We used to hoard scratch paper for writing visual / written cues for our kid and adult clients. Then we went green and shifted to folder-sized whiteboards and a bunch of whiteboard markers. Sure, they were light and were easy to erase. These boards were our original, low-cost, unbreakable iPads! But there was always the danger of decorating your own clothes with the marker, or accidentally erasing what you’ve just written on the whiteboard (if your kid client hasn’t done so yet). Oh yes, we love our whiteboards so much, we’re letting them go on leave now that Bamboo Paper by Wacom has finally made its way to the iPad.
We are SO pushing this app to you iPad owners. We’ve tried out several drawing and doodling apps, but so far we haven’t come across anything that was as responsive and as intuitive as
Bamboo Paper. We’ve seen Bamboo Tablets used by graphic artists (and many of them attest to its ease of use). That was why we were tickled pink when its iPad version came out. Start the app, and you are greeted by a sketchbook cover. Change the title of the notebook if you so wish. You can customize your sketchbook by
- changing the cover’s color: blue, green, yellow, purple
- changing the ‘paper’s’ design: plain, lined, or graphed
Tap on the cover and it flips open. Your Bamboo Paper sketchbook can accommodate several pages (we suppose that for as long as you keep swiping for a new page, you’ll get a new page). The screen’s upper border contains minimalist icons for:
- closing your sketchbook and returning you to the cover
- exporting your page via email, saving it to your iPad’s Photo Library, or by printing it
- undoing an action
- redoing an action
- drawing pen: with
- three options for stroke thickness
- six color options
- eraser
- clear page
- bookmark
Look hard enough at the lower right and left corners of the screen and you’ll see faint arrow icons that allows you to flip through your three allotted pages. We’ve tried to turn the pages by swiping at them, resulting to drawn strokes on the paper instead.
If you want to send the entire sketchbook off to someone, you can always tap on the upper left button to return to the sketchbook
cover, tap on the Export button at the bottom of the sketchbook, and decide whether to email the sketchbook as a PDF, or print it out.
For serious graphic artists, they may find the Bamboo Paper seriously lacking in color, stroke, and drawing options. But for basic drawing needs such as drawing a basic map when giving someone directions, sketching out an idea, or for instances when one is put on voice rest following the removal of vocal fold nodules, this app is a very indispensable tool. We even use this as a tally board for our competitive young clients, as a drawing tool for Pictionary, or even as a simple reward for a job well done at therapy.
Use the Bamboo Paper with your fingers or with a Bamboo Stylus for iPad. We weren’t able to find a Bamboo Stylus in the shops here, so we used a Targus iPad Stylus and it worked just as well.
FREE until the end of June! Grab this one now. Usefulness guaranteed.
