StretchPaper 4+

Good app! Loses strokes

I've been needing an app like this for school and it has helped me so much. I've had a problem with some of my strokes just disappearing. This is what I'm using for my notes in biology so it needs to be reliable. I also wish the grid was darker, I have a hard time seeing it. Other than those things, it is a great infinite notepad app.

Unintuitive and flawed user interface

This seemed like a great app purchase, but unfortunately the app itself is a exercise in frustration. While an infinitely scalable sketch pad is an amazing concept— one I desperately need for my iPad Pro— this app misses the mark in several ways. First, it ditches the intuitive control and ease of the Apple Pencil for its own drawing UI and response curve. Second, the scaling is maddeningly frustrating as line thickness is impossible to keep consistent as one must invariably zoom when scrolling around the document. (A Zoom Lock feature would seem like a no brainer) What is more, settings such as line thickness and color are basically random as to whether they will stay applied one you select them. I often found myself switching without warning from a blue line to a green line and back without any logical reason. Third, the individual controls lack harmonious integration with Apple simplicity; while other apps allow for a simple tap on/tap off of individual tools, this app leaves a tools always on unless you specifically select a different tool (and even then that no guarantee the switch will take).

Add to all this the lack of an easily accessible user guide, a lack of a straight edge (seriously?) and a steep learning curve I cannot in god conscience recommend this app to anyone. A frustrating waste of $3.

Great app

App is amazing. It is straight forward and easy to use. Love the infinite canvas as that is what i was looking for. I found a few other apps that have infinite canvas but they all lack ease of use and simple tasks that are imperative for taking notes. So far great app.

SIDE NOTE: I am having an issue with a bug. For some strange reason sometimes the notes shift slightly and what was once fully highlighted in a certain color or pointed to with a line for a label tends to be offset. So in other words something is causing notes/coloring/labels to shift just slightly. This can be annoying and can cause issues especially with labeling and highlighting. Can the developer take a look? From what I can tell, it happens when i reopen notes after some time. I do move the screen a lot using my fingers but apparently haven’t been able to pinpoint it. Please do check this out.

Side question: Are notes being backed up or saved anywhere? And if so how can I check? I have set up iCloud with my notability but I don’t know if its also working with this app. Can someone get back to me about these two things b/c I don’t want to loose all my data.

Developer Response ,

First: you can contact us directly via email - use the cool stuff menu, then find our email address! Second: that bug, afaik, has just been replicated, and a fix is coming soon. I believe it's the same bug a user below reported - basically, thicker strokes will 'jump' more upon app re-open. And no, we're not integrating directly with iCloud yet. So many features to do! If only we could afford to do this full-time...

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Another med student... detecting a pattern here. Thanks for your review!

Find the Imperceptible: yeah, that's all it does - it draws blue boxes around stuff that might be too small to see. But it makes zooming slower, which is why its not always on. Maybe we should do something more sophisticated, like what you describe - perhaps a bookmarking system, or even better: automatic handwriting recognition and search... well, that one's beyond us for now.

As for erase, there is! 3rd-button from bottom left: the stroke with the cancel-circle around it. It's not technically 'erase' - it's actually 'delete strokes'.