Inkist Review
Price: FREE
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPad 3
iPad Integration Rating:





User Interface Rating:





Re-use / Replay Value Rating:





Overall Rating:





Inkist is an illustration app for the iPad, period, the end. There are quite a few brushes to use and adjust, as well as the option to customize them. Users can work in multiple layers, each of which can be moved and adjusted independently. They can create gradients and use blurring effects. Mistakes can be undone with the tap of a button or redone if it turns out they weren't really a mistake. It's a fairly extensive toolset that just about any skilled illustrator can put to good use.
As a drawing app, Inkist has tremendous potential. Simply being able to work in layers is fantastic in itself but having so much control over each brush and effect is also a major boon. It's pretty easy to create whatever is needed and save it to the toolbar, and it's also possible to save a number of different color swatches to keep pallets consistent. There are a number of shortcut gestures available as well, such as double-tapping with two fingers to automatically switch back and forth between brushes and erasers, each of which can be customized in the options so that users can create the interface that works best for them.
I'm honestly shocked at how unnecessarily difficult Inkist is to use; both because of its unintuitive interface and its performance issues. There's bound to be an app out there that's perfect for turning one's iPad into a portable illustration table but this definitely isn't it.