Brushes 4 is the latest iteration of the app that started the iPhone and iPad painting revolution. Redesigned with a clean and modern user interface, Brushes supports iPhone and iPad with optimisation for the iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone Pro and iPad with Apple Pencil.
• Highlights:
- Clean and modern user interface with light and dark modes.
- Files based painting gallery.
- New canvas interface.
- Apple Pencil support with pressure curve.
– Unlimited undo and redo.
- Continuous auto-save.
- Cloud Drive import and export.
• Parameterized Brushes:
- Selection of ready to use brushes with customisable settings.
- Create your own custom brushes from millions of permutations.
- Generate random brushes for inspiration.
- Dynamic adjustment of brush size and opacity.
• Layers:
- Layer your artwork for greater control.
– Lock and hide layers.
– Use alpha lock to only paint where pixels already exist.
– Adjust individual layer opacity.
– Duplicate, rearrange and merge layers.
– Apply layer blending modes: normal, multiply, screen, exclude.
- Color fill any layer.
– Invert layer color and desaturate.
– Flip and arbitrarily transform layers.
– Adjust the color balance per layer.
– Adjust layer hue, saturation and brightness.
• Colors:
- Colour picker with hue ring and saturation square.
- Store and recall your favourite colors in swatches.
- Sample painting colors with the eyedropper tool.
• Apple Pencil:
- Intuitive and powerful pressure curve to match your style.
- Configurable realtime pressure based adjustment of brush size and opacity.
• Creation:
- Preset canvas sizes for paper, photographs, iPhone and iPad screens, film and television displays.
- Custom canvas size.
• Import, export and sharing:
- Import images directly from your camera roll.
- Import PNG and JPEG images from cloud services.
- Export your paintings for sharing or importing into other apps as PNG and JPEG to all cloud storage services or as photos directly to your camera roll.
- Compatible with paintings created by Brushes 3 and Brushes Redux.
• Light and dark appearances:
- Choose between light and dark monochrome appearances, or current system setting.
- Minimal use of user interface color so that tints in the user interface do not distract from or influence your artwork color choices.
Acknowledgements.
Thank you to Angela Ali, Jason M., Jeff Parker, Sandra Perez and Yoshiyuki Uchida for contributing artwork to the App Store screenshots. Please visit our website to see more of their artwork and for links to their portfolios.
History.
Brushes was originally created by Steve Sprang for iPhone in 2009 and for iPad in 2010. His last version, Brushes 3 was released in 2012, but was removed from the App Store in 2015. I took over development to modernise and support an app that has continued to be enjoyed by so many artists.
Product Positioning & Context
Related Ecosystem & Alternatives
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Deep-Dive FAQs
What is Brushes?
Brushes is a digital product or tool described as: Envoza
Where did Brushes originate?
Data for Brushes was aggregated directly from the Apple App Store community ecosystem, representing raw developer and early-adopter sentiment.
When was Brushes publicly launched?
The initial public indexing or launch date for Brushes within our tracked developer communities was recorded on November 20, 2018.
How popular is Brushes?
Brushes has achieved measurable traction, logging over 177 reviews and facilitating 5 recorded discussions or engagements.
Which technical categories define Brushes?
Based on metadata extraction, Brushes is categorized under topics such as: Graphics & Design, Photo & Video.
Is Brushes recognized by media or academic researchers?
Yes. It has been covered by media outlets like Abcnews.com. This indicates the concept has reached a level of mainstream or scientific viability beyond just developer forums.
What are some commercial alternatives to Brushes?
Our semantic intelligence engine identifies potential commercial alternatives in the SaaS space, such as Rescript, which offers overlapping value propositions.
How does the creator describe Brushes?
The original author or development team describes the product as follows: "Brushes 4 is the latest iteration of the app that started the iPhone and iPad painting revolution. Redesigned with a clean and modern user interface, Brushes supports iPhone and iPad with optimisa..."
Community Voice & Feedback
Why am I have trouble changing the tips of the drawing or painting effect I want? I can not get brushes to change to a fade tip circle. It keeps switching back to a square which does not give me a smooth airbrush look I’m trying to achieve. Is this a glitch? Am I doing something wrong or did I miss something? I am using an iPad A16 brand new. But this was also a problem on my iPad 6th generation. Why aren’t my brush tips staying when I try to change them?
I already have more robust (albeit pricier) apps and I am not sure why I thought they would have the same features plus something else unattainable, but there’s really no need for this one as it doesn’t offer anything they don’t already offer.
If you are just starting out, this is a really good price for what it does do- for example you can use layers and adjust the brushes to make your own brushes. I’m just spoiled. A very decent app for this price point, however.
If you are just starting out, this is a really good price for what it does do- for example you can use layers and adjust the brushes to make your own brushes. I’m just spoiled. A very decent app for this price point, however.
I love this app and it has been a great investment!
Hmmm. This just gives me a blank page when I try to load a photo
Can't place images from the gallery anymore. This app is not well-maintained. For $2, it was worth the time I got out of it before it broke so badly, but I can't recommend it anymore without that feature.
I just paid for an empty app. There is nothing when I open it.
I’ve been having a blast with this little app!
This program is perfect for the creative artist. The real brush effects are amazing. Colors work with each other and when over layed creat blended colors the same as real water color. In painting this is called glazing and I never thought I would find it in computer program.
However, I have to say the USER INTERFACE could be a tad more clear. Especially bothersome is the circular lines icon that shows up unexpectedly in the lower right corner. It seems to assume control but does nothing and won’t go away. This needs to be re thought.
However, I have to say the USER INTERFACE could be a tad more clear. Especially bothersome is the circular lines icon that shows up unexpectedly in the lower right corner. It seems to assume control but does nothing and won’t go away. This needs to be re thought.
How do I get a simple BLACK line? All I seem to get is grey and it is driving me nuts? I’ve used Brushes for years yet in the new versions I can’t manage to find a BLACK line - for my graphics BLACK is critical and I am stumped as to why I cannot creat one - regardless of brush or opacity they all come out grey and I’m really frustrated.
Great for making iPad paintings, but quits and often closes unexpectedly without saving your work
Simple-to-use art app which exports as transparent png—all at an excellent price—highly recommend!
Discovery Source
Apple App Store Aggregated via automated community intelligence tracking.
Tech Stack Dependencies
No direct open-source NPM package mentions detected in the product documentation.
Media Tractions & Mentions
Deep Research & Science
Foundational academic research matching this product's technical positioning.
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