Let’s talk about the benefits of sketching out your ideas as you work. Many people have found that drawing things out by hand helps them move more quickly toward a solution, even if they’re working in an industry where perfection is key—like web design or software development.
But sometimes, it can be hard to find a way to sketch on-screen without interrupting the flow of your work. Luckily, there’s a new Chrome extension called [name] that makes it easy to use sketching tools right in your browser.
Just click on the extension icon when you have a tab open, and you’ll see a menu pop up with different types of lines and colors available to you. Select the one you want and start doodling. You can save your sketches right away so you don’t lose them when you close the browser window or switch tabs. Or if you’d rather, just leave your doodles on the screen while you continue working on whatever project you need to complete!
It’s never been easier to jot down notes, draw diagrams, or create illustrations for Web applications without having to install any software at all—all thanks to this simple but powerful Chrome extension!
Chrome Extension For Drawing On Screen
If you want to draw in the Chrome browser on your Windows, macOS, or Chrome desktop or laptop, these apps are worth a try.
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When people mention drawing tools, they typically mean things like pencils, pens, markers, chalk, or more recently, tablets and styluses. That’s appropriate, since people have used those tools to draw for years.
But the Chrome browser also can serve as an effective drawing tool when used with a well-chosen web app. All of the apps below let you use a mouse or touchpad to draw in Chrome on a computer; if your system has a touchscreen, these apps accept marks made with a finger or stylus as well. These apps let you sketch a process, capture a concept, or illustrate your thinking — all within a desktop web browser.
SEE: Multicloud: A cheat sheet (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
Google and several developers offer drawing apps that work in a browser. Google makes at least five drawing apps, although no single Google drawing app includes a full set of drawing tools. The other browser-based apps below are listed roughly in order of ease of use, power, and price. (The two apps at the bottom of the list are both full-featured vector graphic design apps.)
1. Google drawing apps
Google Drawings, Chrome Canvas, Jamboard, Google Keep, and Autodraw offer distinct drawing capabilities.
- Google Drawings works best to create diagrams, process maps, and other shape or frame-style layouts.
- Chrome Canvas supports freehand sketching in four styles (pencil, pen, marker, and chalk) and lets you draw on up to 10 different layers.
- Google Keep not only lets you draw a note, but also recognizes handwritten words in your drawn notes when you search in Keep.
- Jamboard, a collaborative app meant mostly for meetings, lets people draw in one or more rectangle-shaped frames.
- The AutoDraw app’s primary purpose is to find a professionally created image that corresponds to the lines you draw.
For more details about Google’s drawing apps, read Comparing and Contrasting Google’s Actual Drawing Apps by Tom Mullaney.
SEE: How to use four Jamboard features on the web (TechRepublic)
2. Limnu
Limnu is the most elegant and simple drawing app that works in a browser. It provides a limited set of colors, shapes, pens, and pen sizes, among other features. The app supports both private and collaborative boards, and also includes video-conferencing capabilities.
You can subscribe to the Limnu Pro Plan for $5 per month (or $50 per year) or the Limnu Team Plan for groups at $8 per person per month (or $80 per person per year). Get more details about Limnu pricing.
3. Sketchpad
Sketchpad supports a variety of pen types, shapes, text, and clip art. With support for layers, the apps lets you hide, duplicate, or delete any layer, in addition to moving a layer forward or backward, or to the front or back. Even better, Sketchpad is free to use online, although you may purchase a desktop version of the app ($4.95), which lets you save files offline.
4. Boxy SVG
Boxy SVG (scalable vector graphics) delivers a powerful vector design app. As the name implies, vector graphics scale, so the size of any images you create may be scaled up or down with no loss of resolution. The app includes a long list of drawing, text, object, and shape creation and manipulation tools.
You may subscribe to use the app from Chrome on Windows or macOS ($9 per month) or, on a Chrome OS device with access to the Chrome Web Store, buy the app for a one-time fee of $9.99.
5. Gravit Designer
Now offered from Corel Corporation, Gravit Designer (free) and Gravit Designer PRO ($49 per year) both provide professional vector-editing features. The paid version improves access to fonts, expands import and export options, and adds many other image edit options. The upgrade also adds cloud storage, with access to project version history.
how to draw on word chromebook
With Google Docs, Google provides multi-user documents that sync across devices. You and I can co-create a document, a budget, or a presentation — and we can edit them on a Chromebook, in Chrome on a Mac or PC, or in an app on an Android or Apple tablet or smartphone.
However, we can’t draw together easily across devices… yet.
And that’s too bad, since a recent study reported in BloombergBusinessWeek suggests that people recall information delivered with illustrations drawn on a whiteboard better than the same information delivered with stock photography or images with words. (See “Say It With Stick Figures: Your Crude Drawings Are More Effective Than PowerPoint” by Ira Sager. Dan Roam, Sunni Brown, and David Sibbet have all written — and illustrated! — books that encourage us to use illustrations in our communications.)
Want your next presentation to be more memorable? Use drawings.
Yes, we can create and share a new Google Drawing by going to google.com/drawings on a Chromebook. But we can’t currently edit that drawing on Android or iOS devices (at least as of August 2014).
That prompted me to seek out drawing apps that work on a Chromebook AND on mobile devices.
Sketch.io to sketch in your browser
Sketchpad 3.5 provides a friendly browser-based drawing app, with drawing tools that include customizable pens, pencils, and brushes. You can upload your image directly to Google Drive, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and more — or export your image to a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF file.
To get started with Sketchpad, open your browser to https://sketch.io/sketchpad/. Install the Chrome web app, and you’ll be able to create images offline — even on a Chromebook (Figure A). And since it’s a web app, Sketchpad also works in smartphone and tablet browsers. It’s especially usable on tablets, such as the Nexus 7 or larger-screen tablets.
Figure A
Draw in any browser at sketch.io/sketchpad.
Don’t let the default legal-pad looking background with a red smiley face stop you from using this tool. When you start the app, select the three line menu button in the upper left, choose New, pick a background and document size to get started, and then select Create New. That gives you a clean page on which to sketch.
People accustomed to working with Google Docs need to know that Sketchpad saves your files locally. A Sketchpad file doesn’t sync to Google Drive (as of August 2014), so you can’t stop work on one device and then resume on another. You must complete your work on a single device. (Professional digital artists may miss layers, because Sketchpad images are all on a single layer.)
deviantART.com/Muro to save and share online
deviantART’s Muro offers many digital drawing pen patterns and layers, which aid both experimentation and drawing depth. You can add a new layer to a draw without affecting your prior drawing, or draw images on a new layer that will ultimately appear in front of — or behind — images on other layers.
Muro is an entirely web-based drawing app, although you’ll need to create a deviantart.com account to save or share images. Images save online to Sta.sh, which means you can open saved image files and resume work from any browser. Muro technically works in smartphone and tablet browsers, although menus and drawing tool controls fill a great deal of the screen. (As of August 2014, the Chrome web store app just adds a link to the app launcher; Muro requires an internet connection.)
deviantART encourages the sharing of images with other deviantART community members and elsewhere online (Figure B}. When you select the Done button while drawing, the file saves to Sta.sh, and then you’re prompted to either View in Sta.sh or Submit to deviantART. Each image files on Sta.sh receives its own embed code, which you can use to share images on your website or to social media.
Figure B
Share or replay your drawings online with deviantART Muro.
Muro’s redraw feature replays the drawing creation process from start to finish. Watch the replay in Artist View, and you’ll see the drawing tools and process: the drawing emerges from a sequence of steps. (It’s much like a drawing version of Etherpad, which offers a time slider view of text document creation.)
Groupboard.com to sketch together
With Groupboard, people sketch together, much as they might in front of a dry erase whiteboard. Instead of the pens and brushes found in illustration apps, Groupboard users draw with a basic pen or choose from a few basic shapes: lines, squares, and circles. Like a whiteboard, any participant may draw, erase items, or clear the board.
Anyone can start a Groupboard session from a browser or an app (Android or iOS). The free version allows for up to five people to draw and chat. Paid versions of Groupboard remove advertisements, allow people to receive technical support, and allow more participants. Groupboard Designer and Groupworld offer additional customization options and user management controls (Figure C).
Figure C
Sketch together across multiple platforms with Groupboard.
Google+ users can start a Hangout session with a shared Groupboard, even from a Chromebook. When started this way, the shared drawing displays, and native Google+ Hangout chat allows for chat alongside a video meeting.
People may save or print a drawing from a session. However, Groupboard isn’t really about creating a beautiful illustration. Instead, it’s a handy, no-registration required multi-user, cross-platform digital whiteboard.
Other solutions?
Powerful drawing apps exist on many platforms. Autodesk makes Sketchbook for nearly every platform (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS), but there’s no version that works natively in a browser on a Chromebook. Paper by 53 (on iOS) and Bamboo Paper by Wacom (on Android, iOS, and Windows) provide excellent tools for sketching ideas, but again… no Chromebook versions. Evernote’s Skitch (on Android and iOS) allows for screen capture and annotation on the web, but not sketching in the browser.
What I really want is something that works natively on the web, with excellent Android and iOS apps. Something that stores drawings natively online and syncs to mobile devices, so I can work from any device. I also want a drawing app that lets me collaborate with other people to sketch in real time.
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