This review originally appeared within iLounge’s iOS Gems series within the compilation article, iPhone Gems: Every Drawing Application, Reviewed. Additional details may be found in the original article.
The second application from Big Stone Phone to be reviewed in this article, iGraffiti ($5) differs from Gesture in that it is designed primarily for drawing. The app’s main drawing screen features a small row of buttons at the bottom, including an action button to save the drawing, assign it to a contact, or make a new drawing, a camera button that lets you use an image from the iPhone or iPod touch’s photo library as the background, and a color button.
This brings up differently-colored crayons—tap to set the color, hold to set the background color—and an eraser. There’s also a brush button that brings up various sliders and buttons for turning a drop shadow effect on and off, setting the color of the shadow, and adjusting the shape, opacity, and size of the brush. An info button displays a quick tip page.
In addition to normal erase controls, the user is supposed to be able to shake the device once to undo the last stroke or shake back and forth to clear the image; in our testing, we never got the single shake undo to work.
Users can also use pinch and drag gestures to zoom in and out. Although it possesses a fairly easy to use interface, iGraffiti is missing several features found in competing applications, causing it to seem even more overpriced than it actually is. Big Stone Phone should immediately bring over the built-in gallery from Gesture to improve iGraffiti, and then consider adding more tools — including a pencil and shapes — to expand its drawing functionality to more closely match its competitors.
