# Charcoal — user reviews > 117 indexed App Store user reviews of Charcoal by Lars Augustin, rated 4.51/5 from 143 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/charcoal/id1490279484/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/charcoal/id1490279484.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 101 · 4★ 22 · 3★ 10 · 2★ 5 · 1★ 3 ## What do users think of Charcoal? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Simple and intuitive - 👍 Great for quick sketching - 🎨 Aesthetically pleasing design - 💰 Free with no ads **Cons** - 🎨 Limited color palette - 🎨 Lack of customization options - 🎨 Missing advanced drawing tools - 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes **Commonly reported bugs** - Saved sketches lose quality - Palette colors change unexpectedly - Freezing when opening color palette **Most requested features** - Ability to change brush/pen size - Layers and blending tools - Color wheel and custom color selection - Import/export options ## Newest reviews (17 of 117) ### 4/5 — Good app, could do with a little more personality *2024-11-06, version 1.5.1* I really love the idea of this app. The idea of focusing on one thing with such a minimal UI is just… nice. It looks like it just uses the basic iPad pen tools which is a shame. I would have really enjoyed a nice brush engine with a small selection of tools. Maybe add in some sound effects (as a setting) and you could really make this into something where people can focus purely on the drawing. Also I love the default colours provided btw ### 4/5 — I love this drawing app❤️ *2024-06-23, version 1.5* It’s a great and simple app to do when you get tired of the more complicated apps but I have one request can you please make it to where you can take off and on the little dots cause they get on my nerves when the appear out of no where thank you 😊❤️❤️❤️💕 ### 3/5 — Hey where are the new brushes *2024-04-14, version 1.5* Cant find them :( I still like charcoal :’)👍 edit: It seems like the new tools are only available for ios 16 and above. :(( ### 4/5 — Four Stars - Two Missing Things *2023-11-24, version 1.4.1* The app is amazing in every way except two, with the colour wheel / selector we should be able to choose the hex code ourselves because that is easier than trying to use the slider, also having the eye dropper tool to select a colour on the page would be useful because sometimes I can’t find the right colour after mixing lots of different watercolour/highliters together. Other than those two things this app is amazing! ### 3/5 — solid, but *2023-07-25, version 1.4.1* the delete now button doesn’t work the first time, and it shouldn’t be in a dropdown menu in the first place. it should be hold, delete button, the end ### 4/5 — Good basic sketch program *2023-05-22, version 1.4.1* Does what i want, nothing fancy but with a bit of practise a good artist could create some great sketches. Its free, no adds and no data collection. I really like it, its fun. ### 5/5 — i LOVE this app *2023-04-12, version 1.4.1* i love this app and i dont recall any bugs but there is this one small problem that is uncomfterble its the double click for drawing but aside from the thing ITS WONDERFUL THIS APP ### 5/5 — Perfect pad for a Pro who needs a quick fix *2023-03-24, version 1.4.1* Pencil pressure, color palettes, simplicity are all fine tuned to just what’s needed when I don’t want to pull a whole drawing suite up. Ty ### 5/5 — Great work! *2022-12-15, version 1.4.1* As advertised - very easy to use. The developer knows what she’s doing. The latency for strokes is very low! I did encounter a bug where the thumbnail image did not correspond to the file. Let me know if you need a tester! ### 5/5 — Love this *2022-11-21, version 1.4.1* The app is amazing. I just wish it had flesh tones and shades of brown. ### 4/5 — Love using this app *2022-08-27, version 1.4* Works great for quick notes and sketches, and I’m a huge fan of the interface. If there’s one thing I wish this app had it would be the ability to manually enter the hex number of a color when creating a new color palette instead of just moving the picker around. ### 5/5 — I'm impressed: *2022-07-15, version 1.4* I really like it, It has double tap shortcut too! And its free!!! ### 4/5 — It’s good app! *2022-07-15, version 1.4* I’ve been using charcoal for weeks and I love this app but.Can you put add layers and paint bucket?Its because im so lazy to color and don’t wanna erase the whole outline!So yeah that’s what I really,REALLY need and I really like the app! ### 5/5 — Great app! *2022-06-04, version 1.4* This is the best Apple pen app out there the only thing wrong is the eraser it is hard to use and erased most of my work instead of small portions ### 4/5 — Super Responsive *2022-05-29, version 1.4* Excellent pencil tool! Love the simplicity, but I’d love to export at anything higher than 800 x 600 pixels. Should be possible, because the canvas resolution seems to be set to native display resolution? ### 5/5 — Beautifully simple *2022-03-15, version 1.4* Very nice sketching app, with just a handful of well implemented tools and a clean interface - pretty much as close as you can get to sitting down with a sketchpad and a pencil case with a few favourite drawing implements. Bug: previews of existing sketches sometimes will randomly show a duplicate of a different image, or an earlier version. Suggestions/ improvements: would be nice to switch between the two different eraser modes from within the drawing. Watercolour brush is hard to use precisely - needs a clearer outline/ bristles. Can you change the angle of the ruler? ### 3/5 — Amazing app, but… *2022-03-12, version 1.4* Recently all of my drawings got erased with the new update. I emailed the developer and got no response. :( Original description: The only drawing app I know that just lets you draw-no payment(s) or ads needed. For someone that just wants to doodle every once and a while without using paper, this is the perfect thing for me. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — HOW DO I DRAW *2022-08-03, version 1.4* I HATE THIS GAME I CANT DRAW ### 1/5 — Horrible *2021-12-08, version 1.3.1* Ok so first off all this game it….it just doesn’t let me draw like…ANYTHING…. ### 1/5 — U suck charcoal *2021-06-25, version 1.3.1* It was okay at the start but when after one drawing it stopped working when it tried to draw it didn’t let me I even sent a message but got no reply ### 1/5 — This app is great! *2020-07-01, version 1.2.3* The app has no limits to creativity! The only thing I would improve would be being able to change the size of each pen. ### 1/5 — Not enough... *2020-06-26, version 1.2.3* This is an app that could be good... There are not enough drawing supplies and I don’t like how you change the size by going fast because if you want to do something carefully? Not good. Also there is no smudging tool which I use a lot on other drawing apps.Not to bore you with complaints but also the colours are very limited and not good for realistic drawing. 😭😭😭 Needs quite a lot of work before I would re-install.There is one good thing which is you don’t have to pay for anything and there are no adds! ### 1/5 — Potential! *2020-05-03, version 1.1.1* I hate to say this, but it lacks a lot of things. For example, pen pressure, stabilizer, selection tool, bucket tool, symmetrical ruler, circle tool, blend, clipping, layers, and more! I would give it an A for effort though, it just needs work! It would be great if you added these things and gave us a chance to choose canvas size and insert photos! This app has potential, u just need to work on it! ### 2/5 — Eh not feeling it *2024-02-24, version 1.4.1* So I am a gullible person and loving giving raging reviews to people but this game is just soo bad. If you want a thicker colour instead of pressing the thicker colour button you have to go faster which doesn't make sense because why is the button there? Also the tools aren’t amazing so it’s hard to draw a goodish piece of art. It would be a good sketching app but as a normal art one? No. ### 2/5 — Early review *2022-10-15, version 1.4* Listen it’s ok but it’s very limited in colors and with the Apple notes app you can draw and when you do it can make it so when you draw horrible line it make it supper straight and when you make a horrible circle ⭕️ it makes it a perfect circle or oval… depends but find a way to add that to charcoal and please add a thing where you can select any shade of any color in the world this would make the app a Millon times better ### 2/5 — Lost everything *2020-12-09, version 1.3.1* u used this app and at first I loved it. But then one day I went into it and started to draw and the app completely froze me on mid draw which was very disappointing and i-was not able to recover any har of my hard work or time spent. I should have saved in my photos but depended on the app mistakingly. I am so upset as some of my best work was just gone, just like that. I wrote to the app and never heard back with a solution. I don’t recommend this app because of that. ### 2/5 — Not good enough *2020-07-14, version 1.2.3* I love the simplicity and the colour pallets but the lack of tools and settings are terrible. You could add a colour wheel tool settings and new tools and then I’d say this is a worthy app for artists. So far I think this could work better if it was aimed at small children if you kept it as it is. Sorry to be so mean it just needs a lot of improvements ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — INCREDIBLE! *2025-10-01, version 1.5.1* This is literally the most amazing thing on the planet of apps-i use it to do all my drawing-everyone who I recommend it too loves it-it’s so customisable and cute!!!Few suggestions:A bit more customising-with the pens,or the selections of colours,inserting photos-and more flexibility when using the blade,resizing,flipping.But other than this,It is absolutely PERFECT!!! Chefs kiss. ### 5/5 — INCREDIBLE!GET it now!-a few suggestions... *2025-08-07, version 1.5.1* This is so adorable and simple!There are now purchasess and It is so helpfull!you can create pallets,make it light or dark on the settings!I have a few suggestions:Inserting Photos,Change size when selecting something with blade,and front and back layers.Thats all from me-DEFO RECCOMEND if you want a simple,FREE NO PURCHASE drawing app!!!Great for kids and adults! ### 5/5 — Awesome *2024-06-15, version 1.5* This is an awesome drawing app they pretty much have everything you need.I would love it if they had the colour brown and if there was a tool to make a perfect circle other than that I love it soooo much ### 5/5 — Needs updated *2024-03-23, version 1.4.1* This is a really nice app. But it needs updated. In fact, it hasn’t been updated in about a year. ### 5/5 — Good game but um yeah *2024-03-09, version 1.4.1* So I realised I made a mistake on my scheck but I have already did my next scketch ( my making a set of cats) so I went back to fix it but after I fixed it my other sketch I just finished it was gone and was replaced with the other cat I just fixed my mistake on so yeah it’s good app like it’s got no adds but WHERES BROWNNNNN ### 5/5 — Perfect little doodle pad *2023-09-12, version 1.4.1* I’ve had this sitting idle on my iPad and iPod Touch for some time then one day started using it again and now it’s my favourite drawing app. What might first be seen as a limited range of options has, for me, become its best feature, instead of spending time trying to chose the right size or colour I just go with what’s available and concentrate on creating.I can draw cartoons on my iPod and have even started drawing a comic strip and the unobtrusive grid is great for keeping my lettering consistent. ### 5/5 — Simple and perfect *2023-09-04, version 1.4.1* This is exactly what I was looking for: a simple quick drawing app with the basic tools. ### 5/5 — Charcoal’s review! *2023-08-18, version 1.4.1* Hi guys sup, so I go to the library and study and I needed a doodling app, so Charcoal came to be a life saver. I like don’t have a BF (boyfriend) or a GF (girlfriend) so if you have one and you are 2 years old I can tell you that you will grow up to you know, make some babies, so anyway I spend my time studying and doodling because my 3 sisters are all somewhat annoying, especially my sister Rose ew… She’s pink.. So if you live underwater and happen to know her just break up with her. I trust you to listen to my voice. So anyway this app is cool, and me and Rose had a challenge of who could draw Rose better and of course I won because I am experienced! Bye guys this is MEEEEE signing off!!! (This page will also be available at MermaidgirlzakaCharcoal.com) ### 5/5 — Simple but solid *2023-08-13, version 1.4.1* If you open the color palette screen and then try to close it, the entire app freezes until you force close. Apart from that, it’s a simple and solid sketch app. Gets the job done with no clutter, no ads, just the sketching. Not a ton of tools, but if you just need a simple canvas to jot notes or sketch a diagram, it’s excellent. I’m using it to plan video game map layouts before attempting to create them in software. ### 5/5 — I don’t hate it tho! *2023-07-27, version 1.4.1* I hate that when you erase it it does it mean like you have to erase the whole thing it’s like I want to erase some stuff but not the whole thing and please pretty please put some more markers in so you can like get it more bigger please --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-11.*