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StoryPages, an app from SpinThought, is available for US$2.99 at the
App 
Store.
Traditionally, storyboards were drawn on "dead tree" technology -- paper -- but now, as is most often the case these days, they're done either on or with the assistance of desktop computers. Now they can be done on the iPad, too, with programs like StoryPages from SpinThought.
StoryPages ($2.99) is one of those applications for iPhone and iPod touch that really benefits from the broader canvas the iPad's expansive screen can give it. Comparatively speaking, drawing on the iPhone is like sketching on a postage stamp compared to the iPad.
Simple Settings
The first time you launch StoryPages, you're taken to its User Guide. This is a savvy move by SpinThought. Too many iPad programs assume that they're so intuitive to use that their users can just wade into the application and immediately start using it. While that's true to a great extent, encouraging a user to glide through some help screens before blundering around a program can enhance an operator's initial experience with the app and make him or her more productive with it more quickly.
All projects created in StoryPages are listed on the opening screen. Sandwiching the list of projects are a pair of sparse toolbars. The top bar has an edit button for deleting projects and another for creating new ones. The bottom bar has buttons for help and settings.
There aren't a lot of settings -- just the ability to offset the cursor. When using a finger to sketch in the program, it can be difficult to see a line beneath the digit. By offsetting the cursor, it appears slightly to the side of the finger making it easier to see what you're doing.
Export as PDF
When you start a new project, the iPad keyboard appears on the screen, and you're asked to give it a title.
After naming your project, a screen appears with two partitions. To create a drawing, you swipe down on the top half of the screen. To type in text, you swipe upward on the bottom half.
Three controls at the bottom of the screen let you return to the page listing your projects, display thumbnails of a project or add another page to it. From the thumbnail view, you can export your pages to the iPad's Photo Gallery or email it as a PDF file.
In typewriter mode, the iPad's keyboard is displayed as well as a screen for your text. There are no options for fonts or formatting or anything like that.
With a Trace
In drawing mode, you're given some tools for adding visual elements to your storyboard -- tools like a pencil, eraser and picture import.
The pencil allows you to draw lines on the screen. Tapping an arrowhead at the top of the pencil tool displays a menu. With it you can choose the width of the line you want to draw with and its colors. The color palette is fixed. That is, you can't mix your own custom colors.
Drawing on the iPad's screen is a bit crude. Using something like the Pogo Stylus helps, but clean, smooth lines are still difficult to produce.
With picture import, you can bring photos into a storyboard from an album or the iPad Photo Library. Photos appear with about a 10 percent gray screen over them. That makes it easier to trace the objects in the photos. When you're finished tracing, you can remove the photo, leaving a drawing of your tracings on screen.
Regrettably, StoryPages does suffer from performance issues. Its favorite position is portrait mode, and it stubbornly resists going to landscape mode. It often takes three or more swipes to enter typewriter or drawing mode. Sometimes menus fail to appear in drawing mode. We hope those issues can be addressed by SpinThought in the future because the app is fun to work with when it's working.
