Overview

Hot off the trails of the news that Apress acquired the publishing rights to Kapsoft's iPhone Application Sketch Book, comes the new iPhone Stencil.

In Detail

The new Apress Book is has been improved. A new cover. It's now 1.5x scale (150% of actual size iPhone). Pages have been increased by 25 - that's 50 more templates. And the pages have been perforated for easy tear out.

The Stencil is also 1.5x scale but includes a 1.0x scale iPhone should you need it. It is made of green plastic, much the same as most stencils you buy at a design store. It also features a nice little ruler on the side. Something extra that I had not anticipated, but find very handy. The stencil itself, features the majority of UIKit elements you will use in sketch design and comes in very handy. While, it is a bit on the larger end, it does fit nicely within the new sketchbook pages for carrying.

The Stencil will cost you $9.99 while the new Apress version of the Sketchbook comes in at $14.99.

Compared against Design Commission's Stencil

While both stencils are larger scale than the actual iPhone size, the new Kapsoft one is a tad bit bigger. 1.5x the size of the iPhone. Design Commission's stencil seems to be roughly 1.25x scale.

Kapsoft's stencil is also cheaper in cost. $9.99 vs $17.95. Though, I'm sure that the material cost plays quite a role in this. Plastic against Stainless Steel.

I do find the Design Commission's Stencil to be much more portable due to it's smaller footprint. And the stainless steel material feels a bit more Apple-like and sturdier. Plastic can break easily.

Overall

You really can't go wrong with either Stencil kit. And you definitely should be sketching designs before jumping into XCode. If you are planning to use the Apress Sketchbook, you'll want to get the new Kapsoft Stencil due to the matching iPhone scale. Similarly, Design Commission offers both a downloadable PDF template and now a Sketchpad for $7.95 to go with their own Stencil Kit.

Gallery

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