SketchBook Pro: Alias Systems' unique software tool streamlines the creative work flow.

An illustrator by trade, I implement digital tools, as well as traditional pencil and paper, in my daily work flow. So when Alias announced its SketchBook Pro, I jumped at the opportunity to add it to my arsenal of tools. Before SketchBook Pro, I started projects with pencil on paper, sketching out rough ideas. When I created an image I wanted to translate into the digital realm, I scanned it. Once it was digital, I added color and other embellishments.

In a short time, SketchBook Pro changed my work flow by replacing pencil and paper. It enabled me to add color right from the very first stage, a practice that I normally didn't do with sketches on paper. And I could change colors quickly and easily.

I did find myself thinking of it as a sketchbook, as opposed to a handheld way to fine-tune and create finished images and material. I used SketchBook Pro to create a rough sketch that I later would finish on my workstation. And, considering it is loaded on a portable Tablet PC, it holds great potential for working remotely. It might be nice to have when I'm traveling, enabling me to sketch the instant that inspiration strikes. I might even e-mail sketches to the office or my client when I'm in the field. And I could sketch during meetings, either to make notes on a pre-existing piece of art or to create something based on ideas being exchanged.

I often used SketchBook Pro's screenshot utility, which is always available on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. I just click the camera on the right-hand side of the toolbar and it takes a picture of the entire desktop and launches the resulting image file in SketchBook Pro. At the same time, it sets the image layer as a locked background and provides me an active layer on top of it. I can start right in, making annotations. I use that utility often and think it's a very good idea.

Although I use my Wacom tablet extensively, this marked my first experience sketching directly on an LCD. I had to get used to hardware limitations. Assigning color can be difficult because we all see the screen differently. Colors can look very different when I reposition the LCD only slightly. As a result, it is hard to be confident that the colors I pick are accurate.

I would have liked a selection tool that offers more detailed options than a rectangle. I am accustomed to having a detailed lasso selection tool with which to select a certain part of my sketch. I was drawing a face, and I liked the nose but ...