Morpholio Journal – Sketchbook

I have been using this app since late 2017. For three years they have been advertising “print to Moleskin—Coming Soon.” In the app itself they say, “email us to let us know you want this feature.” This feature has never materialized. It’s false advertising...don’t; fall for it. Meanwhile, there is no way to output your journal as a whole, you can only save images one-at-a-time. My sketchbooks are over 300 pages each, so the idea of archiving them a page at a time is ludicrous. I like drawing in Morpholio a journal...it’s light and easy. However, having an app that you can’t print (or PDF) from is a fatal flaw. The company must remove the false advertising from the App Store—and Apple should ding them for the false advertising.

I don’t see any features that justify a subscription cost. It’s exceedingly simple and lacks the basic function you would associate with any premium app of this nature. I’m not saying that from a freemium reliant point of view. I have Procreate, ArtStudio Pro, Affinity Photo, fully unlocked Infinite Printer, ArtRage, Forger, Sculptura, Putty. My review is from the perspective of being fully willing to spend money if it’s justified. The account is primarily separate from the app. If you want to discontinue the auto renew, you have to log in to your account, separate from the login using the app, and it isn’t an intuitive navigation. It may not be intentional, but it could definitely take advantage of people that get frustrated trying to unsubscribe and end up giving up. It doesn’t incorporate any Apple Pencil functionality, which is a staple in a premium app or service. You can’t set your finger to have a separate function when an Apple Pencil is connected. Where most apps will let you pan around or change pages with a finger and only write in the page with the Pencil, this app requires the use of a manual toggle that activates the Drawing tool or the page turning tool. All screen touches with fingers leave a drawing mark. If you like to set your hand on the screen and draw with a pencil, you’re going to leave a lot of marks that you don’t want to. It is such a rudimentary program that I can’t actually believe that it has a subscription. You can get a 1x purchase app with everything this has, and about 100 more functions. If you want to pay for the bare minimum without Apple Pencil support, this is the app for you.

I NEVER leave reviews, but had to for this. It seriously just ticks all of the boxes I’ve been looking for. Clean and attractive set up (not bright or obnoxious like others), flippable pages, changeable backgrounds, AND nothing important is hidden behind a paywall. Any paid features and extras, not necessities, which is a great change. My only feedback/suggestion would be to perhaps add the “smoothing” effect that some other handwriting apps have? Definitely not needed, but it’s just about the only thing missing.