Crayola ColorStudio HD Colors Outside the Line

Let’s be honest. Our iPads have been taken over by our kids. The tech market has taken notice, and there are dozens of coloring and painting apps designed for our kids. Crayola ColorStudio HD is one of them offered at Verizon Wireless store in their accessories department. Verizon Wireless wanted to know what my kids thought of this product & app as we are a very mobile, tech-loving family.

Using the ColorStudio HD app with iMarker creates a digital coloring book, with all your favorite Crayola crayons, paints, pencils, markers and more in a convenient no-ink, no-mess, kid-safe package. Crayola’s iMarker is designed to work with Crayola’s excellent ColorStudio HD app for the iPad, letting kids fill in an infinite array of coloring pages without making a mess. The iMarker looks and feels like a Crayola marker, but is safe to use with the Multi-Touch display of your iPad.

Unfortunately, my kids had a hard time pressing to color. It is great software, but the hardware was not so much. The iMarker is a clunky plastic cylinder which you have to install a battery into, using a tiny Philips-head screwdriver (not included). Hitting a button on the back of the iMarker makes the Crayola logo light up, and it’s ready to play. In active mode, it only works properly with the ColorStudio HD app, and it requires quite a lot of force to color properly—at least for my five and seven year old.

Note: The makers of the iMarker, Griffin, recommend you removing the iPad case to have the stylus work properly. Unfortunately, with a five and seven year old, I am not willing to risk it.