For those unfamiliar with the name, Sketchable is a popular creativity suite for Windows. The app has just been updated to hit version 4.0 and with it brings a bunch of changes and improvements. The developer has focused on the user interface with the latest release, improving usability and ensuring all elements create a cohesive aesthetic. Interestingly, Microsoft's Surface design team was brought on board to aid in these efforts.
As well as the UI overhaul, Sketchable 4.0 introduces a floating stroke preview, real time brush tip cursor, customizable color selector, right-click color insertion, and streaming tutorials. These new additions are better explained below:
Layout and design
- Designed in conjunction with Surface team designers
- Reduced UI palettes from four to two
- Updated every icon
- Regrouped icons for a cleaner aesthetic
Color Picker
- Moved icons to singular exterior overlay -Capable of achieving smaller sizes
- Added three new custom form factors
- Circular saturation and brightness picker
- Dynamic RGB and HSB sliders
- For economy of motion, users can click and drag the color Dropper from icon to desired color, thus requiring only one click.
- Toggle button added for "touch can paint" to make it more discoverable.
Stroke Preview
- New modern design
- Sliders for Size, and tip opacity make the functionality more discoverable.
- Can be moved and placed
- Can remain open when painting or adjusting a stoke from an exterior source.
- Up to 36 presets per tool
- Added clone, reset, and delete brush presets
- Provides textural feedback while choosing a preset, or scrubbing tip opacity or size
Real Time Brush Tip Cursor
- Depicts diameter, roundness, angle, feather, etc…
Other notable changes
- Substantial performance improvements
- Reduced package size by ~150mb
- Moved Lock Layer Transparency to the Layer Info dialog.
- Added settings
- RGB 0-255
- Right click color picker
- Link mouse and touch UI Sizes
Much like version 3, the previous release we covered, this is a fairly substantial update and one we're sure fans of the app will appreciate. Hit the link below to download the app for free. Do note that there's a one-time fee of $19.99 to access premium features.
