Seems like everyone is flocking to the iPhone, creating some amazing new apps and really pushing the 3.5” screen with some cool user interfaces. Hot on heels of our PhotoForge review, Layers steps in to provide an amazing canvas for you to paint on. However, if PhotoForge was like Photoshop, Layers is more like Atebits’ Scribbles for Mac.
User Interface
Eye candy wise, there’s nothing revolutionary in this user interface, as it uses standard UI controls and concepts all through the app [screenshot]. However, everything is clean, concise, and blends well with the purpose of the app. And when you consider that UI is ‘how the app works’, Ben Gotow has done a fantastic job at making the app fluid, intuitive, and fun to use.
When you first start with the app, you’re presented with a helper screen [screenshot] which shows you what each of the buttons do. All you have to do to start painting is, start painting! Tap into the brush to change the brush size and style, or switch to the colour palette to change colour. You can set transparency, or tap the Eraser button to switch modes. While you can use the colour picker tool to grab colour, you can also just tap and hold to spring out the colour picker ring. Very efficient.
There is one aspect of the UI which I found confusing, and that was bringing up the controls after you start painting (everything disappears the moment you touch your canvas). After going through the ‘Tips’ section, I found out that it’s a matter of just shaking your iPhone. While this is implemented extremely well (just a light shake), it’s still confusing to the new user who is currently used to lightly tapping in the bottom area to bring up the HUD.
Layers
The big feature of the app is of course, layers. Now I won’t call this stealing, but the layers implementation is almost exactly like the Scribbles app for the Mac. It appears Loren hit the wrong platform when he made Scribbles. You can move your layers around just with the flick of your finger (which is nicely animated and intuitive). You can create new layers with transparency, a colour fill, or even a picture which you can trace around. Merging down, duplicating, colour fill—very nice [screenshot]. Gotow is working on implementing transparency adjustments for layers (possible now with the eraser, but little complicated).
As a huge bonus, when it comes to sending out the file itself, you can send it as a jpeg, or as a layered PSD file! You don’t even need any desktop software to send the file as all it needs is plain old email. However, if you want to see a ‘replay’ of the drawing in question, you can sync it up to your desktop and view the replay in the free downloadable player. The sync app can also export your drawings to Jpeg or PSD. Nothing is said about importing PSDs though.
Rounding off
I had a great time using the app, and it’s even better when you want to show off your iPhone. The best part of this app is that the developer is really excited about the future of the app, which includes (don’t hold me accountable) additional brushes, smudging, colour palettes, online hookups, and all kinds of crazy stuff. His previous app NetSketch is tied to a community, but he doesn’t want to bring in that to Layers just yet because any app ‘user generated content’ requires a 17+ rating (Apple breaking more than they’re fixing).
At $4.99, Layers is a nice app to use if you’ve got the artist in you begging to come out.
