InColor™ : Coloring & Drawing

Review by eFreeware

Most coloring apps hand you a fixed library and leave it at that. InColor's distinguishing idea is that you can type a few keywords and have the app generate a black-and-white sketch for you to fill in, which means the supply of pages is limited mainly by what you can think of. That single feature is what separates it from a static catalog of line art, and it is the reason I would point anyone toward this app rather than a plain coloring book.

The app comes from Eyewind and sits in the Entertainment category on Google Play. It has been downloaded more than 50 million times and holds a 4.4 average from over 128,000 ratings, which tells you it has found a broad audience rather than a niche one. It is free to install, supported by ads, and offers in-app purchases.

I would expect it to appeal to two overlapping groups: people who color casually and want a steady stream of new pictures without searching for printable sheets, and people who want to sketch from a blank canvas or from one of their own photos. It is not a professional illustration tool. It is a creative pastime with a generous amount of material behind it.

Typing a prompt instead of browsing a book

The generator is straightforward in concept. You enter keywords, and the app produces a unique sketch in black and white that you can then color. The appeal is variety: instead of flipping through categories hoping something catches your eye, you describe what you want and work from there. For anyone who has grown tired of the same handful of mandala and animal pages that circulate everywhere, that is a meaningful change.

What I like about the framing is that the generated image is a starting point, not a finished product. A black-and-white outline invites you to make the decisions about palette and shading, which is the part of coloring that actually holds attention.

A gallery, real brushes and your own photos

The developer also describes a gallery of thousands of curated illustrations, with new styles said to arrive daily. That combination covers the two ways people usually approach this hobby: browsing for something ready-made, or asking for something bespoke. The gallery is also where the weekly themed challenges draw their material, since taking part can unlock exclusive patterns.

The painting side goes further than simple flood fill. The app offers a range of brushes, gradients and controls for finer detail, which points to a more deliberate approach for anyone who wants to build up shading rather than tap regions of color. There is also a free drawing mode on a blank canvas, so you are not restricted to coloring inside existing lines.

Photo import is the feature I would single out for a different audience. You can turn a picture into a sketch and then personalize it, which makes the app useful for something like reworking a snapshot into a line drawing you color yourself. The developer also notes that the app is optimized for tablets, where the larger canvas and finer control make the drawing tools easier to manage than on a phone screen.

What it asks from you in return

InColor is free to download, but it is not free of everything. Ads are present, and the app offers in-app purchases. Free users get a selection of patterns and features rather than the full library, so the free experience is a subset by design.

A premium subscription opens up all the content and removes the ads. Subscriptions come in three lengths, weekly, monthly and yearly, and a three-day free trial is available on some of them. If you are considering the yearly plan, the trial is the sensible way to judge whether the extra patterns and the ad-free experience matter to you before committing.

The practical question is how much coloring you actually do. Someone who opens the app a few times a month may find the free selection sufficient, while anyone who colors most evenings will run into the limits of that selection quickly. It is worth deciding which of the three terms matches how you use it rather than defaulting to the longest one.

Getting more out of it week to week

The weekly themed challenges are the feature I would build a routine around. They give you a reason to return with a specific goal, and the developer says taking part can unlock exclusive patterns, which adds a collection element on top of the coloring itself. If you are the sort of person who needs a prompt to sit down and draw, this is where the app provides one.

The sharing side is worth thinking about before you post. The app includes a global community where you can share finished pieces and see what others are making. For some people that is motivating; for others it is simply not part of why they color. Either way, it sits alongside the creative tools rather than replacing them.

My advice on the tools themselves is to start with the gallery before moving to the generator, because working from a finished illustration shows you how the brushes and gradients behave before you apply them to something you generated yourself. From there, photo import and the blank canvas are natural next steps once you know what the app can do. The recent update also mentions smoother coloring interactions, extra colors and additional textures, so the painting side has been receiving attention.

A coloring app worth keeping for the generator alone

InColor stands out through the combination of a keyword-driven sketch generator and a large, regularly refreshed gallery. The painting tools, photo import and blank canvas give it more range than a simple color-by-number app, and the tablet optimization means it scales up well on a larger screen. The 4.4 average across a very large number of ratings suggests the approach has landed with a wide audience.

The trade-offs are plain: ads, a free tier that covers only part of the library, and a recurring subscription for everything else. None of that is unusual for this category, but it does mean the app is best suited to people who color often enough to justify paying, or who are content with a smaller selection.

If you want an endless supply of fresh line art and a reasonable set of tools to fill it in, this is an easy recommendation. If you only color occasionally, install it, work through the free selection, and let your own habits tell you whether the subscription is worth it.

What's new in version 7.4.1

Coloring is now smoother and more fun than ever! - Optimized coloring interactions for a more responsive and fluid experience - Added more color options for richer palettes and greater creative freedom - Added more textures for richer creative materials and layered coloring effects - Fixed several known issues to further improve performance and stability