What's New

Sketchbook 6 is loaded with new features and provides increased flexibility for you to work the way you want to.

What's New

Get the Premium Bundle

For people who want to take their creativity even further, the Premium Bundle unlocks advanced features for brush creation, color management, layer management and new export options.

The Premium Bundle is available as an in-app purchase. To get it, go to the canvas menu  > Upgrade to Premium

Sketchbook Pro 9.0 brings a large number of new features and updates.

Those who have used Sketchbook for a while will be happy to find some of their feature requests included in this version. We have approached both new and updated workflows with the muscle memory and preferences of existing users in mind.

Below you can find a list of new and updated features in v9, with links to the updated help documents throughout this site.

Looking for the latest release notes? Click here 

New features for custom color management

  • Create custom color palettes and sets of palettes. Any palette can have up to 60 color swatches, there can be up to 12 palettes in a set, and a maximum of 50 color sets in the Color Library.
    • Your custom color swatches from the previous version of Sketchbook Pro will migrate to the new Color Library and can be found a set called "My Colors"
  • Pick colors or extract entire palettes from reference images. Define how colors are extracted from the image to a new color palette.

Updates to the Color Editor

  • Color harmony bar: complementary, split complementary, analogous, triadic, or tetradic
  • Gradient bar: color gradient presets and custom-defined gradients
  • Visualize color harmony in the color wheel
  • HSV sliders
  • HEX value input
  • Randomize color: select from HSV, gradient, or active color palette

New masking and blend modes

  • Clipping Masks
  • Versatile layer masking using a layer's alpha channel (transparency)
  • Isolate mask effects by grouping layers and applying 'Normal' blend mode to the group

Brush Library updates

  • Randomize brush set changes brushes after each stroke. This is particularly useful for creating realistic natural textures such as hair, fur or grass
  • Additional pre-loaded brush sets

Tool updates

  • Free Symmetry tool in the symmetry sub-toolbar. Rotate your line of symmetry to any angle.
  • The Text Editor now uses the Color Editor for color selection
  • There is a new option in the Predictive Stroke sub-menu to enable/disable snapping. Disabling snapping will allow the creation of straight lines that don't snap to 0 / 45 / 90 angles. Snapping is on by default, because in previous versions it could not be disabled.

User interface updates

  • Higher contrast graphics for improved readability
  • Updated icons for this decade
  • Auto Hide UI when drawing, with customizable timer for restoring the interface
  • Menu bar > View changes:
    • Brush crosshair, outline and stamp, and scroll bar view options have been moved here from Preferences, so that they can be more dynamically enabled/disabled
  • Support for common hotkey combinations for zooming in and out has been added
  • Lagoon view menu (position 1): view states for UI, fullscreen, and Lagoon now toggle to remove duplicate commands
  • Layer menu: rename layer no longer supports custom thumbnail workflow. This was retired as part of updates to improve overall stability
  • Changing color of the background layer now uses the Color Editor. Note that it is not possible to use the color picker when changing the background layer.

Flipbook updates

  • Flipbook now uses the standard Layer Editor, and includes all Layer Editor features including blend modes, clipping masks, text layers and layer management tools
    • Have up to 20 layers/groups in the foreground
    • Have up to 20 layers/groups in the background
    • The persistent background layer stack is now accessed through the timeline
    • The midground concept is deprecated as you now have more than three layers available! Existing .skba files will move the midground layer to the foreground layer stack
  • Work on larger canvas sizes
    • You can now create Flipbooks up to 4K resolution
    • Presets include  4K, 2K, and paper aspect ratios for A4 & Letter
  • Ghosting (onion skinning)
    • 7 preset tint colors to help identify next and previous keyframes

Preferences updates

  • New Preferences options for creating backup files at each save (off by default)
  • Choose whether new files will default to incremental file names (on by default) or use "Untitled"
  • Option to verify TIF files after saving, for an extra check that a save completed successfully (off by default)
  • Disable anti-aliasing with Pixel preview (off by default)
  • Create or restore a backup of your Preferences

Android  |  iOS  |  macOS  |  Windows

Sketchbook (Android)

Latest release: 6.2.2, August 17, 2025

  • Support for customized stylus button actions
  • Adjustment to top toolbar and window positions to allow for Android 15 app switcher without overlap
  • Added a confirmation on app relaunch when preferences have been reset
  • Updated to Android API level 35 as required
  • Fix for issue on some devices where first file open after rebuilding the Gallery would trigger a crash.
  • Fixed issue where some imported fonts would become cropped at the edges


Sketchbook (iOS)

Latest release: 6.2.1, July 27, 2025

  • Fixed bug where brush values entered with text would not save across app sessions
  • Improved quality of the blur effect by adding option to do multiple passes of the blur function.
  • Fixed issue where very low resolution PNGs imported with artifacts when using "New from Image" or "Import from Files"
  • Fixed issue where exporting to PDF was not retaining the correct canvas resolution (DPI)
  • Removed the Adjust pop-up from non-Premium Bundle layer menu
  • Relocated the Layer editor pin for iPhone devices to avoid inadvertently toggling it on when creating a new layer


Sketchbook Pro (macOS)

Latest release: 9.3.16, Sept 15, 2025

  • Removed angle snapping on Free Symmetry
  • Fixed issue where randomize color did not correctly constrain lightness within the setting
  • Fixed issue where transform would not nudge with the up arrow
  • Color palette export window fixed to have correct "save" button
  • Fixed typo in German 'pinselstempel'


Sketchbook Pro (Windows)

Latest release: 9.3.19, Sept 15, 2025

  • Fixed issue where layer editor interactions (rename, move) while in transform state could generate an inaccessible layer
  • Removed angle snapping on Free Symmetry
  • Fixed issue where randomize color did not correctly constrain lightness within the setting
  • Fixed issue where transform would not nudge with the up arrow
  • Color palette export window fixed to have correct "save" button
  • Fixed issue with color picker cursor not being correct graphic when Auto-hide UI enabled 
  • Fixed issue where app could launch in Chinese if the PC's country and language settings were not aligned
  • Fixed issue where marker type brushes would not paint to 100% opacity
  • Fixed typo in German 'pinselstempel'

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