Five Notability Tools That Carried Inktober This Year

Every October, artists around the world take on Inktober, a month-long challenge to finish one ink drawing a day from a shared list of prompts. Our Notability users every day too, whether or not they'd call it art. Biology diagrams, anatomy sketches, architecture plans, app prototypes, and color-coded lecture notes all start with the same pen strokes. Being creative doesn't stop when the month ends, and it isn't reserved for people who call themselves artists. Here are the tools worth getting to know for your next project, and at the end, a shoutout to the two students who won our giveaway on Reddit.

Draw line art and daily sketches with the pen

Most Inktober pieces start and end with the pen. Tap the Pen in the toolbar, then tap it again to pick a width and color. Go thin for line art and thick for bold outlines, and if you’re drawing with an Apple Pencil, turn on pressure sensitivity so your strokes taper the way they would on paper. This small river scene is almost entirely pen work.

Shade and plan colorways with the highlighter

The Highlighter sits behind your ink, so you can shade a drawing without covering the lines you worked hardest on. Tap the Highlighter, then tap it again to set a wide width and low opacity, and it turns into a shading tool. YouTube creator Apple Cheeks uses it this way while designing plushies, using Notability to block in colorways over a pen sketch before anything goes to manufacturing.

Fill spaces with color in one long press

Ink Fill makes it easy to add color to your drawings without coloring in every stroke. Draw a closed shape with the Pen, Pencil, or Highlighter, then long-press inside it with your finger, Apple Pencil, or cursor to fill it with your selected color. You can use it to color in pages from the Template Gallery, or fill in larger sections of your own illustrations. Even the edges of the page count as borders, so you can fill everything above or below a single line.

Build digital stickers and collages with the lasso

A sticker sheet needs the same strawberry twelve times, and nobody wants to draw it twelve times. Tap the Select icon, draw around the ink, then tap inside the selection to move, resize, or copy it. You draw the piece once, then lasso, duplicate, and arrange it. That's how creator Marlene Vega builds digital stickers and collages, and how collage artists fill a page without redrawing a single element.

Create a mood board with reference images

Keep your reference photos on the same page as the sketch. Tap the plus (+) icon, then Photos, to drop reference images, screenshots, or scans straight onto the page, then pinch to resize and rotate. That's how a mood board or a scrapbook spread comes together on one page.

How to set up your palette

A few minutes of setup makes the month easier. This walkthrough on planning an art collection in Notability is a good model. The creator keeps one note per project, puts references and sketches side by side, and settles on a palette before any ink goes down.

• Pick a plain paper template. Lined and grid paper can be turned off in the paper settings, and a blank page keeps your scan clean if you export later.
• Build a custom palette. Save the handful of colors you plan to use for the month so you aren't hunting through the picker mid-drawing.
• Zoom in for detail. Pinch to zoom, draw the fine lines, then zoom back out to check the whole piece.
• Duplicate before you experiment. Copy the note before trying a new color or layout so you can always go back to the version that worked.
• Export as an image. When you're done, share the page as a PNG or PDF straight from the note, ready to post.

Inktober giveaway winners

For our Inktober giveaway on our subreddit, we asked students to share a their Inktober creations made on our platform and tell us which tools they used. The entries ranged from Halloween themed drawings, doodles from class, hand lettering, and detailed STEM notes from students.

Congratulations to u/babblingbrooks69, who takes home the Apple Pencil, and to u/Individual_Cash4110, who wins the Android stylus. Thank you to everyone who entered and to everyone who spent October creating with us. More giveaways are on the way, so keep an eye on r/notabilityapp and follow us on Instagram so you don't miss the next one.

Frequently asked questions

Is Notability good for digital art?

Notability is a note-taking app first, but the ink engine handles drawing well, and artists use it for sketches, stickers, collages, scrapbooks, and product design. For layered painting or print-resolution illustration, a dedicated art app is still the better fit.

Does Notability work with Apple Pencil and Android styluses?

Yes. Notability supports Apple Pencil on iPad, styluses on Android tablets, and finger or cursor input on every platform. Pressure sensitivity only applies to the Apple Pencil Pro.

Can you make your own stickers in Notability?

Yes. Draw the sticker, tap the Select icon, draw around the ink, then tap inside the selection and choose Group, then Save. The sticker shows up under My Stickers, so you can drop it into any note without redrawing it.

Your next project starts here

Inktober is one month, but the tools don't go anywhere. The same Pen, Highlighter, Ink Fill, Lasso, and image import are there for whatever you make next, whether that's a class project, a planner spread, or a drawing for fun. For step-by-step instructions on every drawing tool, check out our support article. Whenever you make something in Notability you're proud of, post it on r/notabilityapp and tag us. We feature student work all year, and the next one could be yours.