Paper is the simplest and most beautiful way to create on the iPad. It allows you to express your ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings and instantly share them across the web. Ideas begin on Paper. Our lives have become driven more and more by empty patterns of consumption. Yet we all know our most rewarding moments are those we create for ourselves. It's our calling to invent, discover, and do our best to leave this place a little better than when we arrived. We have an innate need for creativity. To be human is to create.

Paper is our own creation—a journey we embarked on to bring creativity to the world. Honestly, with all the challenges we face today, we can't imagine a more important quest. Sure, there have been creative tools for years (we've worked on a few in the past ourselves). But they've remained largely out of reach for most people—complex graphics applications with menus and settings and sliders that bend you to their will. It shouldn't be this way. Creativity shouldn't require an entry fee—it should be free—open to anyone with a great idea. After all, we are what we create. One major challenge was in designing the set of tools in Paper. We had to rethink the entire idea of tools. Where everyone else tried to mimic realistic brushes and fell short, we took a different approach. Each of our tools is based around a key creative activity—sketching, drawing, writing, coloring, etc. Our custom-built Expressive Ink Engine is based on a handcrafted set of algorithms that allow for a range of expression from a single tool without requiring any settings. In the creative flow, there is no concept of going 'back.' We took this inspiration and created a navigational model built entirely around gestures that allow you to seamlessly move from one view to another. There are no folders, buttons, or menus to get lost in. The result is a game-like approach to a productivity app built entirely in the rich OpenGL environment with realtime 3D geometry, lighting, and shadows.by.

Paper is our own creation—a journey we embarked on to bring creativity to the world. Honestly, we can't imagine a more important quest. Sure, there have been creative tools for years (we've worked on a few in the past ourselves). But they've remained largely out of reach for most people—complex graphics applications with menus and settings and sliders that bend you to their will. It shouldn't be this way. Creativity shouldn't require an entry fee—it should be free—open to anyone with a great idea. After all, we are what we create.

Creating Paper was a focused 10 month process where we used a range of tools both familiar like wireframing, visual designs, motion designs, and prototyping and some we had to create ourselves like an in-app heads up display for dynamically adjusting variables like gestures and lighting from within the development environment. All the key views are rendered in 3D with real lighting and shadows using Open GL ES 2 programmed with a combination of Objective-C and C++.

We believe we're all here to create something bigger than ourselves—to leave the world a little better than when we came. Yes, Paper has been downloaded millions of times, but most important, is what real people have done with it. Creators have collectively spent over 500 years in Paper sketching new ideas for websites, floor plans, fashion silhouettes, and on and on. We are all creative. And we like to think Paper plays a part in encouraging each of us to express our ideas and change the course of our world in ways big and small.