Full screen sketching and zooming

Feedback
#1

The resize button for sketching is a bit confusing as it makes it seem like it should be a full-screen button. It would be better if it did go full-screen as it is hard to sketch in the width-restricted window.

It would also be good if it were possible to zoom in the sketch window. This is something where I think the apple notes implementation of sketching is flawed. Being able to zoom for detail adding, and neater writing is really helpful. Not having this is a reason i turn to other apps (e.g. goodnotes for writing-based content).

4 Likes
#2

Two thoughts:

  1. I agree that the “diagonal double arrow” button is a bit confusing. I did expect it to be a full screen button. However, after reading about the dragging feature of this button on the Panda alpha website, I figured it out. The icon itself is not intuitive, but the implementation is fine.
  1. In response to the thought on zooming, I actually prefer the static Sketch window. I use GoodNotes and Apple Notes currently (and have used Notability & PDF Expert by Readdle in the past) and if I’m to follow Bear’s desire to implement a powerful and simple markdown system all in one, I believe that the inline PencilKit editor meets this goal. If I want to draw something with any amount of great detail, I use Procreate. For me, my goal in a note taking app is to take notes, and I view Apple Notes and PencilKit as one step above a sticky note, that is nothing super detailed, but just enough room to add elements drawn by hand. The opposite end of the spectrum is Microsoft Whiteboard which offers an endless canvas which can zoom in and out ad infinitum, and while seemingly simple on the surface, leads to far more headaches than I would want in a simple note editor. GoodNotes does offer a middle ground of sorts as well as PDF Expert, but again I think of bears expressed philosophy of keeping things simple (including leaving the folder system out and relying on tags… a brilliant move) and the inline implementation seems to serve their design philosophy well.

In comparison with Bear’s previous drawing functionality, I was not a fan of it when considering the concept of the “note.” The previous full screen drawing solution in Bear, made me feel like I was leaving Bear into a separate app to draw (or write hand written notes) only to return to an app where my hand drawn document was half the size of what I saw full screen. In Bear’s previous rendition, I would purposefully have to write larger, so I could see my notes when I left the full screen app. As I have suggested, however, my main goal in drawing was to enter hand written text and make brief diagrams often drawing arrows from one place to another… so nothing very detailed.

2 Likes
#3

Agreed! I was going to report that sizing sketches was a bug until I read this thread. Now I get that it is a drag and slide, not a button. I really like it now. I think changing the icon might fix the initial confusion. I don’t mind a full screen option but I don’t want Bear to bloat to include features like ProCreate or Concepts. So I am fine with this new approach (especially since the previous Bear sketch feature was really painful for me).

1 Like
#4

I kept clicking on it for about 3 minutes wondering what I as doing wrong :laughing:

1 Like
#5

Hello folks,

it seems that the icon is a bit misleading :smiley: We’ll try to find a better glyph for it.

As for the zoom/fullscreen we currently don’t have plans to add those, we’ll monitor how people use the sketcher and we might re-consider this later.

Best.

1 Like
#6

Having re-tried the drawing as people have described here, I like it. Now that I know what it is trying to achieve.

As said I think the main issue is the icon. I think i was also struggling with the wasted width when in landscape mode, but got over this after trying in portrait and going back.

1 Like