Coloring Book App Review

App Details

Reviewed by: Mary McDonach
Price: Free (but does contain ads)
Where to buy: Find Christmas Coloring Book at the iTunes Store
Developer: Peep Software
Devices: Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Operating System: Requires iOS 4.0 or later
Categories: Games & Recreation

Review of Christmas Coloring Book

The Christmas Coloring Book is a simple app that mimics a traditional coloring book. My daughter, who has a visual impairment, LOVES this app!

The app offers a choice of crayon colors to choose from in a moveable row (bottom left) so they don't take up the whole screen. You also have an eraser and, crucially, an excellent zoom feature so you can enlarge the entire picture. It is the zoom which makes this app so satisfying for my perfectionist, in-house artiste!

Under the Free Style button is an "in the lines" option which keeps your coloring in the lines even if you stray a bit. This is terrific for younger or more physically disabled kids (and easily frustrated moms!).

The app features nineteen black outline drawings to choose from, some more detailed than others, but all with a Christmas theme. The contrast is excellent, especially when zoomed.

Even the more detailed drawings are possible for visually impaired kids because of the zoom feature. This is a screenshot of the Christmas tree in the first picture, using the zoom. As you can see, the contrast maintains cohesion. It has the ability to level the playing field a great deal for children with visual impairments. The app also allows children to share their finished product by printing, sending to aunties via email or displaying to all on Facebook.

Since this is a free app there is a strip of advertising at the bottom, but this gives parents the chance to teach kids how to ignore advertising—which is a skill that will serve them well in the future!

My daughter has not quite finished this picture to the right yet but as you can see, pink is a super choice for fireplaces... This app has been a real hit in our home and she has literally spent hour after happy hour coloring in these seasonal pictures to great effect.

Four out of five stars because the functions buttons could have had better contrast and pressing the back button by mistake can erase a masterpiece, but honestly a great app.