Bamboo Paper App from Wacom

Wacom, the maker of various tablet devices, has released its paperless notebook and drawing app Bamboo Paper for the iPad. The app is free until the end of June.

The description states the app has “the ability to create virtual notebooks for your iPad, letting you share your ideas visually with handwritten notes, sketches or doodles. Paired with the Bamboo Stylus, it turns your iPad into the ultimate paperless communications tool.” Although it appears you can continue to create new pages, I have not figured out how to create more than one notebook. UPDATE: An email from support states they are “currently working on an update of Bamboo paper. The new version will, besides other nice features, also include multiple notebooks.” So, right now, multiple notebooks are not available. You can learn more about the app and see a short video here at a Wacom site.

UPDATE 2 Wacom has updated the app to v 1.3. Now, you can add put to 20 notebooks…but for a price. You must pay for an in app purchase to get the Notebook Pack. The in app purchase price is currently $1.99 US.

Opening the Program

When you first start up, you can name the notebook, select its cover color and choose the type of pages (lined, blank, grid) that will be in the notebook. Also, you can export the entire book by email or print it from here.

Tools

Once you tap on the notebook and open it, you are presented with a page.

Pen Selection – You can select 3 sizes of pens and 6 colors. A neat feature is the ability to tap and hold anywhere on the page and be presented with a choice of pens and colors at that point instead of having to go to the top of the toolbar.

Export- You can send a page via email, save it to the library or print it.

Erase – Undo and redo are available along with an eraser and clear page feature.

Bookmark – There is a bookmark tool available to mark a particular page.

Pinch to Zoom – You can also use a two finger pinch gesture to zoom in and out for more detailed work.

Presentation

If you have an iPad2, you can use a projector and Apple’s connector to present your notes to a group. Although the developer claims you can “connect your iPad to a projector to show off your sketches…” it is not clear if this feature is available on the 1st generation iPad.

Overall

The app has a simple interface and is easy to use. The flow of ink is feels “natural” and smooth and is similar to a felt tip pen.  If you use your finger instead of a stylus, it appears wrist protection of some sort is built in so that when parts of your hand other than your finger tip rest on or touch the screen, it is not registered. Although there is no landscape mode, for free, you can’t go wrong. More than that, this app does have a feel of paper and pen. Download it today and experience what digital paper and pen feels like.

Penultimate Updates App and Paper Options

Cocoa Box Design recently updated their app Penultimate to allow users to make in app purchases from “The Paper Store.” The program comes with free basic writing papers for you to use. But, now, users can now add, for a fee, new kinds of paper designs.

Some users must have voiced concern over the cost of some basic writing papers that were for sale. You can read about that. Now, the company is allowing you to install, for free, the “Writing” papers collection.

If you are on your iPad, use a browser to go to this page to download and import into Penultimate the storyboard paper that you can see at 1:14 into the video appearing on that page.

To install new writing papers from the paper shop, open a notebook and tap on the paper icon. Towards the bottom of the papers list, you will see the paper shop option. Tap on that.

From there, you can swipe through and look at different available papers. Other papers, are still for sale from 99¢ -$2.99 (US).  Those papers include: Time and Task, Music, Design Collection, Young Writers, Games.

If you are so inclined, you can also design your own papers to use in the program.  Read about that here.

This app is my go to app when I need to write out a quick thought or draw an idea like discussed in The Back of the Napkin or Unfolding the Napkin by Dan Roam.

If you are looking for a simple to use “note” taking app or have a quick thought you want to draw out and save (or email), this is a great app to try!