Style

Square Sketch deliberately uses a minimalist style, as it works especially well for drafts.

	Graph paper	Square Sketch	Graphic design
Focus	capturing thoughts	drafting idea	styling
Sharing	private	within the team	public
Style	personal	professional	professional
Handwriting	yes	no	no
Font sizes	one *)	one	any
Pen colors	one or two **)	two	any
Adaptive colors	no	yes	no
Stroke widths	one or two **)	two	any
Font stroke width	identical ***)	similar	independent

*) Often only one handwriting size is used, following the grid lines. Instead of making headings larger, they are underlined because that's faster.

**) Often only one pen is used, meaning one color and one stroke width. Sometimes a second pen is used for highlighting. Multiple pens are used more in artistic contexts, where graph paper is typically not used. Instead of using another pen with a wider tip, sometimes people write or draw twice on top of each other to make it appear bold. In technical drawings, dimension lines are often drawn thinner. In that case, however, paper without a grid is usually used, as otherwise the distinction between the grid and the thin line can be difficult.

***) The same pen is used for geometric shapes and handwriting, so that the stroke widths are identical.

↓

CAD

Square Sketch doesn't replace CAD software, but complements it during the early concept phase, while an idea is still being developed.

	Graph paper	Square Sketch	CAD
Focus	parts and arrangement, thoughts behind	parts and arrangement, idea behind	dimensions, simulation, manufacturing
Content	technical sketch	technical sketch	technical drawing
Standards-compliant	no	no	yes
Units	grid squares	grid squares	physical lengths
Scale drawing	optional *)	optional *)	yes
Dimension lines	manual	manual	automatic
Dimension	2D	2D	2D / 3D
Free annotation **)	yes	yes	limited

*) The grid squares can be thought of as representing a physical unit of length, and scaled drawing can be replicated.

**) The sketch or drawing can be annotated not only with text comments, but also, for example, with diagrams or other arbitrary content.

Diagrams

Square Sketch focuses on drawing your own shapes instead of selecting predefined shapes.

	Graph paper	Square Sketch	Typical diagram app
Shapes palette	optional stencil	no	yes
Shapes library	optional stencil	custom *)	built-in
Custom shapes	yes	yes	limited **)
Dynamic shapes	no	no	yes
Layout	manual	manual	manual, automatic
Workflow	draw	draw, copy & paste shapes	drag & drop shapes from palette

*) Custom shapes can be collected in a separate file and kept available in a second window.

**) Most diagramming apps are optimized to use built-in shapes and therefore offer only limited drawing capabilities.