When it comes to Chromebooks, there is a misconception that they lack quality apps for creative work. The truth is that Chromebooks support many drawing apps that work flawlessly and offer powerful hybrid drawing capabilities.
There are drawing apps on Chromebooks designed for specific tasks or for professional illustrators, hobbyists, or anyone who loves to draw. If you need one for your kid’s Chromebook, there are a few that can keep them busy without the mess of drawing.
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Best drawing apps for Chromebooks
Here are the best drawing apps for Chromebooks to help you create visually stunning artwork.
first. Sketchbook
Autodesk’s Sketchbook is the best drawing app for creative industry professionals. Thanks to Android support, this popular digital drawing app is available on Chromebooks and offers a variety of drawing tools and brushes that you can customize quickly.
The best part is that Sketchbook runs well in full screen mode, giving you a large canvas to create your original work on. This app is stylus compatible, so you can use it to draw or sketch your designs and save or store them to Dropbox or iCloud.
For freehand drawing, Sketchbook’s Predictive Line technology corrects your shapes and lines, so you won’t have to do it manually. Plus, you can scan drawings on paper Use your Chromebook’s camera, digitize them, and continue working on your creations.
The free version of this app provides a gallery organizer, pinch-to-zoom, layer and symmetry tools, and offline support. Upgrading to the premium plan unlocks more pro tools including powerful layer and selection tools, as well as an expanded brush library.
Sketchbook has a steeper learning curve than most drawing apps, lacks many of Photoshop’s features, and its subscription-based modeling can be expensive for the occasional user.
2. The concept
Seasoned advertisers don’t need any special introduction to the Concept. However, the cross-platform vector sketching and drawing application can be used by the casual painter or design professional as it is widely accepted among the best drawing apps available.
The free version of the app gives you quick access to layers, brushes, and precision alignment tools with a special control circle. However, Con Concept offers a disposable Essentials package that allows you to add infinite layers, create custom brushes, and export your work in different formats.
If you want more features, a monthly Everything+ plan or an annual in-app purchase gives you access to more objects, brushes, import and export options, sharing capabilities, style tools CAD and various object libraries.
Besides brushes, pencils, and fountain pens that respond to tilt, pressure, and velocity, the Con Concept is also compatible with different types of styluses. The app’s infinite canvas lets you choose from different textures and preset paper types and change the scale, position, color, or smoothen your drawing using drawing options based on on its vector.
Additionally, you can create image composites in a few taps using Concept’s infinite layering system and broad spectrum blending options.
3. Sketchpad
If you don’t have Play Store support on your Chromebook, Sketchpad is a simple drawing app you can use on the web. The app comes with offline support but you can still install it as a progressive web app (PWA) and use all its features without changing any settings.
Additionally, Sketchpad offers standard tools including layers, color pickers, 18 different brush styles, and if you’re inclined towards vector drawing, you can do it in the app.
Sketchpad also allows you to trace images using line and path tools to create perfectly realistic drawings. In addition, the platform contains more than 5000 vector images in clipart collectionyou can use it for free in your projects.
In addition to the free images, you can choose from over 800 fonts to include in any image you create and adjust the alignment, set new Letter and Word spacing values, or choose a Blend Mode.
You can import photos from any computer or drag and drop them into your web browser, scale, rotate, and apply filters. When you’re done editing, you can print your images directly from Sketchpad or save them to your Chromebook.
4. Infinite painter
Infinite Painter is a less demanding drawing application suitable for inexperienced visual artists who are just starting out or learning about drawing and design.
The app works extremely well on Chromebooks and offers over 160 presets of natural brushes, but you can still create new ones. You also get blend modes, layer support, paper textures, transitions and gradients tools, templates, perspective support for 3D painting, and geometry tools.
Infinite Painter is not one of the top drawing apps on the Play Store, and it’s not the easy name of great drawing apps like Autodesk or Adobe. However, it has attracted a large following of Android users.
You can turn any photo into a painting using the Clone tool, and once you’ve created it, you can export your finished creations to JPG, PNG or PSD.
Infinite Painter comes with a 7-day free trial, after which you can access premium features with in-app purchases.
5. Chrome Canvas
Chrome Canvas is a free web-based drawing app for Chromebooks that you can use to create quick sketches. The app offers basic drawing tools including pencil, chalk, marker, pen and eraser options, and you can use a palette or a custom palette to choose all the colors you want.
Unlike other drawing apps for Chromebooks, the Chrome Canvas app doesn’t work with a stylus. Also, you can’t use it for professional design tasks like creating digital paintings from images or creating multiple layers.
However, you can set the opacity and size of the drawing tools to adjust them to your drawing and use it offline when you don’t have an Internet connection.
Chrome Canvas is a great drawing app for beginners, and your kids can use it to start drawing or doodling.
6. Designer Gravit
For professional designers, Gravit Designer is a professional, well-developed vector drawing application that allows you to draw and design a variety of graphic elements.
You can use anchor points to create objects such as icons, logos, and vectorized graphic elements, insert an image into an existing design, or apply effects to your images. Best of all, you can freely create animations and characters because the application supports raster graphics illustrations.
Gravit Designer works online or offline making it the perfect choice if you want to work on new projects from anywhere. However, its tools aren’t aimed at those new to the creative industry, so you’ll need at least some basic design skills to start using the app.
You can use the free version to test out Gravit’s features, then you can upgrade to the Pro version ($49 per year) for regular use.
7. ArtFlow
ArtFlow is a great digital art studio with a wide range of features and tools for sketching and drawing. You can create digital paintings from scratch or from images and save them in high resolution or export as JPEG, PNG or PSD files.
Among the powerful features you’ll find in ArtFlow include over 100 customizable brushes, Gradient Fill or Smudge Tool for image creation, layers, symmetry tool, six-step undo, color picker and support two layers.
This app is suitable for beginners who might be overwhelmed by other professional drawing apps as it is easy to install and runs like a charm. In addition, the app provides tilt assist which helps you to control the width and rotation of the line using several brushes.
ArtFlow has a free version though with limited features. The Pro version expands your tool selection to include stylus pressure support, extended history support, custom color palettes, and you can create up to 16 layers.
8. Best Kids Drawing Apps for Chromebooks
Kids can use basic drawing apps for Chromebooks instead of the advanced apps mentioned previously. Besides Chrome Canvas, which is made specifically for Chromebooks, there are other good options that are simple and easy to use.
Including Google Keep, Children’s paint, Coloring gameand Learn to draw (Drawing for kids). The main limitation of these apps is that they lack palm rejection, pressure sensitivity and other drawing tools but they are a good place to start for young artists.
Create your digital masterpiece
Chromebooks are almost on par with iPads in illustration and drawing thanks to a wide range of quality apps with a suite of tools to help you express your creativity. These drawing apps work with a mouse, but are even smoother with a touchscreen or stylus because you can control your virtual pens and brushes directly.
Let us know your favorite drawing apps for Chromebooks in the comments below.
