FiftyThree
cdixon.org
cdixon.org
In my view, Paper is more of a toy than a useful tool but it's not all their fault. Some will spin this more charitably with something along the lines of 'limitations foster creativity' or something like that.
Attempting to really use Paper made me realize something that's been sort of but not really bothering me since the iPad was introduced, and that is I like the tools but the application as a whole sucks. It doesn't make sense to buy a some canvas or a drawing notebook at the art store but be limited to the tools that are bundled with it. That is crazy. Not just crazy but it makes zero sense.
I can make a picture on a real piece of paper with literally anything that makes a mark, from coffee to dirt, blood, fruit, chemicals, bricks, burnt sticks (if I want to be classic), water... not to mention folding and crumpling.
the digital tablet equivalent to this will require two things.
1. complete separation of the tools from the "paper". And I mean complete. BYOT. Whatever that means.
2. a connection between physical tools and software tools. I am TOTALLY FINE with having five different physical objects to draw on my virtual tablet if it means not having to mess around with someone's idea of a genius menu and tool selection system. Really. I would actually love this so much. Look at a real artists studio: they often look like explosions happened. nobody thinks that fewer tools is better. I can find a physical tool without looking or thinking about it or messing up my train of thought. Menus and gestures and commands and even alphabetization ffs, all that "left brain" stuff is a real drag.
3. stretch objective, not really critical today but maybe 20 years from now, I'd like to have full, realistic multitouch. The day I can, for instance, make a handprint on my virtual tablet is the first day it's going to be able to reproduce detailed human expression. I might be off base on this particular one but I want it.
yeah, yeah yeah limitations and all that. digital stuff is totally different. whatever.
I have a distinctly opposite experience to you regarding Paper. It was the first app that actually made me start picking up my iPad and using it to get my thoughts down.
Part of it is the lack of tools and choices — it's not that they foster creativity, it's that they reduce friction. Paper ships with a few tools that feel very nice, and a few colours that are very well-chosen. Stuff looks great and you don't have to make many decisions, you just focus on getting the idea in your head on the screen with as few obstacles as possible. I believe that's the goal of the app and I think they achieved it.
I have many pro drawing tools on the iPad (such as Procreate, which is awesome) but using these is as much an exercise in learning and configuring the tool as it is in generating the content. Sometimes this is useful — when you want to do a piece of final artwork that you have already designed.
But Paper to me feels much more like your image of an artist's studio. A disorganised explosion of content where you don't care where it goes so long as it goes out of your head. You don't care about the tools because someone else has made all the right choices. You only care about getting the lines onto paper.
I'd prefer it if Paper removed the organisational "sketch books" from the app and simply had it present me a blank piece of paper each time I opened the app. That's all I'm usually looking for when I go to the app. I don't even care if my work is saved because that's irrelevant to working through an idea. These aren't limitations, and I think it's wrong to see them as such.
When the limitations and functionality of the drawing surface changes between apps, I think it'll be difficult to have a separation from tools and "paper". Though I guess the abstraction between paper and tools could go through some decent enough translation to make them all effective on any style of canvas.
"FiftyThree, creators of Paper app, raise $15M, plan mobile office suite"
I thought the Courier was cool when it was presented, and still cool now. I would completely consider getting one if it were priced the same as one of the other tablets.
People tend to believe actions more than words.
A tablet with a bluetooth keyboard is what traditionally would be called a laptop, and thanks to several iterations of hardware and software, a modern tablet holds its own. Is anyone seriously arguing that people dismissed the ideas of laptops being productive, or that they thought that the state of tablets wouldn't improve?
Tangentially, Paper has got to be the most overhyped application in the history of applications. I mostly ignored it (after falling for the hype and grabbing it and all of the in-app purchases to actually have a marginally useful drawing program), but when they went on the road selling snake-oil about their trivial HSV "paint mixer" I really started to see the negativity in the hype.
Maybe.
But, while we bought the iPad for many reasons, being able to draw by hand was not one of them. Paper enabled this in our household. Enabling consumers to create things is a pretty important feat. Introducing a new method? Me think it is worthy of some hype.
Parents have always found their progeny's output amazing. Crayon drawings are easier to put up on the fridge, too. But hey, iPad.
There's a fluidity and aesthetic to it that no other iPad drawing app has matched yet.
You mentioned you bought Paper and all of the in-app purchases — as far as I'm aware, Paper has always been free since launch (you can see this at its App Shopper link http://appshopper.com/productivity/paper-by-fiftythree). I think the IAP is fairly priced considering how much use I've gotten out of the app.
I don't have the writing one (can't see a use for it).
Perhaps it just doesn't suit your workflow. I still find the app remarkable in how much it makes me grab my iPad to sketch my thoughts. There's a distinct lack of friction to using Paper that allows it to take over for real paper.
Why blame the entrepreneur for media hyperbole?
Tech media lately is full of hired journalists from traditional(sic) media. Many claim to be tech journos but only a handful understand technology. Guess it's a pattern similar to how mainstream reports on Snowden rather than real issues.
I'll spend a few weeks developing, then use the app on my consumer system, just like a trucker drives 40 hours a week for work, then takes car to visit family or a restaurant or amusement park, etc.
obligatory link to Bret Victor's rant on the limitation of touch interfaces: http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi...
To put it another way: for those of you who program/create via the command line and keyboard shortcuts, could you imagine a touch-setup that would give you more power than what you have with the keyboard? The mouse and GUI hasn't so far...they've added different ways to create content, but arguably these interfaces end up limiting the true power users.
I want there to be a way to do this with touch screens, but I haven't found it yet.
When it happens, though, I may retire my beloved keyboard.
The only way would be if you created a language of touch and gestures, where you could use syntax to build up complex instructions not predetermined by the App maker.