My favorite thing about the 37signals office are the 4 team rooms. Team rooms are where people can work together uninterrupted without disturbing anyone else. These team rooms are equipped with big chalkboards. You can sketch something quickly, erase it, and draw in more detail. Sketching on a chalkboard isn’t just a solo effort either. It’s collaborative. Anyone can add to your sketch to enhance your idea.
We love the interior design details of chalkboard and cork in our team rooms. Could we simulate the team room experience on the iPad? Luckily Sam Stephenson and I had some spare time between projects — an hour here, a few hours there — 3 days later we came up with Chalk. We’re really pleased with the results, and we want to share it with you.
One of the coolest things about Chalk is it’s a website. There’s no app store approval process we had to endure. We used technologies we’re already familiar with. To use Chalk just go to chalk.37signals.com on your iPad.
Instead of making a full-fledged sharing feature for Chalk, we decided to just use the iPad’s Photos app. You can save or copy your drawing by using the “tap and hold” gesture. This puts the drawing into the Photos app where you can attach it to an email.
The Chalk web-app feels even more like a native app when you add it to your Home screen. Sam got Chalk to work even if you don’t have internet access. As long as it has been bookmarked already or on the Home screen it’ll work anywhere. Here’s a quick 1-minute demo movie if you want to see it in action.
It’s cool to work for a company that doesn’t frown on experiments like this. I had fun making the team room in Photoshop (yes we do use it on occasion). Sam had fun making it all work. We hope you have fun using it!
We’d love to see what you make with Chalk. Please send us your drawings: email@37signals.com. We might even publish a few of them here on SvN.
You may be wondering how this relates to Draft, our native iPad app for quick sketches. It doesn’t, really. Draft is a different product for different needs. Chalk was a fun experiment that lets you draw something quick in a browser.
Jamie wrote this on Nov 02 2010 There are 87 comments.
Dan 02 Nov 10
Can you describe this in more detail.
I still don’t understand how this is different from Draft.
Vikram 02 Nov 10
Hi,
Idea is brilliant !!Seems to be another great pproduct from you guys!!
Can we have a similar app for non Ipad users i.e Broweser based Chalk?
Thanks, Vik
JD 02 Nov 10
Dan, Draft has multiple levels of undo, Campfire integration, smoother drawing capabilities, and more.
JF 02 Nov 10
Dan: Chalk isn’t a product – it’s just a fun little experiment to learn a few new technologies. We got to experiment with the HTML 5 canvas element and CSS transitions, for example. JD got to flex some of his graphic design muscles and work with the video camera too. Chalk is done. It was a proof of concept learning experience. We thought we’d share the results of what we learned by letting other people mess around with it too.
Draft lets you save all your sketches right inside Draft. Plus, Draft lets you share sketches directly in Campfire (which is the primary use case and the reason we built it). Draft has undo, redo, etc. It’s a different thing. We’ve got some more ideas for Draft which we hope to get to down the road. A faster, smoother version is on the way too.
Martin Kool 02 Nov 10
Smart move to tap the canvas, so mobile safari triggers the image options!
By the way, why still show the address bar when in fullscreen mode? An app like chalk would benefit from that little extra screen real-estate, so use the “apple-mobile-web-app-capable” meta tag.
I use it here too:
http://www.martinkool.com/2010/10/sierra-adventure-games-go-ipad-sneak.html
Blain Smith 02 Nov 10
Nice work, but dammit. Been trying to get our version out of something similar haha.
http://10k.aneventapart.com/Entry/129
Ours will be any browser though.
Mike Rundle 02 Nov 10
Looks pretty neat, but I agree with Dan, it’s about 95% the same as Draft. Low-fidelity sketching tool with an interface that looks almost exactly the same with the same basic features.
Re: “a different product for different needs”, I agree that it’s a different product, but for different needs? I don’t understand that. Draft is for people who want low-fidelity sketching with big chunky lines so I can quickly get the form of a UI down on “paper”. Chalk and Draft both do this. I don’t think many people buy Draft solely for the Campfire integration and not because they need to sketch UIs quickly. The main feature of both Chalk and Draft is exactly the same: pick a color, draw with big chunky lines.
I think it’s disingenuous to say they’re so different when they’re so obviously similar. Also, as someone who purchased Draft for iPad the day it came out, having 37signals release a free “new app” that offers the same functionality that I use Draft for doesn’t make me want to spend $10 on your next app in case you duplicate 95% of its functionality in a free app just a few months later.
Darcy Fitzpatrick 02 Nov 10
It might be an idea to have the “only works on the iPad” message one receives when hitting the url from a computer give a hint or two as to what the app does and why you might like to use it.
Just a thought :)
JF 02 Nov 10
Mike: If you feel bad about the $10 you spent on Draft because of Chalk, drop me an email and we’ll PayPal you a refund.
Mathias 02 Nov 10
Could you please remove the top address bar from the application after we’ve added it to our home screens? It’s really annoying and would make the application feel even more native.
Thanks :)
Don Schenck 02 Nov 10
You purchased an app for $10 because “it’s worth it”, and now all of a sudden it’s not worth it?
I don’t get it.
Batist 02 Nov 10
I love rework btw, the “ship now” concept is still hard for me. But this project demonstrates it’s possible… 3 days? Awesome!
Mike Rundle 02 Nov 10
JF: I don’t feel bad about it, I am happy to support quality apps, and I was happy to purchase Draft. Perhaps if I paid $100 for the app instead of $10 I’d be more upset and would want a refund. My point was that in the future your audience who will gladly buy any iPhone/iPad apps that are from 37signals may remember this blog entry and spend more time debating whether a future, free version is worth the wait.
JF 02 Nov 10
My point was that in the future your audience who will gladly buy any iPhone/iPad apps that are from 37signals may remember this blog entry and spend more time debating whether a future, free version is worth the wait.
We had some fun, we built something in a few days, we decided to share it with everyone. That’s really all this is. I wouldn’t look at it as a strategy or anything like that – it was pure exploration, fun, and sharing.
SS 02 Nov 10
Thanks for the suggestions Martin and Mathias. The
apple-mobile-web-app-capablemeta tag would indeed let us hide the address bar, but only if you’ve added the app to your home screen and launched it from there.We considered it but didn’t have time to update the images and styles to account for the extra pixelage. Maybe in a future version. ;)
d 02 Nov 10
Because there aren’t enough sketching apps available.
Luis 02 Nov 10
@JF response: “Mike: If you feel bad about the $10 you spent on Draft because of Chalk, drop me an email and we’ll PayPal you a refund.”
Can I also get in on the refund? Sorry, but the “value” push that you guys had going on when you first released it got me to purchase it, but honestly, not worth the money. I went back to using the free Adobe app. More options, if you want them, and it’s free. Just being honest.
JF 02 Nov 10
Luis: Sure, just email me. jason@37signals…
Bijan Boustani 02 Nov 10
Chalk is absolutely bad ass.
After seeing Ryan’s post-FOWA interview yesterday (http://t.co/qWAYtfd) I’m realizing that the process for building native apps is less than ideal.
It’s great to see someone working to build the next generation of web apps that are optimized for mobile devices.
Vojto 02 Nov 10
I’m using Penultimate for €2.99.
Davide Alábiso 02 Nov 10
Love the app! Thank you for sharing it.
JF 02 Nov 10
Penultimate is awesome. Great product.
J. Simmons 02 Nov 10
I don’t have an iPad, so I can’t use this or Draft at all. But I think it’s cool that a company with the high tech capabilities 37S has would not only do something for fun, but share it. Seems like this should be more of a moral booster (For them and clients) and not something to criticize.
Dustin 02 Nov 10
Very nice, Chalk is a great HTML exploration app. The drawing is surprisingly responsive too!
One fun feature suggestion, an Etch A Sketch like shake-to-erase. Someone in my office immediately tried to shake it and was disappointed when it didn’t work.
Really!?! 02 Nov 10
I want a refund for the $10 that I spent on “Draft” because I feel cheated and I need to buy 8 bus tokens, or maybe I need to get 2 meal deals at McDonalds. Oh wait, no I think I want to buy 2 magazines at Borders and I can spend that $10 on those 2 magazines and that will be a MUCH greater value. Maybe after I buy the magazines I can march right bak to Borders and ask for my money back because most of the content is online and I can tell them they totally screwed me over.
Josh 02 Nov 10
I have 2 thoughts.
1. Chalk looks great. Thank you for sharing.
2. If you’re honestly whining about a $10 purchase that you made months ago, for a product that’s just as good today as it was when you bought it, and for which you will receive free upgrades to for the life of the product, then I feel sad for you.
Colin 02 Nov 10
@Dustin if the goal is to mimic the real world… would you shake a chalk board to erase it?
Ben Atkin 02 Nov 10
I tried it out, and I like it a lot. I emailed my first sketch to Posterous from my iPad.
http://benatkin.posterous.com/trying-out-chalk-by-37signals
Downloading generated images is one HTML 5 feature that is certainly under-appreciated as of yet. Glad to see you put it to use!
Richard 02 Nov 10
How does it compare to the king of prototyping tools, MS Paint?
Mark 02 Nov 10
How do you get a web app like this to work offline?
karle 02 Nov 10
why can’t I just use this in Safari? what’s so “iPad” specific about the app, other then leveraging the webkit provided for Safari?
Miles 02 Nov 10
The fact that people are jumping on 37Signals for this is unreal..
This is a webapp made to showcase some of their talented designers. Draft is for production, integration into your services, and a professional tool.
I am sorry, but for those asking for a refund, it is $10, give me a break.
Ben Atkin 02 Nov 10
Mark, you use a cache manifest file, a text file that contains a list of the application files the browser should cache. For more information, I reccomend Jonathan Stark’s excellent book, Building iPhone Apps with HTML , CSS, and JavaScript.
Shantanu Inamdar 02 Nov 10
This is a great app to learn from. Can you open source this? Just asking because it was for fun and exploration.
DR 02 Nov 10
Asking for a refund for Draft is downright pathetic.
aaron breckenridge 02 Nov 10
Cool guys. Neat idea!
Luis 02 Nov 10
@DR “Asking for a refund for Draft is downright pathetic.”
It was offered. I took advantage. If you like it that’s good, but not everyone will like it.
StuFF mc 02 Nov 10
Adding to the wish of “full screen”, I’d like the chalks to be on the bottom of the screen, however big the screen is. See, I use the “Developer toolbar” and so I can’t reach the chalk to change the colors :)
Dan Gilbert 02 Nov 10
The back-and-forth on the refund topic just reminds me of JF’s Inc. article from yesterday.
http://bit.ly/cjRArn
Luis 02 Nov 10
@Dan Gilbert
Let’s build an app, let’s charge as much as we can for it. We’ll make lots of money. Lot’s of money for the fewest features.
I think the people that bought it are hard-core 37S fans. You guys should also sell swamp land. I’m sure there’s a whole load of it that needs to get dumped. Charge lots of money for it, people won’t be able to do much with it…but there’s “value” in it. Yeah right.
I’m not the only one that sees this. I admire the idea and all, but that’s where admiration ends, cause it certainly doesn’t extend to the app.
I used to be a 37S fan, but over time you guys have basically tried to move up in price while offering pretty much nothing more. Think VW, when they jacked the prices on their Jetta or any other vehicle…”the people’s car”. Oh yeah, the Jetta has come down a lot in price. People catch on over time.
Good luck.
Dan Gilbert 02 Nov 10
@Luis
I’m not well-educated on German automobiles, and much less so on wetland property, so I’ll just assume those are good points.
I didn’t mean to push your buttons – I’m just commenting on how well the dialog fits with yesterday’s article.
It’s okay that you don’t find value in Draft. If you’re not in love with the product, you’re probably not one of ‘the right customers’. And that’s okay with 37s. In this situation, nobody’s losing – a refund will make you both happy.
riddle 02 Nov 10
I think you should have included this as a part of paid Campfire account.
I read this article just yesterday and now I’m really confused. As a webdeveloper I know Chalk could get history states (undo/redo) and sharing on Campfire (API) too.
riddle 02 Nov 10
Sorry, broken link. I meant this article: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20101101/go-ahead-raise-your-businesss-prices.html
Shaun 02 Nov 10
Great, simple, clean app. Would love to see an “erase all” option and more chalk colors. But love what you have done so far. Too bad people are whining about the app. If you are sour that it is like Draft, too bad, deal with it. Appreciate the fact that 37 signals is trying to be creative and are collaborating on projects and are coming up with great ideas!
Charles Parnot 02 Nov 10
Shaun: the ‘erase all’ button is the ‘reload’ Safari button ;-)
keithpeter 02 Nov 10
If that is real chalk you are using (aka calcium carbonate) please be aware that there are significant respiratory health issues.
Chalk and boards were phased out in all UK educational sites in the UK and replaced with water based solvent pens and drywipe boards a generation ago.
Nick Yecke 02 Nov 10
Can anyone recommend a quality “pen/stylus” for the iPad? Ideally something that doesn’t break the bank. Seems like a good accessory for both Chalk and Draft.
Marina Zhao 02 Nov 10
Wow, this is really smooth. +1 for fullscreen!
Martin Kool 02 Nov 10
@SS Well, you should consider forcing the user to add the app to the home screen. How? Simple:
1. On boot, check if navigator.standalone is set, as it is only set to true when a) ran from homescreen b) the correct meta tag is used to remove the address bar 2. If not set, show a fance “Press the + button …” installation message 3. If set… yay!
This way, all users will run it from their home screen, so you can design specificly for this.
For more thoughts on this, you’ve got my e-mail address :)
Ryan 02 Nov 10
Griffin makes the best stylus by far: http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/stylus.
Dave Giunta 02 Nov 10
So… admittedly, I didn’t read every line of every comment above, but it sounds like some people are a little pissed that 37s released something that is pretty similar to Draft as a web-based app, for free.
My question is, had 37s released Chalk in the same way, without changing anything about the product itself, but called it Draft Lite and charged you $3-5 for an account… would that have been better to these people?
I keep seeing Jason Fried say above that “they were just trying some tech out and decided to release it”... It sounds like 37s didn’t really think this thing could’ve been looked at like a “real” app worth paying for. Or, perhaps they thought THEY wouldn’t really pay for this themselves.
My .02
Jay Owen 02 Nov 10
Very fun and easy to use. Well done. Thanks!
Wolfgang 02 Nov 10
Actually I don’t get the fuzz about Draft.
I think it’s just great to have this done with HTML , CSS and JavaScript. I’d like to know more about the way you did it.
It’s just amazing
Michael 02 Nov 10
Thanks! Amazing web app.
Zigo 02 Nov 10
Did anyone else notice the new font used for the 37signals logo at the end of the demo movie? The ‘g’ caught my eye… Design changes ahead?
Philippe 02 Nov 10
You should look into the erasing mechanism. It seems that when you erase something you are really adding a fresh layer of chalkboard on top, except that the layer you add is kind of offset compared to the original, background layer. In order to erase accurately I had to “erase” the whole board before drawing anything, so that erasing things did not look real weird.
JF 02 Nov 10
Philippe, that is intentional, for visual effect.
The best way to erase the whole board is just to click the reload button in Safari.
sniggler 02 Nov 10
Rails is the best for iPad apps.
What would we do without a framework?
Brock 03 Nov 10
Don’t really understand the complaints. I applaud this experiment and the free download. It’s actually pretty limited in function and you must be online but otherwise very fun. I could actually smell the chalk when I was erasing the screen.
Anyone that buys apps knows that they are constantly dropping in price, sometimes going for free and then jumping back up. If you like it and thought it was worth it when you bought it then what has changed? Ten year olds should not be allowed on the Internet.
Amitava 03 Nov 10
Why leave out the iPhone?!
timyeo 03 Nov 10
I would like an extension of a chalkboard. 1 screen is not enough. How about multiple screens to be added to the left and right?
Nice!
Dom 03 Nov 10
I have never used any 37signals apps, and this is certainly going to get me to take a look (although I’ve been a bit sidetracked by chalk). I really like it, and would like to add in another vote for full screen, and would like to suggest maybe filling the entire screen with board. I really like what you guys have done with it, and its pretty awesome for an experiment. (PS, love the eraser effect, adds that extra touch of realism. I was hoping it’d do that)
Rick 03 Nov 10
@Batist: Check out ShareBoard.
One thing that would make this really useful rather than “just” a fun app would be a virtual canvas that spreads beyond the dimensions of the screen. Perhaps that feature could be added to Draft to differentiate from Chalk, and from other apps that do similar things (including also ShareBoard, above).
Gaurav Mishra 03 Nov 10
That pushed me back to school one a digital slate :D
Adam Sentz 03 Nov 10
+1 to losing the address bar – a pretty significant oversight for a full-screen, iPad only web app. Last time I was testing I found that adding the meta tag after adding the app to the home screen meant that it still launched with the address bar – you have to delete and re-add. I don’t know if that’s common knowledge. I just thought it was a bummer so I figured I’d mention it.
P.S. Can I have $10? I’m saving up for some SmartWools.
Ian McDowall 03 Nov 10
I have been working on something similar at www.drawyouridea.com – this supports vector drawing that you can share in real-time with friends or colleagues. It is intended as a remote collaboration tool. As it uses Javascript and the HTML5 canvas tag, it works purely in the browser.
Sylvain Ceccaldi 03 Nov 10
Do people understand that this app is anything more than a proof of concept (a good one actually)? 37Signals wanted to see if they could create a web app that feels native. The fact that the app is close to Draft is great to see the differences (speed for example). It’s a really inspiring example for web developers and web designers.
I saw Ryan interview at FOWA (http://bit.ly/bHN2fq), he said 37signals were experimenting with javascript to create a Rails style open source framework to create local webapps.
Chalk is one step in that new direction.
We should be thankful for all the research they are doing for the open web by showing us example like this one.
dusoft 03 Nov 10
Congrats! The Chalk website is optimized only for Internet Explorer 5.5 and better. Oh, wait… was that an iPad? Web standards for the win!
Karri 03 Nov 10
Nice work, guys. Although I haven’t used either since I don’t have an iPad, but I like the idea.
I’d like to see Draft on the iPhone, but on the other hand, the screen of iPhone is quite small. It just would be nice to draft an idea or write a keyword right away on the iPhone, when ever the thought crosses my mind. Somebody invent that.
Chalkboards are underrated and whiteboards overrated. To everyone thinking using this at home: take chalkboard paint and paint your own area, where you can put lists and gather ideas. It’s a cheap and easy way to get a chalkboard to home, without having to put a big board in your home. http://www.ehow.com/how_5041457_paint-chalkboard-wall.html
Tubby Bartles 03 Nov 10
Doh! So beautiful, but missing the one thing: why can’t I have a chalkboard ID so that people around the world can collaborate even though they aren’t in the same room.
If I’m colocated with somebody, we’ll just use a whiteboard. I want to be able to do this with somebody when we’re in two different locations – that would be brilliant. Since you’re already doing this on a web site, that doesn’t seem to be much more to do. That would be beautiful and in line with 37signals (clever simple solution to thorny collaboration problem).
DUng Deets 03 Nov 10
OK that looks like fun dude.
www.web-privacy.edu.tc
Joe Kwon 03 Nov 10
I bought the boxwave stylus from amazon and it is fantastic.
Great work on whipping this out in three days. Now when are we going to see an update to the campfire app so it does push notifications? :)
Michael Doan 03 Nov 10
@Ryan
Check out boxwave stylus: http://www.boxwave.com/products/capacitivestylus/index.htm. Looks exactly the same as the Griffin stylus but about $5 less. I’ve been using this for a couple of weeks and it works great.
Drew 03 Nov 10
Couple of subtle visual details tucked in here that I really liked—the cork slightly overhangs the chalkboard in spots to create some depth, and erasing actually smudges the board the way a chalkboard does. Nice attention to the tiny details.
Isaac 03 Nov 10
If everyone who spent time asking for $10 back on a cool product for iPad went and did some billable work instead, they wouldn’t need a refund. Ship, man. Ship.
Paul 03 Nov 10
Just a quickie comment to say thanks, guys and gals, for releasing Chalk. It’s perfect for quick sketches and is a pleasure to use. Kudos.
xxdesmus 03 Nov 10
Why would you (37 Signals) waste everyone’s time by making this iPad-only? I guarantee you this would work just fine on the iPhone, and if it’s web-based I bet it’d work just fine on Safari or Chrome. It’s stupid to limit this only to a single obscure product.
JD 03 Nov 10
xxdesmus, really? OK.
D Kasakoff 03 Nov 10
Plz make an itouch version too!
Chris Whamond 03 Nov 10
Blew my mind when I first used it: “Wait, this isn’t an app? Lemme check…yeah, I’m still in Safari. HTML5 … sweet! This rocks!”
This is the “Wow effect” in action. You guys nailed it on this one. Leave it to 37Signals to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in a browser.
Excellent job. Chalk is just plain FUN .
schinizel 03 Nov 10
I never actually bought Draft, but thought about it for a few minutes. Can I get 10 bucks also?
Matt 04 Nov 10
I hate so-called “webapps” that don’t let me use my browser of choice.
Just make it resizeable so people can use it on their iPhones, Android phones and tablets.
Or did Apple pay you something to restrict it?
KE 04 Nov 10
i love it!!!!!! for some reason it won’t save though. yes, i did tap and hold… hmmm
Chirag 04 Nov 10
It’s a shame you don’t get this to work on itouch/iPhone or desktop browsers.
Kresimir Kos 04 Nov 10
How about publishing non-elitist version of Chalk for the rest of the web – the one which will work in all modern browsers and not just on the overpriced piece of fancy hardware known as iPad.
Bruce Solomon 04 Nov 10
This looks great. As a mathematician, I’ve been looking for something like this. But what I’d really like is to be able to collaborate this way over the internet. That way, a distant collaborator and I could communicate ideas at the chalkboard as if we were in the same room, no matter how far apart we might be physically.
Greg 08 Nov 10
Something like Chalk + Smartboard in my classroom would change my life. No more coming home with dried out, chalk covered hands, easy access to the rest of the Internet. Web standards will change education.
This discussion is closed.