I have hastily tried around 20 different apps in search of a suitable application to perform remote teaching once Covid had forced me out of the classroom. I’m a math professor and needed an application that allowed an unlimited page length. I attempted to get by with others that had other helpful drawing tools, but having to open a new page every couple minutes ultimately made those apps a deal breaker. Now, apples notes was working well, but the inability to save in a format other than its own proprietary file system left me in search of a solution. At this point I discovered Flow which had almost everything that I needed. There is always room for improvement, but the developers seem to be on top of all that while making continual updates as well as creating new features (rulers as of late). I would like to see the ability to draw a strait line without having to open the ruler for that, but this is something users can ask for and the developers appear to listen. That one aspect alone is a huge game changer for me. I’m just not used to using software where the devs listen to the customer/users. All in all, flow and it’s other apps have proved to be absolutely essential for teaching remotely. I could go on and on about how I use the features to create a learning environment that makes the remote learning process much less painless for both me and my students, but I’d suggest give it a try.
Learn from 53, Flow team. Once upon a time there was an app called Paper, by 53. It failed to improve and progress the way it’s users needed it to and now it’s a piece of crap. You guys are riding a very thin line with having minimal tools and options while still remaining relevant and having a very elegant app that’s a joy to use. As long as apps like Procreate exist, where you only pay once and can be as “pro” or as basic as you want with it, Flow is going to be a challenging sell. You’re riding on brand and aesthetics and that may not carry you forever. But I get the vision of Flow and I personally love it. I’m a graphic designer, so it’s nice having a digital space to draw and think while not worrying about layers or being too granular with my sketches. Flow gives me permission to be messy, and I like that. The paper formats are nice, I’ve found myself using the ruled format from time to time to take notes since Flow has my favorite interface (and sounds!) of any drawing app...so why not? Tools are great, I love the color picker and lack of total freedom while still having a TON of options. I don’t feel restricted with color. I’d be wary with adding much in the way of functionality, but new tools from time to time would be fun. I’m looking forward to the app getting better at what it already does as opposed to becoming more feature-heavy.
I’ve been searching for a drawing program EXACTLY like this for years now. Everything is exactly how I’ve wished drawing programs would be and feels completely natural. I got an iPad hoping to reignite my passion for art but didn’t have much luck because the programs I was using didn’t flow (no pun intended) or feel natural. I felt held back. Switching to Flow has brought everything I loved about art back full-force. It’s easy to use and just feels “right.” For the first time in years I’ve been looking forward to drawing every second of my day- during work all I can think about is how excited I am to draw during break, and after my break, I can hardly wait to get home to keep drawing. Art was such an important thing to me growing up and losing it hit me hard. Flow bringing my enthusiasm back means more to me than I could put into words. **Edit: I originally wrote this saying that I wished layers would be added, but after a few days of usage, I take that back. I’ve quickly adjusted to not using layers (though I will say, I’m used to using 2-3 layers at most, so there wasn’t a huge readjustment I had to go through) and I prefer the program without them. I never noticed before how much layers stall and complicate the process. So, I truly and honestly wouldn’t change anything about Flow. I honestly think it’s the perfect art program.
I fell in love with the beautiful UI and clean aesthetic of this app during my demo, and will definitely be willing to pay the reasonable $12/yr to keep enjoying it (please just don’t bump that price back up to $30). The sight of my digital notebook spreads looking just like my physical ones is super satisfying; it truly does make me want to keep writing and writing, whether it’s journal entries, work notes, or sketches. There are still some visible rough edges, though. Resolution gets very blurry when you scroll through pages of a single file, and there’s no way to zoom out and view the whole thing. The minimal interface is a selling point so they shouldn’t clutter it, but certain organizational features and customization options (ex. better file management, the ability to save default page setups) are absent, and sorely missed. I expect quality from Moleskine and think, especially since this not just a paid app but part of a subscription service, they still have work to do. Assuming they continue to refine the app though I will gladly comes back to renew my subscription.
I use Procreate and GoodNotes for when I need to get really in depth with my notes or drawing. I’ve been craving an app that has a beautiful, intuitive interface and is simple enough for me to quickly open and use it. Flow is inviting for someone somewhat unartistic as me to use, but I can also see its implications for more detailed sketching. I consider that this app is freshly made and so many features are on the way, and the team of developers is attentive to community suggestions although it is a small team. You can tell a good app by its developer response, so I have a lot of hope for the future of this one. I’m going to use the app more as it evolves, but I’m very pleased now. As to anyone who claims the app is too expensive—$12 once a year is not too much to pay if you pay about that much for a notebook you use in your hands from a bookstore. This app is a well executed attempt to emulate that personal experience with a paper notebook. That’s not easy, but it’s one of the reasons I purchased my iPad Pro with pencil. And if you’re a user that has the same intent as me, who’s already spent $900 or so on an iPad and pencil for that experience, another $12 every year is well worth it for the value returned. Thank you!
This app is extremely frustrating in that it does everything I need but this recent build is totally unstable (and I’m paying for it!) Seems to bug out after I use the eraser tool, the board stops receiving input, though I can change tools. I’m having to restart the app every 2-3 minutes. I’m surprised this build passed internal+apple review. If this continues, I will be asking for my money back. Long-term issue – Clipping Tool (needs to be fixed) With this app you can draw, erase and change colors. No rulers, no guides, no mirroring. The only reason this app is better than a paper notebook is because you can theoretically edit drawings, except the tool used to select and move parts of your drawing is completely broken. You might highlight something in the bottom left and it grabs something in the top right also, or just entirely erases sections of your drawing, and even worse, with so many crashes, my drawings will often be saved with these destroyed artifacts. Reviews show this has been an issue for a long time, so I don’t expect this to actually get fixed at this point. Makes this app unusable for my professional needs.
I love this app! While apps like ArtStudio Pro, Infinite Painter and Procreate are the go to’s for mobile professional level concept, illustration and sketching, this app offers a completely unique and wonderful experience! No fuss, just iteration and ideation...just like a real sketchbook. The infinite pages is amazing for concepting hundreds of ideas without settings and layers getting in the way. If you are looking for a professional painting app, look at the other big players. But if you want to DESIGN, without worry, just you and your page, uninterrupted, this app is definitely for you. I will be recommending this heavily to my peers in Film and Games, especially those working on new projects during the visual development and world building phase. The way that exporting works is fantastic! I half want a ruler and eclipse tool, but a real sketch book doesn’t have those things (though I will use a straight edge regularly in mine)..so I also think I am ok without them. My only real complaint is that I wish the markers didn’t blend so hard, especially as they are the primary feature of the app. But overall this is a win. Glad I discovered it. I will use it daily in a professional and personal capacity.
The reason I bought my iPad Pro is to use this app! Last December I visited the Apple Store in the UWS and played around with the iPad Pro they had on display. They had this app open and I fell in love. In Feb for my bday I got myself an iPad Pro and immediately subscribed after I couldn’t stop drawing with it after the free trial. I used to draw daily in my sketchbook, but now I draw daily with Flow on my iPad instead. It is easier to share my drawings from the app, rather than trying to take good photos of works on paper. I highly recommend this app for artists! My only wishes are for more vertical space when in Portrait mode and for higher quality image saves when saving to camera roll. I usually end up taking a screenshot of my drawings, rather than saving to the camera roll from inside the app. I have used Procreate, and it was not for me, as I am looking for something that feels like I am drawing in a sketchbook. If what you are looking for is a sketchbook-like experience for drawing, this is the app to use.
My pages will go missing with no explanation, and only reappear on my iPad when I click on them on my iPhone (the only other device I can open the documents on). Makes it frustrating when I don’t remember that those specific notes exist and now I’m missing info I needed to memorize for class. Sometimes pages will disappear when I’m working on it and I’ll have to start over. That’s my biggest issue with this app. I’ve had to rewrite notes more than a dozen times. Other issues include the fact that i cannot export cleanly - you can only share notes if the other person pays for the app. Otherwise I have to screenshot notes and send 50 pages of screenshots. I’d also love if this app was compatible with laptops so I could open notes there. There is also no recently deleted folder so if you accidentally delete a document, it’s gone forever. I’m only still using this app because it seems to be the most versatile in terms of note taking and drawing as well as the limitless options for pen color/thickness etc. Went back and forth with their support team for over a month but they couldn’t do anything about it.
I’m very excited that I found this app. I really like taking notes and diagrams with it. The ability to have customized “pens” on the side for quick switching is great. I prefer the black paper and using white primarily. Also being able to side scroll forever means I can be messy and have plenty of space at all times. The customizable gestures is a key feature for Apple Pen users. Wish list: **More vertical scrolling space. I feel limited when drawing diagrams and run out of vertical space. It’s a common issue. Wish the page was optionally 2 (maybe 4) times taller. **End-to-end encryption. Currently data is encrypted in transit, and at rest, but is decrypted in between. The company *does* have access to your unencrypted data. This means the government and/or a bad actor could gain access. The data *should* get encrypted *on my device* then be uploaded in chunks. There are just too many data breaches these days to not demand end-to-end encryption. (See Zoom’s encryption scandal)
I’d love to be able to choose to scroll the paper either horizontally as it does now or vertically as an option. The colors are incredible and I’d love more flexibility in choosing paper color and backgrounds. But this is well worth the money for a year and I love it for my Apple Pencil. I used to buy so many Moleskine notebooks and still do, but I love having this app on my iPad. Please think about adding an option to toggle scrolling from horizontal to vertical and consider adding a way for users to customize each aspect of their digital paper as you do for the color of their digital ink! Thanks for such a great app for my doodles and thoughts. Maybe even try a notebook metaphor and I’d pay for an app with all the functionality of all your apps rolled into one digital day planner, notepad, doodle pad, to do list, journal, graph paper, every reason you used to need paper with easily exportable and importable file formats with OCR and handwriting recognition. Okay, lol, I’ll stop Great app, I love it
Love this app, I use it as my main sketchbook. HOWEVER, I would love it if it didn’t all of a sudden shut down everytime I opened it. I can’t even use it anymore which is super disappointing since I paid for the yearly subscription and I have a lot of work in there that I would like to salvage. Can someone please help me fix this Update: I just want to include that my phone and iPad are on the most recent ios, I have tried offloading the app and reloading, deleting the app and reinstalling. Force quitting the app and rebooting both of my devices and it’s still quitting as soon as I open the app. It’s having trouble “syncing” and loading the document. At this point I’m scared to lose all of my work and have trust issues when it comes to this app. Which is such a shame cause I really did enjoy it. Update 2: sent two emails, two tweets, and this review has been updated multiple times. I’m irritated by the lack of customer service. Especially when I see that the developers has responded to someone else’s comment here 21 hours ago at the time that I’m typing this. When I sent my first email 5 days ago.
when ever I see a drawing or a note taking app, theres always a subscription if you want more out of the app, not the whole app. this morning I was downloading this app, and the second I got on, it put a subscription add in my face. I thought that you could just exit that add, but I had the restart the app to get out of that add. and then when I got back on, I tried to use one of the markers to see how it was, the second my apple pen hit the screen, the subscription came back up. I just wanted to test it out! and I know you can do a 7 day trial, it’s just annoy because I always forget to unsubscribe when the trial is over. ik the reviews are great, they just don’t say anything about needing to buy the app once you have downloaded it. it might as well cost money to get it. great app other wise, would recommend if you want a good trusty note taking and drawing app 👍
Whenever I see something featured in the design awards I know it will be fantastic. When I see it has such split reviews it is rarely because the product is only half as good, and nearly always because customers don’t understand things. Like apparently people don’t understand the cost of developing and upkeeping apps. (For that I would like to challenge anyone who complains about an annual fee being less than half the cost of a nice notebook?? Go ahead and make your own app. I’ll wait.) The color function alone makes this worth more than $12 a year. My friend is in interior design and loves all apps that can successfully combine pretty functions with usefulness. Other things I love : The super customizable toolbar. I can’t wait to create my perfect set for quick doodles. Every color has a name. That is so thoughtful and a lovely nice touch. (The intuitive and beautiful way you change colors is also top tier) You can just keep scrolling. I have sketches pro and procreate and I love them but when you work with layers there is this... need? To make everything perfect. I find myself overusing undo instead of just going. I already love the way this allows you to just keep designing. I can’t wait to see how this app will get better and better and am delighted to have this on my device. Please keep up the amazing work 💕⭐️💕
Don’t download this - you literally cannot do anything without a membership. Apple needs to start dinging these apps for lying about being free. Stop letting developers lie to your users, apple Update: the developer sent a condescending message in response to my FYI for the community saying, “In the future, it is best to read an app’s description in order to avoid future disappointment.” Seriously? And “it’s disappointing when things aren’t free, isn’t it?” Ugh. Just don’t have it labeled as free then, real easy. Sending obnoxious messages suggesting people don’t know how to read isn’t going to make anyone use your product. Further Update: I’m not sure why the developer keeps sending me responses with the exact same information. I have no idea why they say they can’t control the information that is listed about the app because that is false. Regardless, this review is not for the developers, it is for people who are looking for a free app. This isn’t a free app and that is not clear. End of story. Please stop sending me messages
Still issues with opacity build up, please please add a blend tool, I need to be able to select all more layers with the lasso tool to prevent “Please select fewer strokes” and/or at least be able to duplicate documents. I also want to be able to do more sizes with more tools. The airbrush tool is my absolute favorite, and the smallest size isn’t small enough unfortunately. Last thing, saving and loading color palettes. The simplicity of this app is a total winner for me and I’ve tried every drawing app in the App Store. The way the color and brush picker works is innovative and intuitive to say the least. It’s my favorite app on my iPad. This update brings me personally closer to what I want to do with this great tool, I just hope that you guys continue listening and implementing features to this fantastic app, while maintaining simplicity and intuitiveness to the UI.
I’ve been using Flow (paid version) extensively since purchasing it four months ago. Overall, it’s intuitive and has significantly increased my confidence to take on challenging projects. However, I have noticed near-constant crashes upon opening the app on a drawing I’ve been working on for months! The frustration is immense, as I am nearing the work’s completion and planned to present it to my wife as a romantic gift. Unless there’s an alternative explanation, it would appear that Flow cannot handle the number of brushstrokes and complexity of color and brush selection. Had I known this, I definitely would have used a traditional canvas and brush. The app is also limited by its zoom capability. This makes fine touches tedious, but the ability to quickly erase and start anew partially makes up for it.
I’ve never been more disappointed with an app I had such high hopes for. The user interface is beautiful, the idea behind the infinite page is great. The simulation of different pencils and pens is very good. But, oh lord, is this app slow. Maddeningly slow and glitchy. I want so badly for this to work correctly. I’m on an iPad Pro, 3rd Gen, with an Apple Pencil. I’m a professional illustrator and designer, and I’ve used all the apps people like me tend to use...procreate, Adobe Fresco, Photoshop, Illustrator for iPad, etc etc etc. My iPad is my daily driver device for content creation. And I create a lot. What I wanted from Moleskine Flow was a *sketchbook.*. Something I can just *think* in. And from the outside it was going to be perfect. But after using it for a few days, its just...terrible. It can’t keep up with my sketching. It shuts down if I even look at it wrong. It takes forever to load when opening the app. It’s so slow and glitchy that its essentially unusable...and this is after I paid for a year’s access. My iPad is in tip top shape, and I have zero problems with any other app. It runs procreate and Adobe Fresco & Illustrator like they’re nothing. But Moleskine Flow....unusable. Help. : (
I find myself continually amazed by the fact that people want everything to be free these days. So how do you expect the engineers that build this app to get paid? How do you expect Moleskine to continue to add new features? The irony is that many of the same people would be complaining about "too many ads" if Moleskine used an advertising model instead. Putting that aside, this app is an amazing drawing app! The tools are precise and great replicas of their analog counterparts, the drawing experience is smooth and satisfying, and the app is thoughtfully designed. But perhaps the feature that stands out the most for me, is the fact that all of the colors are labeled. For someone that is color blind, this is a life changing feature. Thank you for designing with accessibility in mind and making drawing in "true color" possible for me!
After clicking the free trial option, which did not ask for any payment information, I began journaling and doodling in the app (at 2-3 am), which I haven’t done in years. I felt so comfortable writing in it and did not feel the unease I felt when figuring out some of the drawing apps. I’m now questioning what I should do with my empty moleskin journals that I haven’t used since purchasing them years ago. That same morning, I purchased the yearly subscription. I am already using it in all aspects of my life (school, personal journal, learning scripts for my job) and can’t wait to see what else they may add. Within the app is a “community thread” where people post what they would like to see improvements in and the developers have notes that say “in progress” and such to see what suggestions they are working on.
Word of warning: Flow documents limit you to 50 maximum pasted images. I use Flow as my personal sketchbook, and as part of my creative process, I’m cutting/pasting all the time. After working for a month in a sketchbook, I hit the wall, and was alerted that I could not paste any more images into my file. This was completely out of the blue, no advance warning. Be aware: if your creative process involves pasting images, then you too may see this as a deal-breaker limitation to this app. Sadly, as a result of this I am forced to write a negative review. I’ve been enjoying Flow for about a month. Nice UX, quality tools, intuitive, and I love being able to have tools on my phone while drawing on the iPad. I also like having my sketchbook on the cloud, available on either phone or iPad (a function that comes in extremely handy). However, a paster must paste; this is a deal breaker. App developers, please remove this limitation. Thank you.
Though I do prefer a one time purchase over a subscription any day, 12 dollars a year isn’t too bad. I’m still currently in my trial that ends October 3rd, and I plan on keeping the app because it’s something that I’ve been wanting in a note taking app for a while. I’m a bit nervous about losing work to glitches, but I hope this never happens. Everything works seamlessly and beautifully. A couple things I’d like are transparency options for the pen tools. I’m sticking with ones that are already transparent but the air brush type tool could really use it. Also, a press and hold color picker would make my millennia. I’d also like to backup the files somewhere else in case something does happen so I can pull them back to recover. That’s all I’ve personally noticed thus far. Wonderful app, otherwise, great job.
I tried the free trial with full intention of subscribing for the year but when I tried to draw or sketch all I could do it make lines and circles or a box, those seam to be the only option to me. When I looked for the help section I found everything but how to free hand draw like the advertisement said I saws able to do. I worked with the interface for nearly 2 hours and never could do what I wanted to do and I couldn’t ask for help from any representative of the app there was now way to do that,I pushed every and any button switch sentence that I could find and nothing and no one to answer my questions. I terminated the session and canceled the subscription deleted the app with haste. I was completely frustrated and angry so the only way I can tell someone from the app was to do this. Maybe it’s just me but even the most basic app has the capability to get help from someone but not this one, tried it don’t like it would not recommend this to ANYONE! Sincerely #&$%@ off
I’m enjoying it. It’s a nice program. But there was a gap between my free trial and win my paid subscription was acknowledged. They charge me but rather than automatically rolling over, it seem to take about 24 hours before I was allowed to log back in. Alas it happened on a Friday night and indeed customer service didn’t get back to me Tuesday afternoon, but had it not started working on its own finally, I would’ve been quite peeved.. moreover, the link between the App Store and the app seems weird. It created without my asking it some sort of private relay email. So to login on any other device I need to know this secret internal email that the Apple App Store and Flow use. This seems to have been part of the gap once they charged me.
I use Procreate and the Apple Notes app all the time. I recently discovered Flow and was blown away. The ui is beautiful. The color pallet is beautiful. The tools are, you guessed it, beautiful. The infinite canvas is something I didn’t know I needed until I used it. Now I can’t imagine life without it. I got so excited by this app the moment I discovered it. However, there is one obvious thing that breaks my flow state and ruins the experience. The Apple Pencil lag in Flow NEEDS TO BE IMPROVED. Come on developers! Open the notes app with the newest iPad Pro and you will see the difference. If I’m expected to get lost in my ideas and forget that I’m using a digital notebook, I can’t be distracted by the line lagging behind the pencil. That doesn’t happen in Notes or Procreate. Fix it and I will shower you in all my cash. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by an update very soon, I know I’m not the only one.
App stories article talked on how dev obsessively worked on the pencil/finger drawing tool control, and how natural it feels. I knew I had to give the Moleskine Flow app another try and resubbed! Smart thinking devs! Most apps focus on new features, forgoing further refinement of drawing control, the most important thing! And that is what drew me... 1. Pencil Control is now as near natural feeling as currently possible! I love ProCreate but they have struggled here and I can say that the default hb pencils certainly lack the refinement of control that Flow app has here. 2. Paper background options. I’d love to see maybe some grain texture and patterns but still keeping it all simplified. IDEA: Ability for people to custom create and import a small circle or square texture, would broaden the app’s popularity as people would be sharing them across the internet. Free promotion and staying relevant. IDEA:FEATURE REQUEST: Consider filling the void left ever since 53 changed their paint app into a strange hybrid notetaking app, abandoning what made the app especially popular, it’s journal page system and ability to print order moleskine books. Sure they tried to add it back, kind of, sort of... competing w/ProCreate
This program was great at first through the trial, once I paid for it I have to constantly restart every time I use the eraser. It’ll work just fine while I’m drawing. When I erase, it works fine on the first try, if I lift my pen and do it again it does nothing. I’ll try to draw and nothing happens. I rechecked my preferences, I saw there was an update, so I did the update, and it still continued to do the same thing. When it stops working I have to close the app and restart it. It works fine at first use, but if I want to erase it’ll do the same thing all over again and I have to restart. Prior to the update, I had used the pen to see if it was the program or my preferences and it didn’t draw anything. When I restarted the program I had all the squiggles and erase marks I had done with the pen and eraser. It’s really annoying to have to restart the program every time I need to use my tools multiple times.
Pretty Decent app, don’t listen to the haters that are too “broke” to spend $2.49/mo for an app.
Honestly, the people that complain about paying a subscription and ACTING like they can’t afford to spend $2/month really need to be quiet and go somewhere…you literally spend more than $5 for lunch everyday and you complain about $2/mo?! Stop it! Stop leaving bad reviews because you’re too broke to spend $2.49/mo! This app is pretty decent! I love the writing/drawing utensils that Flow has! My only issue with this app is that I could be writing a note and mid writing the note would disappear. I REALLY hate that, especially when I’m taking vital notes that I’d like to revisit-please fix this ASAP.
I downloaded this before and deleted it, but I came back to find an app where I can draw. Apparently, I’m unable to do anything. I saw a picture I drew before and tried to erase it, but no, I can’t because like every single interaction I have activates the subscription, making me unable to do literally anything. I came to see the reviews that others were facing the same problem. What’s the point in making an app free with you’re just gonna shove a free trial and subscription in my face and restricting me from even using the app at all? It’s just plain annoying. I’m sure this might a great app and will be considered as a good app to draw with, but yeah. TL;DR: Unable to do literally anything because the app continuously shoves a free trial and subscription in your face, making it unable for you to even erase or draw almost every single interaction you make; making me state that it’s useless making an app free, despite shoving a paywall on the screen with no way to exit.
Let me start with the good - this app has a beautiful interface with gorgeous colors. I adore it for doodling. But that’s all it is good for - doodling. It is not good for note-taking. I expected something a little more in-depth from Moleskine. First - I hate how the infinite page is horizontal - I’d prefer the option of portrait mode. Also, the tools (while amazing and lovely) get in the way of writing/reading your notes. There needs to be a better way of quickly accessing tools without them getting in the way - I know you can hide them, but it seems too cumbersome to hide/show as I’m working. Finally, I’d like a better way to store/file my sketches. Sometimes I create a list, sometimes a sketch, sometimes notes for an upcoming meeting. I’d like to store them in an easy to access system. I’m looking forward to the updates and improvements Flow makes - hoping for some good ones soon!
The concept of this app is fantastic. I’ve always been a fan of Moleskin notebooks, and was very excited to see that they had made an app. I love the customisation options, like the ability to change the paper tone and lines or grids, and the sizes of such. However, I do wish it was more of a scale customisation rather than two selections. I love the range of colors, but do wish there was a colour picker. My biggest issue with the app, however, is the shakiness of the lines. I wish there was an option to adjust the smoothness of lines, because this makes my handwriting look tragic. There are several other things I wish would be added or improved, but the biggest one is the line smoothness, or lack thereof. Perhaps if a stroke stabiliser were added, I would consider paying for the membership.
Not exemplary in a saturated market, and a poor payment model to boot
Compared to the slew of other note taking and drawing apps, Flow is at best aesthetically pleasing compared to others, and that's about it. Lacking features that many completely free apps have. But, what I consider worst is the reprehensible subscription model. What features could possibly be brought on a monthly basis to justify that model? Especially when every other app that does what Flow wants to be but better is a one time price or free. For some reason the brand name alone got me to try it, and instead I was actively irritated by predatory pricing and, quite frankly, awful developer responses to reviews. The dev response shouldn't argue with poor reviews just voicing their oppinions. They ignore the pricing complaint and claim no features is actually good because reasons. This has put such a bad taste in my mouth I am certainly never coming back to this app.
I’ve been a moleskine subscriber for a few years. I really enjoy the aesthetics of this app. The flow of the UI and the gestures are incredible but after using for a few days on some fairly simple drawings — elements will just drop off without me knowing when or why. They seeming we will disappear or be uneditable. At first I thought it was my fault and that the gesture that I set up for undoing / erasing was causing the issues, but I was able to retrace my steps and attempt to fix. That wasn’t it. Then I drew a few elements and duplicated them - attempted to use the cut out feature and move them around and they did not want to move. Incredible work on the dev side but this needs to be more reliable to use it on a daily basis. Thanks!
I love this app. The ui is beautiful, the paper options are so helpful, the single long paper is a great idea. I love using this app to sketch out my ideas for future projects. But way too regularly the app completely stops functioning. Crashing every time you open it, not loading anything, not letting you draw. I have to hold my breath a few times a week scared that it’s not going to load all of my sketches and they’ll be gone forever. I bought the moleskine package just for this app but it’s quickly not feeling worth it. I’m trying to sketch out a project right now and it’s refused to open for about half an hour, and I even restarted my iPad and now it’s just not loading anything. My only request for this app is that you make it actually function.
The app as is is honestly amazing. I love all the different writing tools, hues, shades, etc. the cut tool is AMAZING and sets the app above note taking on paper. (We’ve all been there where we realized we needed to add something but couldn’t as we’ve already filled the space.) The eraser tool, erasing by targeted chosen marking or actual eraser that functions as you would expect an eraser to, is another feature that sets this far above paper note taking. A few things I wish the app had that would also take it one step further than physical paper note taking and make this a TRUE 5 star app: 1) the option to insert pictures from my camera roll. I am an extremely visual person and sometimes it’s easier to insert an image and make a few small notes instead of describing a visual and then making notes off of it. 2) the option to type in the notebook. I know that begins to defeat the purpose but the option to would be nice. 3) the ability to edit the color of a marking 4) the ability to search the notebook for things I’ve written on the pages. This feature alone almost made me stick with the free ios notes app instead of paying for one.
... Is what you can do with this app, until you pay. I feel like I'm watching the scene from Goodfellas, when Henry is doing a voiceover about Paulie going in partners on the restaurant with the owner guy, after Joe Pesci embarrasses him in his own establishment. He's like: "But now the guy has got to come up with Paulie's money every week, no matter what. Business bad? **** you, pay me. You had a fire? **** you, pay me. The place got hit by lightning? **** you, pay me.". That's EXACTLY what it's like with this app. "Wanna make a single mark on the sketch pad surface? **** you, pay me. You just want to check out... ONE SINGLE PEN OR PENCIL and see how it looks? **** you, pay me. Did you download this app and open it because you need a seriously good app and you heard this was it, but have been burnt by false products before? **** you, pay me." TOO AGGRESSIVE. Next review I write for you... **** you, pay me.
This app looks cool, it looks like it would be fun to use, helpful for sketching and drawing things, BUT, I wouldn’t know how fun or useful it ACTUALLY is, because in order to use the app you have to sign up for a subscription.. Of course, you can download the app, it takes you through a written tutorial explaining what the app is blah blah blah... but what it doesn’t tell you is that you can’t test out the app at all unless you sign up for a subscription. Granted, they give you a free trial, yes, but how do I know I want to do that if I can’t even use one pencil? Anyway, I’m not sure what to rate the app because I can’t do anything with it unless I get a subscription. I just wanted to let anyone who wants to download the app and test it before buying it that you’re going to have to get a subscription in order to try it out. I will say that the free trial is a major plus, but why not allow very limited features of the app before making someone jump into a subscription? Just a heads up to anyone interested!
I downloaded this app because I have it on my iPad. I don’t love the iPad version BC I can’t get the pallet to go away like other apps but in a big screen I can deal with it, kinda. On a smaller screen it’s intrusive and unusable to be frank. I have walked around with a notebook in my pocket to sort myself and hoped this would free up some space in my life but it just ended up frustrating me. No tutorial and unusable space for my creativity. Keep using the original notepad and pen because the subscription is a scam. On my iPad I do appreciate the pens provided but on my iPhone the tracking is horrible.
Charge once for a good product and we’ll pay for it (you know like a moleskin notebook!) Please don’t turn everything into another Netflix style pricing model, it’s annoying and frustrating. I would happily pay a single price to own this. It’s not a bad product, but it doesn’t justify a monthly price model that handcuffs it’s users into a subscription to use a simple product. There are updates but nothing worth this price. Please release an option to have a one time payment and I would happily support it. Just like I buy a notebook once I want to do the same here. Anything else is purely ridiculous.
So I like the idea of the app, But when I got it, It was literally forcing me to buy the subscription. And only being under the age of 13, I have no idea why I have to buy the subscription in order to use the app for free. Though I’m not trying to be a Karen here but I would like to let you know that this situation happened. I hopefully think that you guys can fix this problem for future downloaders. Thank you for your time. But I never bought the subscription just to let you know because I wanna use the app and not have to pay but other than that I love this app but that was the only thing that makes me not enjoy it as much as I thought it was. I hope you’re having a great day/night. ❤️🍄
I absolutely love note-taking/doodling apps. I’m a bit addicted. So when I saw that Flow was the app of the day, and free, I downloaded it immediately! However, I am super disappointed because it seems to be stuck (at least for me) on opening up the membership option when I try to do anything. The app won’t even allow me to try a brush out without offering me a membership. I can’t seem to get it to stop. Yet, a lot of these comments are people saying they love it and won’t mind spending the membership. I don’t mind memberships, especially for a good app. But I definitely don’t want to spend money on an app that I can’t even figure out how to draw on. I’ll keep the app for a few weeks and hope the membership offers stop so I can actually give it a shot, but if I can’t try it out without paying for a year’s membership, I’m out. ☹️
As a constant jotter I thought I’d love this, but I didn’t. I don’t have an issue with the subscription payment model and firmly believe that developers should be paid for their work in a sustainable way (just as we expect apps to work in a sustainable way). What I didn’t love was the horizontal scrolling. It didn’t necessarily give it a more notebook feel for me. Having the option to scroll vertically would have been great. (I love Bear and thought this might be my handwritten equivalent). I also didn’t expect the learning curve with the tools and didn’t like the design of them. Can a pencil not simply look like a pencil? They just seemed overly complicated for such a simple concept. Maybe I’ll come back to it in the future after it develops further.
Seriously, what’s the point? Concepts allows for unlimited paper screen, Procreate and sketchbook pro are standards. The notes app is similar to this, in that you use it to take notes, but with out "unlimited" paper. However, the tools within it are thoroughly useless for artists of any kind, as sketchbook pro is at least free, but offers FAR more than this app. The notes app is free and is far more responsive with the Apple Pencil than this lag fest is. It really holds no market, and is stuck in no mans land. The only people I can see who would love this app are die hard moleskine fans. No real artist will use this app for any reason, no writer will use this app... I’d just skip over this app, it serves no real purpose. Sorry molskine, stick to making decent paper, the developer let you down on this one.
I’ve had an iPad ever since the first version. It always stayed unused. I love the simplicity and yet the ability to fine tweak the tools and I’m not overwhelmed by an art app (which are very good but not for quick journaling with concept sketches) will all the brushes and what not. It did feel like I had my moleskin back with me and now I don’t have to feel I’m without it. My only request is for the developers to make a widget for quick access from the lockscreen and to be able to keep the line/graph sizes in portrait mode. Overall perfect app, and finally moleskine got it right after all these years!
This is the best notes app I’ve found to use with Apple Pencil and for that I am extremely thankful. A one time purchase option would be nice though, and the only other problem is that with the addition of iPadOS 15 the button for zen mode and multitask are basically on top of each other and either one I’m trying to hit it’s about 50/50 which one I hit. It’s pretty annoying to try to enter the zen mode and then have the multitaks option bar pop up, especially when ain’t happens multiple times in a row. Overall, fantastic app tho!
I can’t draw or do anything without buying a subscription. I can’t even tap the screen. I’m so confused, I didn’t even have it for a minute or two. I just deleted it, why can’t I draw or swipe the screen to see what’s going on without it telling me to buy a subscription. I saw this was Editor’s Choice and it looked pretty cool. I bought it, tried to draw a circle at least, and it showed up a poster thing telling me to buy a subscription. Can I at least draw and see what the game is like before you ask for me to buy a subscription? I just don’t understand. I’m rating this two stars and not one because it has a good concept and it looks awesome. If only I could test it out before it asked me to buy a subscription. Sigh, I wish people weren’t so greedy for money...
I don’t understand the recent bad reviews. I haven’t seen performance issues, ruler tool works well in tinkering, and pencil box is pretty amazing from a technical perspective. Note I am using iPad Pro 2020 and iPhone 11 Pro. Only thing I’d like to see off-hand is adjustable pressure curves like some others have for pencils. I could see larger documents benefiting from some sort of bookmark system perhaps. It’s a sketch app to replace my sketchbooks and for that it’s pretty awesome. Just wish Apple gave us pencil tip options for a more tradition physical feel on the glass.
After searching through many popular sketching and notetaking apps on both Windows and iPad, Flow is the best designed app out of all the ones I tried. With other apps, tools, like pens, the ruler, and layout adjustment all felt clunky and placed there just to be functional - but with Flow, they feel integrated with my work and make it genuinely a joy to swap between pen colors and move through my documents. Navigation and drawing gestures feel super natural, and I really love the pencil case mode with iPhone that frees up more space on iPad to work.
I so much want this app to work! Great concept with the flow and preselection of pens etc. Why only 2 stars? The flow page height should be variable and the export for printing would be enhanced if one was not limited by one page size. Trace has an incredible amount of flexibility when printing. If flow could introduce the same level of control. It would be a clear 5 star app. Adding layers would also be a plus. I understand your basic premise of keeping things simple but the process of design requires the ability to overlay.
As a young aspiring artist, I have NEVER seen a drawing game that ‘Flows’ (pun intended) as smoothly. I have used a number or drawing apps, from ‘Taysui Sketches’ to ‘Procreate’ and none of them were quite right for me. But Flow has been absolutely ≋A≋≋M≋≋A≋≋Z≋≋I≋≋N≋≋G≋! There is just one small thing. Despite the outrageous awesomeness and great design, I wish that the zoom feature was more flexible and would zoom a bit more. In my drawings I tend to add a lot of details in a small amount of space, and I find it harder to ensure that all details are complete with a more limited zoom. Anyways, thank you for reading!!!
Flow helps you make beautiful notes and draw with realistic ink and paper. Take notes, sketch, journal and plan all within the one app. With Apple Pencil, writing and drawing in Flow feels incredibly responsive, and you can even collaborate on documents with friends and colleagues. —FEATURES— - Infinite width documents, just swipe and keep writing and drawing - Secure storage, synced between your devices - Create your own unique set of drawing tools - Colored paper with dot grid, squared, lined or blank styles - Customizable gestures - Advanced Apple Pencil support - Organize your documents with customizable notebook covers - Elegant minimal interface that puts everything at your fingertips - Export images and timelapse videos - Multitask on iPad with Split View, Slide Over and drag-and-drop Membership with Flow includes realtime cloud storage and backup for your documents and tools across all of your devices. —MEMBERSHIP— Download Flow to try it free. After your free trial, Flow requires a subscription which provides you with regular app updates and realtime cloud storage of your documents. Monthly and discounted yearly options are available. If your subscription lapses, Flow remains available in read-only mode. —QUESTIONS?— We love to speak with users, so feel free to reach out at any time via the Flow menu under Help > Contact Support. If you have a feature idea, please let us know at https://bonobo.canny.io/flow. Want to learn more about Timepage, Actions, or Flow? Visit https://moleskinestudio.com to read our guides. We’re also on Twitter—find us at https://twitter.com/moleskinestudio. —MORE— Subscriptions will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription will automatically renew unless automatic renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your subscriptions and automatic renewal status in Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of the free trial period will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Price may vary by location. Privacy policy: https://moleskinestudio.com/privacy Terms of service: https://moleskinestudio.com/terms —THANK YOU—
