Sketchbook

Sketchbook Review: A $2.99 Studio With No Ads, and No Cloud Safety Net

What's free, and what the $2.99 Premium Bundle adds

Google Play shows no Contains ads label here, and the free tier ships with hundreds of brushes, rulers and ellipse guides, 1-, 2- and 3-point perspective grids, radial and Free Symmetry, time-lapse recording and Scan Sketches, which straightens and cleans up a photographed paper drawing. Layers are not paywalled: their number depends on device memory, and canvases top out at 100 megapixels. The one-time $2.99 Premium Bundle adds canvas resizing, clipping masks, layer groups, custom brushes, Blur and Sharpen, PDF export, and the Lasso Fill and Draw Outline tools from April 2026. Check the current price in the app; it varies by region.

Predictive Stroke, Steady Stroke and perspective snapping

Predictive Stroke reshapes a line to match what it guesses you meant; at level 4 or 5 it turns a shaky freehand circle, triangle or rectangle into a clean shape. Its snapping can be switched off when it flattens a slightly tilted line, though rectangles still lock to 45-degree steps. Steady Stroke trails the line behind the stylus like a long-bristled brush, smoothing long curves but lagging on tight turns. Perspective grids snap strokes toward their vanishing points. On Android, pressure works with the Samsung S Pen and Wacom's Pro Pen 3 for MovinkPad, not with external drawing tablets. On iPad, Apple Pencil Pro squeeze and barrel roll need iPadOS 17.5.

No cloud, no account: where your TIFF files actually live

There is no server connection and no sign-in, so nothing syncs between devices. Every piece is a layered TIFF stored locally. On Android 11 and later those files sit in Pictures > Sketchbook Gallery beside PNG previews that Google Photos and Samsung Gallery also display; the help center names moving, renaming or deleting them from such apps as the most common cause of the Failed to open file error. Play reviews about vanished drawings run from 2020 to September 2026. On iOS, deleting the app deletes the art, though version 6.2.4 added an Export Mode switch in the Settings app that exports the whole gallery. Android's Auto Save timer starts at Never; set it to 15, 30 or 60 minutes.

After Autodesk: Copic's exit, desktop-only Flipbook and the rivals

Autodesk made the full app free in 2018, then in June 2021 spun it out to Sketchbook, Inc., led by former Autodesk staff; the Android package name still begins with com.adsk. The handover cost the licensed Copic color library and the gallery's iCloud link. Animation lives only in Sketchbook Pro for Mac and Windows, a separate $24.99 purchase whose Flipbook holds up to 1,000 frames. April 2026 brought this year's only feature update; builds through June 1 fixed bugs. Procreate Pocket costs $5.99 once but runs only on iPhone, while ibis Paint X adds animation and manga panels yet shows ads unless you pay $15.99 once or $27.99 a year for Premium. Prices vary by region.