Ink is a canvas for instantly capturing a rough sketch or back-of-a-napkin idea. The only features are smooth ink on soft paper with built-in sharing.
True to our philosophy: Feature number one should always be as few features as needed to perform the primary purpose
Most iOS apps are single purpose apps. Apps that do one thing, and do it well. There are some jack of all trades, but they tend to be confusing, bloated with features and slow to learn and use.
For this reason I'd rather have two apps to take pictures and edit them, than one app that does both, but not perfect.
But some apps stretch this single purpose directive to its limit. Ink by Minimal Tools is such an app. The app takes the concept of napkin drawings and translates it to the iPad / iPhone. When opened up it shows a white screen in a matter of seconds, with only a light grey hamburger icon in the lower right corner to access some sharing features.
This leaves a blank canvas to start doodling on. There are no features, no colors, different pens,... Like Paper does, it's just black ink on a white screen. The benefit of this is that you can start doodling and always know what to expect, which makes it ideal for meetings, or sketch sessions in the pub, but the lack of features or intelligence makes sketching quite difficult. If I draw on a napkin, I can easily change thickness, blackness and continuity of a line by manipulating my pen. Since this app only knows black or nothing, making nuances in a drawing is though and drawings look plain. Compare this to what Paper gives you, and well.. For sketching paper wins, even with only black as a color selected.
But I wouldn't be reviewing this app if it was all bad, because I like this app, even while its drawing engine is flawed/too limited. The idea of a featureless minimalistic app is addictive. Just as Squarespace Note is a limited note app, I prefer it over Drafts. Why? Because the content is what makes the app. I'm not distracted by design, there's no options to fiddle with hat steal my attention, it's just typing and sharing. Or in this case drawing and sharing.
The app's minimalism is its power, but it lacks in adding what's essential to make it truly work. Add drawing lines that have a thickness relative to what you draw, and it has its components in my opinion. Without that, it lacks in its minimalism.