The best sketch app for iPad just made its drawing tools free

Paper by FiftyThree is the best iPad app out there for creatives to illustrate their ideas, and as of Thursday, all the drawing tools that used to be in-app purchases are now free.

Paper has always been free to download, but the app's drawing tools - called Draw, Sketch, Outline, Write, and Color - were previously only available as in-app purchases costing $0.99 each or $3.99 for the bundle.

FiftyThree recently revealed that Paper has been downloaded 13 million times. With the move to make all drawing tools free, FiftyThree is hoping that more people will give the app a try with all the tools at their disposal.

Removing in-app purchases does means closing the door (at least temporarily) to revenue from in-app purchases, but FiftyThree also has a thriving physical Bluetooth stylus business selling "Pencils," which retail for $49.99 to $59.99.

"Pencil has been doing phenomenally well," FiftyThree CEO and cofounder Georg Petschnigg told The Verge, explaining that making the app's suite of tools free will hopefully lead more people order a Pencil to get the full experience and ideally "will also lead to an increase in Pencil sales."

If you want to give Paper a try, you can download it for free over at the App Store, or see what it's like to use the app below.