FiftyThree, maker of the popular Paper sketchbook app for the iPad, announced today that its Paper drawing tools are now all free.
Previously, the company gave away its app for free but charged 99 cents for extra drawing features like “Sketch,” “Outline,” “Write,””Color,” and “Mixer.” You also had the option to buy all the tools for $3.99.
Today, though, everything is free. FiftyThree still sells an accompanying Pencil stylus, which debuted in November 2013, that’s available for $59 or $49. FiftyThree released a “Gold” version of Pencil earlier this week.
The Verge notes that the decision to make the drawing features free-of-charge was due in part to help make FiftyThree’s Mix social community more inclusive.
Paper, which is now on 5-to-10 percent of all iPads, won the Apple 2012 iPad App of the Year.
FiftyThree, meanwhile, was founded two-and-a-half years ago by a team that includes several veterans of Microsoft, including some who worked on the ill-fated Courier project. The company landed $15 million in funding from a group of investors led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2013. FiftyThree has offices in New York City and Seattle, where it employs 18.
We stopped by FiftyThree’s Seattle office in late 2013 when the company unveiled Pencil. Here’s how the stylus works:
