May 2020 Newsletter

May 2020 Newsletter

Hello again! We’re happy to be sending out our May newsletter with many updates coming your way.

Recently we’ve been posting more content on our Facebook page so check it out if you get a chance 🙂

Check out our Facebook

Artwork Submission

Want to submit the artwork you’ve made on Sketchpad?

We’d love to share your creations with our community to show all the ways Sketchpad can be used.

Submit your artwork*

* Please note that by submitting your work to us, you agree to it being shared on social media. We will contact you before posting your work and we will provide you with credit in the form of a hashtag, website link back, and/or social media username mention.

Feature Spotlight

Like last month, we will spotlight a unique feature available on Sketchpad to help expand and inspire your creativity.

This month we’re talking about the Fur Brush! It’s friendly and furry, so give it a shot on your next design.

Check out the brushes

Coming soon…

Get ready because Sketchpad 2020 is almost ready to be released.

We’ll be inviting users to participate in our open beta test of Sketchpad 2020 this summer so keep an eye out for an email invitation soon. Sketchpad 2020 includes many upgrades like better group support, Google Classroom integration, and an improved User Guide with example lesson plans and videos!

Remember to reach out to us anytime by emailing [email protected] with your thoughts, questions, and suggestions about Sketchpad. We love hearing how you’re doing and we’ve expanded our team to reply to the abundance of messages we’ve been receiving. Keep them coming and we’ll send you a personal reply as soon we can!

April 2020 Newsletter

April 2020 Newsletter

Dear Sketchpad Community,

We hope you are all doing well and finding Sketchpad to be a great resource for yourself, your students, or artistic talents.

Call for Submissions

This month we wanted to ask for beautiful sketchpad art that you or your students have done. We’d love to share them with our community to show all the ways Sketchpad can be used. Please note that by submitting your work to us, you agree to it being posted and shared on social media.

Submit your artwork

Feature Spotlight

In this newsletter, we will spotlight a unique feature available on Sketchpad to help expand and inspire your creativity.

This month we’re talking about the Web Brush! Have you had a chance to use it yet? Give it a shot, depending on the flow and angle the web-y-ness changes.

Check out the brushes

Just in case…

If you missed it in our last newsletter, we’re offering our downloadable version of Sketchpad for free to all teachers, students, and educators.

Click the button below and fill out the form to receive your download link.

The free download offer has been discontinued. If you have questions about Sketchpad for Education please email [email protected] and we’d love to chat 🙂

 

Reach out to us anytime by emailing [email protected] with your thoughts, questions, and suggestions about Sketchpad. We love hearing how you’re doing and always do our best to reply as soon as possible.

With love and kindness 🙂
Michael & Ryan
Sketch.IO

March 2020 Newsletter

March 2020 Newsletter

Dear Sketchpad Community,

As we face uncertainty the Sketchpad team wishes everyone safety and wellbeing. Rest assured we’re here to continue keeping Sketchpad running smoothly and available for everyone. We’re focused on improving integration with Google Classroom so teachers can easily create assignments and students can directly submit their work from Sketchpad.

Starting immediately we’re offering our downloadable version of Sketchpad for free to all teachers, students, and educators. Click the button below and fill out the form to receive your download link.

The free download offer has been discontinued. If you have questions about Sketchpad for Education please email [email protected] and we’d love to chat 🙂

 

If you’re a teacher, student, or educator and have recently purchased Sketchpad, please fill out the form above or email [email protected] so we can process your refund.

We’re working on new features to support teachers and students during this transition to online education. In the coming weeks we’ll be releasing Sketchpad 2020 which will include group support and over 300 optimizations and enhancements! This update will be available first online at Sketchpad.app and then in the downloadable version. Anyone who has purchased Sketchpad previously will be eligible to upgrade to Sketchpad 2020 free of charge.

Reach out to us anytime by emailing [email protected] with your thoughts, questions, and suggestions about Sketchpad. We love hearing how you’re doing and always do our best to reply as soon as possible.

With love and kindness 🙂
Michael & Ryan
Sketch.IO

Sketchpad is completely FREE to use online with Google Classroom and it’s the best way for teachers and students to utilize Sketchpad in a learning environment. We’ve created some basic tutorial videos for getting started.

Watch Google Classroom Tutorials

Get ready for Sketchpad 2019!

Get ready for Sketchpad 2019!

Here’s a few things to keep in mind when using Sketchpad 2019:

  1. Your previous saved drawings won’t be in the file pane.
  2. If you’d like to transfer a file created with a previous version of Sketchpad, you can export the file as a .Sketchpad and then import the file into Sketchpad 2019.
  3. Let us know your thoughts and if you experienced any problems by submitting a bug report.
  4. You can still access Sketchpad 5.1 by visiting sketch.io/sketchpad

Try out Sketchpad 2019

Here’s some highlights from the new version:

  • Group support for layers pane! 
    • Creating a new group is easy, you can either:
      • Create a selection of layers, then press “CMD+G” on the keyboard.
      • Create a selection of layers, then inside the Layers pane click on the “Group” icon.
    • Editing groups is just as easy:
      • DblClick to select an item within a group while using Select Tool.
  • Gradient editor improvements
    • Editing gradients couldn’t be easier:
      • Simply click twice using Select Tool on any Shape to edit Gradient fills.
      • Click anywhere along the gradient to add new color stops!
      • Click on color stops to edit with the Color Picker!
  • SketchAPI codebase was migrated into ES6 and documented with JSDoc.
  • Text tool improvements
    • Contextual menus: Easily move text, update bold/italic/underline while you’re creating your text block.
    • Ability to size the text based on the FitText algorithm or by specific setting the FontSize
  • User Interface improvements
    • Tools are now neatly organized along the navigation bar for ease of access.
    • Layers pane & history controls are now in a Floating Toolbar which can easily be repositioned.
  • Over 200 other minor optimizations & bug fixes!

We’re always looking forwards to, and towards user input—you’re opinion is important to us! Please, feel free to let us know how this version is working for you, as well as any suggestions you have.

Wishing you all the best in 2019! ?

Using Sketchpad with Google Classroom

Using Sketchpad with Google Classroom

Sketchpad is a great addition to any Google Classroom lesson. We’ve created a few tutorial videos to show you how you can easily add Sketchpad to any Google Classroom lesson. Watch the videos below and leave a comment with any questions!

Using Sketchpad in a Google Classroom Assignment

How to Submit Work to Google Classroom

Creating a Sketchpad Starting Template for Google Classroom

Sketchpad Desktop App Now Available on Mac and PC

Sketchpad Desktop App Now Available on Mac and PC

The Sketchpad Desktop App is here! Whether you’re working on a school poster or brainstorming your next comic book character, Sketchpad makes it easy to bring your ideas to life. Easily draw, edit photos, or design your next business card. Craft images for social media posts, digital ads, paper, or even apparel. Make a quick photo edit with the drag and drop feature, or lose yourself for hours in Sketchpad’s streamlined digital makerspace.

Download the Sketchpad Desktop App for just $4.95! 

Your purchase supports the continued development of Sketchpad and helps keep the app free of ads. Sketchpad is made from a labor of love and we thank you for your support!

Sketchpad 4.1

Sketchpad 4.1

Extra extra! There’s a new Sketchpad in town! Here’s a rundown of the latest features:

Hope you enjoy! Btw, If you work with a school or non-profit education center contact me about getting a free license to use SketchPad with your students.

Sketchpad 4.0

Sketchpad 4.0

I’m excited to announce Sketchpad 4.0! The focuses on this release has making the app more colorful, faster, and easier to use.

Here’s an overview of what’s new:

  • Stroke/Fill is available on all brushes.
  • VectorFill replaces Floodfill for crisper edges and much faster rendering! This can lead to some fun by importing an SVG into Sketchpad, re-coloring it, and download it back as an SVG (right click to download!).
  • Linear gradient editor
  • Radial gradient editor
  • Text updates with special thanks to OpenType.js & some inspiration from FitText! Editing text now feels very smooth. Additionally these new features are available:
    1. Font Size is automatically set based on textarea dimensions
    2. Bold, Italic, Underline & Stroke styles
    3. Align Left, Center, Right & Justify
    4. Line Height & Letter Spacing
  • Crop has been merged with the Resize tool making life simpler. What’s better the crop tool now automatically zooms your viewport to fit so you can see your entire document while cropping.
  • Your library view has been updated with a more robust & spacious interface, along with more obvious buttons for renaming, duplicating, and removing documents.
  • High-res export now works on all tool and style combinations!
  • New auto-save UI allows you to disable the ‘auto-saving’ feature. This is helpful especially on large documents with thousands of layers that may take awhile to autosave. Although, to that end, auto-saving is much faster in the new version.
  • And finally you’ll find an export button right on the toolbar for all those who requested it!
  • Special thanks to jsondiffpatch which is now used in Sketchpad’s history.

There are a couple things that could not be 100% converted to the new version Sketchpad. You may want to consider whether these matter to you before upgrading your files (you will be prompted). My apologies for any inconvenience these may cause you:

  • FloodFill was depreciated. It just did not make sense to keep in. It cost too much to maintain, it was notorious for crashing users browsers. Sketchpad is a vector app, so a bitmap FloodFill never made sense. The new VectorFill replaces the FloodFill, and the results are much nicer!
  • LinearGradient format needed to be upgraded in order support the new Gradient Editor, in doing so LinearGradients may shift slightly.

If for any reason you’d like to use the older version of Sketchpad you can find it at its new permanent URL: https://sketch.io/sketchpad-3.7.6/

Or better yet, check out the latest!

https://sketch.io/sketchpad/