For artists, illustrators & designers

Sketch over anything on your screen.

Reference studies, gesture practice, design crits, color picks. HoverScribble overlays your screen with a real pen tool driven by your tablet's full pressure sensitivity. Not Photoshop. Not Procreate. A faster way to mark up what's already there.

Start Free 7-Day Trial What it is and isn't

Full stylus pressure sensitivity. Works on Windows 10 & 11.

What HoverScribble is, and what it isn't

If you came here from a Procreate comparison page, this is going to be honest fast.

It is

A pressure-sensitive overlay for sketching on top of references
A markup tool for design crits and feedback rounds
A quick color picker / palette study tool
A way to demonstrate technique on a tutorial video
A whiteboard for warm-up gesture drawing

It isn't

A replacement for Photoshop, Procreate, Krita, or Clip Studio
A layered painting app (no layers, no blending modes)
A brush library (one pen, one highlighter, fixed widths)
An animation app
The right tool for finished commercial work

Where it actually fits in an artist's day

These are the use cases where HoverScribble is honestly the fastest tool for the job.

Reference studies

Draw on top of a photo ref

Pull up a figure reference in Chrome, hit the hotkey, sketch construction lines and gesture flow on top of it. No importing into another app, no layer setup.

Design reviews

Mark up a Figma export or mockup

Open the design, draw arrows and notes, screenshot the marked-up version, send to your team. Crit done in under a minute.

Color study

Sample colors from anything on screen

Pick colors directly from a master painting, a film still, a UI screenshot. Build a quick palette swatch right next to the source.

Tutorial demos

Annotate while you teach

Recording a YouTube tutorial? Show the move on screen with pressure-sensitive ink, then dismiss. The fading ink option means strokes self-clear so you don't have to undo.

Warm-ups

Gesture drawing on the whiteboard

Whiteboard mode gives you a clean canvas for 30-second gesture warm-ups. No "new file" dialog, no image size settings, just draw.

Storyboards

Quick-thumb a sequence

Use Story Mode to capture multiple annotated frames in one go. Useful for thumbnailing a panel sequence or rough storyboards.

Built around your tablet's pressure sensitivity

Freehand strokes use quadratic Bezier smoothing for clean line work. Full pressure sensitivity for any Windows Ink-compatible tablet, including:

Wacom Intuos / Cintiq XP-Pen Deco / Artist Huion Kamvas / Inspiroy Microsoft Surface Pro Surface Studio Wacom Bamboo Veikk Gaomon

Cheaper than a coffee subscription

$18 once. No monthly bill. No "Creative Cloud" upgrade dialog interrupting your stroke.

$18

one-time, lifetime updates

7-day free trial, all features Full stylus pressure sensitivity 20+ tools unlocked No subscription

Start Free Trial

Artist questions

Is HoverScribble a replacement for Photoshop or Procreate?

No, and we're not going to pretend it is. HoverScribble has no layers, no brush library, no color blending. It's a screen-overlay annotation tool. The use cases where it shines for artists are reference studies, design crits, quick markup, and gesture practice on top of photo references.

Does HoverScribble work with my Wacom, XP-Pen, or Huion tablet?

Yes. HoverScribble has full pressure sensitivity for any Windows Ink-compatible tablet. That includes Wacom (Intuos, Cintiq, Bamboo), XP-Pen, Huion, Surface Pro, and similar.

Are strokes smoothed?

Yes. Freehand strokes use quadratic Bezier smoothing so your line work is clean even when your hand is not.

Can I save my annotations as a PNG?

Yes. Use the screenshot tool to capture your annotated screen as a PNG. For multi-page captures of a long document or design, use Story Mode.

Does it have a color picker that samples from the screen?

Yes. The color picker lets you pull any color from any pixel on your screen. Useful for color studies and palette matching.

Try it on your next reference study

7-day free trial with every feature unlocked. No credit card. Takes about 60 seconds to install.

Download HoverScribble Free

$18 one-time after trial.