'Paper' Introduces New Color Mixing Feature and Support for Touch-Sensitive Stylus - MacRumors
Skip to Content

'Paper' Introduces New Color Mixing Feature and Support for Touch-Sensitive Stylus

by

paperlogoiPad sketchbook app Paper, an Apple Design Award winner, has been updated with a clever new color picker that lets users "mix" colors like they would mix different color paint together.

The app also adds support for the Pogo Connect stylus, an $80 drawing tool that uses Bluetooth 4.0 to determine how hard an artist is drawing and Paper adjusts accordingly.

The Verge has more on how the new color mixer works:

Paper now includes a circular color mixer that lets you tap to pick a color (using RGB sliders, if you'd like), then swipe in a circle clockwise to mix colors and counter-clockwise to unmix. A long press lets you save the color you've made to one of the many black color slots the app now provides. Color is a $1.99 in-app purchase, like many of the app's add-on brushes. If you don't choose to buy it, you still have access to the palette of colors that shipped with the free app.


Paper for iPad is a free download from the App Store, with additional drawing brushes and the color picker available as in-app purchases. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

APlotdevice Avatar
176 months ago
Ugh, I wish all these pressure sensitive stylus makers would come together and agree on an standard. It's such a mess right now.

(Either that or for Apple to get over their pen phobia and produce their own.)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
176 months ago
This is one of those apps that I love not only for what it is but for the philosophy behind it. To compare it to other art applications is to miss the point completely.

Powerful tools are often also very complex tools. While Paper is powerful, it isn't designed to be a complete art app and, frankly, that's a good thing. The vast majority of people won't ever use 90% of what the other more "fully featured" art apps can do. All those extra features serve only to add complexity to the app. Rather than empowering the user they slow him down, forcing him to wade through and manage fiddly sub screens and what-not.

Paper is designed to give you a large canvas, some simple but powerful tools and then to sod off out of your way and let you get on with sketching and jotting! No, you won't use this app to create a masterpiece (probably), nor will you use it to design professional quality graphics. You'll use Paper to create quick and beautiful images as part of your creative flow. It's a tool, and a toy. It's about expression, not mastery. I applaud 53 for daring to be different and happily pay for the IAP because I want to see more stuff like this.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HappyDude20 Avatar
176 months ago
One evening I purchased the complete in-app pack purchases and to this day i'm glad I did. It only cost me under $10 and it's worth it. I've always been on my iPad and notice I used it only when I'm outside. But being able to draw with more colors will be totally worth it.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
176 months ago
"Think it would be good for my little boy?"

Paper is my boy's (ages 7 and 9) favorite drawing app. Only feature they have ever asked for is more colors. "Daddy, I want make this Pokemon bright green. I can't get the colors I want!"

Beyond that, and now fixed, perfect app. Each boy has his own 'notebook' in the app with their own drawings as a cover. They love it and get annoyed at other apps when two-finger cirlces don't undo actions or a swipe up from the bottom doesn't bring up the tools!

And the app is FREE to download. You get the caligraphy pen and the eraser and you can create as many books/pages as you want. I used just these for months before springing for the other tools, so you CAN do a lot with the free version. It isn't 'hobbled' at all.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
176 months ago
Looks fantastic, this is the kind of simple yet functional workflow that separates average UI design form really great UI design.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
176 months ago
An amazing addition to a brilliant app :)
Good job 53! Keep improving it!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

MacBook Pro Low Angle Wide Lens

Apple to Launch 'MacBook Ultra' With These Six New Features

Friday April 24, 2026 10:32 am PDT by
While the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro were just updated with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips last month, bigger changes are reportedly around the corner. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the higher-end MacBook Pro models will be receiving a major redesign by early 2027, and he said that Apple might use "MacBook Ultra" branding for them. If so, the MacBook Ultra would likely be a...
Apple TV Thumb 3

Here's What's Coming in the 2026 Apple TV

Thursday April 23, 2026 12:08 pm PDT by
There are a lot of folks waiting for a new version of the Apple TV because the set-top box hasn't been updated since 2022. There is an update coming this year, but people will need to wait a bit longer because Apple is holding the next Apple TV until the new version of Siri comes out this fall. Design Apple TV design updates don't happen often, and that's not changing in 2026. The next...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

This Is What the iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like

Saturday April 25, 2026 10:00 am PDT by
A recent leak provides our best look yet at the design of Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Leaker Sonny Dickson recently shared images of the first iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone dummy models. The images largely conform with rumors about the designs of the three devices and provide the first real visual confirmation of how they will look. ...