushes, textures, gradients, and blending modes. The app makes full use of layers, so you can group and rearrange various elements with ease.
In addition to the basics, SketchBook includes some more specialized tools. These include a range of guides and rulers, perspective guides, distort transform, brush blending, easy gradients, and a separate “Flipbook” animation mode.
SketchBook Is Now Completely Free!
SketchBook was previously a “free” app that relied on a subscription model. Once your trial period ended, you’d need to cough up a few dollars per month to remain an active user.
Now all fully featured versions of SketchBook are free for individual use. It is not clear whether or how Autodesk intends to monetize the product going forward, but Autodesk’s FAQ states that development will continue:
“SketchBook is not being retired. We will continue to develop SketchBook and SketchBook for Enterprise with a focus on adding functionality to enable designers, architects, and animators to capture conceptual art and designs. While not all functionality will end up in both SketchBook and SketchBook for Enterprise, you will continue to enjoy the robust capabilities of SketchBook and benefit from ongoing enhancements, free of charge.”
Download:SketchBook for Mac and Windows
What Can SketchBook Do?
SketchBook aims to speed up the drawing process through the use of a simple interface, and some powerful drawing tools. There’s pretty much something for everyone here, whether you’re designing T-shirts or sketching concept art for your dream house.
In order to understand what makes SketchBook the choice of many hobbyists and professionals, it’s best to look at some of the included tools and what they can do.
Brushes and Drawing
SketchBook comes with a good library of brushes, with many more available for download inside the application. The brush library includes the basic pencils, felt tips, and paint brushes you’d expect from any raster editing app. There are also categories for pastels, textures, synthetic paint brushes, shapes, smudges, and colorless brushes for blending.
Autodesk also includes several drawing and painting modes, in addition to the basic “what you draw is what you get” default. You can enable Steady Stroke which gently “drags” the tool tip in order to smooth out you lines, or Predictive Stroke which attempts to fix your mistakes after you’ve drawn them. Both of these tools make freehand drawing with a mouse or trackpad a more predictable experience.
Guides and Rulers
Another useful feature is the inclusion of rulers and guides. When you place a ruler on the page, whatever you draw will follow that line. Move the ruler, draw another line, and carry on. Turn off the ruler to get back to basic drawing mode. There are similar tools for ellipses and circles, and a French Curve tool too.
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The real stars of the show are the perspective and symmetry tools. Perspective Guides are ideal for maintaining straight lines when drawing architecture or other true-to-life subjects. Drag the ruler to match your desired perspective and the tool will make sure your lines adhere to it.
Symmetry is an intuitive tool: place a line somewhere on the page, and everything you draw to the left of the line will be mirrored on the right. You can add several points of symmetry for quickly drawing mandala-like patternsRelieve Daily Stresses with Beautiful Free Mandala Coloring PagesRelieve Daily Stresses with Beautiful Free Mandala Coloring PagesLower your daily stress levels with this traditional Budhist practice. Mandala coloring pages combines mindfulness with the wonderful benefits of creative coloring. Download the best mandala coloring pages from these sites.Read More in seconds. It’s great for designing logos, or quickly drawing subjects from a head-on perspective.
Transform and Distort
There are two transform tools: basic transform and transform distort. The first allows you to grab a selection then cut, rotate, move, and skew it as you see fit. The second is a form of perspective distortion, just like Photoshop’s perspective tools, which applies to the entire layer you’re currently using.
This allows you to design elements of your image as they would appear to the naked eye, then distort them to wrap them around another subject like a tattoo on an arm, or a sticker on a car. It’s a powerful tool to have access to, and it forms a vital part of SketchBook’s rapid workflow.
Gradients, Blending, and Color
Autodesk SketchBook is as much about coloring as it is about drawing. Brushes interact by blending, provided they are the right type and on the same layer. It works like you’d expect a paintbrush to work, with some added smudge tools and colorless brushes that are designed purely for blending.
Gradients are also handled with an intuitive three-point approach. Set your colors and then drag the points to adjust the severity of the gradient. Using these tools it’s possible to match gradients across different sections with relative ease.
The app includes a robust color mixer, with a Copic color library for matching digital colors with real-world standards.
Flipbook Animation
Best Mac App For Drawing On Photos
Also included is Flipbook mode, accessed via the File > New Flipbook menu item. This mode is used purely for creating short animations. You can have up to 1000 frames in a single Flipbook, and make full use of layers to separate main subjects, moving elements, and static background elements.
Despite the frame limitation, animations can be exported to MP4, GIF, and other common animated file types. It’s not exactly a professional animating application, but there’s a bunch of handy tools including an “onion skin” mode for showing a faint outline of the previous frame.
Support for Graphic Tablets and PSD Files
Free Drawing Software For Mac
SketchBook has robust support for graphic tablets and other input devicesThe Best Graphic Tablets and Graphics Programs for Digital DesignThe Best Graphic Tablets and Graphics Programs for Digital DesignWe've rounded up the best graphic design tablets and software to use if you want to break into cartoons and other forms of digital art.Read More. This includes “software” tablets like AstroPad which uses your iPad as an input peripheral. Check if your device will work on Autodesk’s list of supported auxiliary devices.
Another feature that Photoshop users will appreciate is PSD support. This works both ways—you can import artwork that’s already in PSD format, or export your SketchBook project as a Photoshop file complete with layers. It’s a nice way of future-proofing your new work, or putting old projects to new use.
Mac Drawing Program Free
Tons of Free Brushes
You can expand SketchBook by downloading as many free brushes as you like within the app. Head to Window > SketchBook Extras to peruse the selection. There’s everything from clouds to textures, and brushes for manga, fur, and industrial design, to name just a few.
Design on the Go, Finish at Home
In addition to the fully featured desktop version of SketchBook, the mobile version for iOS and Android is also free. The mobile version of SketchBook doesn’t pack as many features as the desktop version, lacking things like free brush downloads, predictive stroke, textured brushes, and some symmetry guides; but it’s still a great way to get your ideas down on paper wherever you are.
Download:SketchBook for iPhone and iPad | SketchBook for Android
Get Started With SketchBook!
Practice makes perfect, and, since SketchBook is now free, there’s no harm in downloading it and trying it out for yourself. For an extra helping hand, Autodesk has also produced a series of videos to help get you started with the app as quickly as possible:
You can also head to SketchBook Support where you’ll find in-depth tutorials that teach you how to use all of the included tools.
If Autodesk SketchBook isn’t for you then you should check out Krita instead. This is a free GIMP alternativeKrita Is the Free GIMP Alternative You Should Be UsingKrita Is the Free GIMP Alternative You Should Be UsingGIMP and Photoshop aren't the only options in town. If you're looking for a free GIMP alternative, check out Krita!Read More that’s a lot of fun to use.
Explore more about: Drawing Software, Graphic Design.