01 · Red
Correct. Right where it is.
Circle the wrong answer and write the right one over the student's PDF — or over any app on your screen. Pen pressure makes it feel like a real red pen.
BrushPen pressureUndo
Your screen is the canvas
Am_sketch is a drawing layer for Windows. Press a hotkey and draw straight over anything on your screen — slides, PDFs, the browser, a video call, a reference photo — with real pressure-sensitive brushes, a highlighter, shapes, text and measuring guides. Built for teachers who explain and artists who sketch.
Every colour has a job — 1:52
● playing
- Price
- $49one-time, not a subscription
- Windows
- 10 and 1164-bit
- Input
- Mouse or penpressure & tilt with Windows Ink
- Draws over
- Any appon the monitors you choose
- Licence
- Yourschecked offline, no account
[ EVERY COLOUR HAS A JOB ]
Six jobs, one ring
The film travels once round Am_sketch's hue ring. Each colour is something a teacher or an artist does all day — and each one is a tool on the same ring.
02 · Yellow
Highlight what matters.
The highlighter never hides the text underneath, however often you go over it. Lay trace paper over the screen to write the equation on a clean sheet.
HighlighterTrace paper
03 · Green
Encourage, not just correct.
Ticks, stars and a typed note. The shapes and text you add stay editable — move, resize, recolour or retype them any time.
ShapesTextSelect
04 · Blue
Explain it. Measure it.
A ruler your strokes snap to and that reads the length, an angle guide that reads the angle, and the working written right beside them.
RulerAngleProportion grid
05 · Violet
Sketch with real brushes.
Pressure-sensitive brushes with paper grain, tilt and speed — from a hairline ink to a dry rake — and a perspective guide that keeps a street drawing true.
BrushesTexturePerspective
06 · Magenta
Present it. Share it.
Give any stroke a new colour, keep work on separate layers, then capture the screen — notes and all — to the clipboard or a PNG.
RecolourLayersCapture
[ THE PROBLEM ]
Explaining on a screen is half pointing
Without a drawing layer
- The mouse pointer is the only thing you can point with — and nobody at the back can see it.
- Each app has its own pen, or none: the one in your slides does not work in the PDF, the browser or the video call.
- Drawing over a reference means a screenshot, a paint program, and losing the live picture.
- A line or an angle drawn freehand looks like a guess, so you leave it out.
- Built-in pens draw one kind of line — no pressure, no texture, no colours worth choosing.
With Am_sketch
- One hotkey and the whole screen is a canvas — over every app, on the monitors you choose.
- Draw, highlight, type and drop shapes right where people are looking; shapes and text stay editable.
- A ruler strokes snap to, an angle guide, a perspective guide and a proportion grid — measure while you teach.
- Real brushes with pressure, tilt and paper grain, from a fine ink line to a dry rake.
- Pass-through mode hands the mouse back to the app underneath; your drawing stays on top.
- $49 once — a licence with your name on it, checked on your own PC. No subscription, no account.
[ FEATURES ]
Everything in the box
No add-ons, no tiers, no upsell. Hover a card to read what it does.
A real brush engine
PEN · INK · CHALK · SUMI…A real brush engine
Pen, flat pen, pencil, marker, watercolour, brush pen, chalk, sumi, bristle and a family of Sootline inks — each with its own size, opacity, flow, hardness and falloff.
Pressure, tilt & speed
DYNAMICSPressure, tilt & speed
Pen pressure drives size, opacity and flow; tilt and speed shape the stroke too. A light touch for a hairline, full pressure for a heavy line.
Paper grain
TEXTUREPaper grain
Give a brush a paper — vellum, stucco, tooth — with its depth and grain size, so a pencil reads as pencil. Add tips and grains of your own as image files.
Pick Color
14 PALETTES · WHEELPick Color
Fourteen palettes, a colour wheel with its sliders, shades and harmonies of the colour you have, your recent colours, and an eyedropper for anything on screen.
Colour library at the pen
CTRL + SPACEColour library at the pen
Hold Ctrl + Space with the brush: the palette opens round the pointer. Hover to preview, click to pick — Alt and Shift step through all fourteen palettes.
Shapes
5 KINDSShapes
Rectangles, triangles, ellipses, arrows and lines, with their own outline and fill — Shift keeps them square or at 45°, and every one stays editable.
Select & transform
MOVE · RECOLOURSelect & transform
Draw a lasso, rectangle or circle round strokes, shapes or text and a toolbar appears: change colour, edit, fill, capture, free transform, cut, copy, duplicate, delete.
Layers
SHOW · HIDE · OPACITYLayers
Keep the lesson on one layer and today's notes on another — rename, hide, fade or delete one without touching the rest.
Eraser
SIZE · HARDNESSEraser
A soft or hard eraser of any size, with its own opacity and falloff — rub out a word, or half a stroke. Shapes and text it touches stay editable unless you say otherwise.
Trace paper
ANY COLOUR · ANY OPACITYTrace paper
A sheet over the screen: opaque for a clean whiteboard, see-through to trace a reference underneath. Pick its colour and opacity, and which screens it covers.
Capture
CLIPBOARD · PNGCapture
Drag out a region and keep it — the app underneath, your notes on top — on the clipboard, or saved as PNG, JPEG or BMP.
Strokes that fade
LIVE DEMOSStrokes that fade
Let each stroke disappear a few seconds after you draw it — ideal for a live demo, where wiping by hand costs attention.
Your shortcuts
REBIND ANY KEYYour shortcuts
Show or hide, draw or pass through, clear, undo — every command on the key you choose, with a warning when a key is already taken.
Tells you what's new
UPDATESTells you what's new
A quiet check once a day. When there is a release, it shows what changed since yours — skip it, be reminded tomorrow, or switch the checks off.
14 features · hover or tab through a card to read it
[ THE RING ]
Every tool round one colour wheel
This is the ring, drawn with the app's own proportions. Point at a tool to read what it does, and drag round the colours — the swatch and both sliders follow, as they do in the app.
The tool ring
Point at a tool
Fourteen tools round a hue ring. Point at one to read what it does — or drag round the colours.
#FFAE00
Drag round the hue ring, or along a slider
[ BRUSHES ]
Real brushes, real pressure
Every sheet below was drawn by Am_sketch's own brush engine — synthetic pen strokes, no retouching. What you see is what your pen gets.
[ GUIDES ]
Measure while you teach, draw it true
Four guides under the ring's Measurement slot. They sit on the screen like real drawing instruments — drag their handles, move them with Alt, and draw along them.
Ruler SNAPS · MEASURES
Lay it at any angle; strokes drawn near its edge snap to it, and it reads the length in pixels, millimetres or centimetres — make it infinite to rule right across the screen.
Angle guide DEGREES · RADIANS
Two arms from one point and the angle between them — drag either arm and watch the number. Strokes snap to the arms, too.
Perspective 3–48 RAYS
A vanishing point and a fan of rays to draw along — drag the point, turn the fan, and strokes snap to the rays. The quickest way to keep a street, a room or a box honest.
Proportion grid THIRDS · GOLDEN · DIAGONALS
Frame a region and it names the ratio — 4 : 3, 16 : 9, 1 : φ — with thirds, golden-section or diagonal guides inside. Resize it by a corner; Shift keeps the ratio.
[ WHY IT WORKS ]
Four things that make it worth having
It draws over everything
Am_sketch is a transparent layer above the windows on the monitors you pick — slides, PDFs, the browser, a video call, a reference image. If it is on your screen, you can draw on it, and nothing underneath is changed.
Out of the way until you need it
In pass-through mode every click reaches the app underneath while your drawing stays on screen; Ctrl + Shift + C brings the pen back. Drag the ring wherever it suits you — or let it shrink to a small hue wheel while you draw.
Colour is never a detour
The hue ring is the toolbar; the colour library opens round the pen with Ctrl + Space; fourteen palettes, recent colours and an eyedropper for anything on screen. You pick a colour and keep talking.
Yours, offline
One purchase, one licence file with your name on it, checked on your own PC — no account to sign in to, no server that has to be up, no subscription. The only time it goes online is a daily update check you can switch off.
[ WHO IT'S FOR ]
For the classroom and for the studio
Teachers & tutors
Mark work, explain a diagram and write the working beside it — live, over the slide, the PDF or the board app you already use.
Presenters & reviewers
Circle the number on the dashboard, arrow the bug in the build, then capture the screen with your notes on it for the follow-up.
Artists & illustrators
Sketch over references with real brushes, trace paper and a perspective guide, and check proportions without leaving the image.
Students & designers
Annotate a lecture recording, mark up a layout, measure an angle on a screenshot — and keep only what you capture.
[ INSTALL ]
Drawing in about a minute
One installer, one licence file, one hotkey. Nothing to sign in to.
Run the installer
Run Am_sketch-Setup-1.0.0.exe. If Windows shows Windows protected your PC, click More info → Run anyway. Tick Start Am_sketch when I sign in if you want it ready every morning.
Import your licence
Your .lic file arrives by email as soon as you buy. In Am_sketch open Help → Licensing, press Import license… and pick it. Once is enough.
Press the hotkey and draw
Ctrl + Shift + C switches between drawing and pass-through; Ctrl + Shift + D shows or hides everything. The ring holds the rest.
Then read the help
A complete guide from your first stroke: the ring, every tool and brush setting, colour and palettes, the guides, layers, capture, every shortcut and preference — and what to do when something does not work.
One-time purchase
Get Am_sketch
Version 1.0.0 · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. Buy it once; there is no subscription and no renewal.
$49one-time
- The complete app — every tool on this page, nothing held back for a higher tier
- A personal licence with your name on it, checked offline on the PCs you use
- The installer and the full documentation
- Use it in class, in client work and in your studio
What happens next. Payment is handled by Gumroad. Your licence file and the download arrive by email the moment the purchase clears. Lost the file later? Sign in on movahhedi.com with the same email and download it again from My Licenses.
[ THIS RELEASE ]
What is in 1.0
The first release — and the app tells you, in its Help window, when there is a newer one.
1.0.0
current
- A drawing layer over every app — on the monitors you choose, with a pass-through mode that hands the mouse back.
- The ring — fourteen tools round a hue ring, with saturation and lightness sliders and the opacity on the swatch.
- A brush engine — pressure, tilt and speed dynamics, paper grain, and your own tips and grains as image files.
- Colour — fourteen palettes, the Pick Color dialog, an eyedropper, and the colour library at the pen (Ctrl + Space).
- Guides — ruler, angle guide, perspective guide and proportion guide, with strokes that snap to them; trace paper in any colour.
- Shapes, text, selection and layers that stay editable, and capture to the clipboard or a file.
[ FAQ ]
Questions worth answering
The complete app, for $49, once. There is no higher tier holding a feature back, no subscription and no renewal date. Payment goes through Gumroad; your licence file and the download arrive by email straight away. The licence carries your name and email, which the app shows on its Licensing and About pages.
Yes — that is the point. Am_sketch is a transparent layer above the other windows, so it does not care which app is underneath, and it changes nothing in it. Share your screen in a call and people see your drawing too. Apps that take over the display in exclusive full-screen mode, mostly games, can sit above it.
No. Everything works with a mouse. A pen adds real pressure and tilt — Am_sketch reads them through Windows Ink, so on a Wacom tablet keep Windows Ink switched on in its driver. Drawing with a finger on a touch screen is not supported.
Windows 10 and Windows 11, 64-bit. It needs no particular graphics card, works with display scaling, and spans several monitors — choose which ones in Preferences → General → Screens.
Yes. Am_sketch has two modes: drawing, where the pen draws, and pass-through, where every click goes to the app underneath while your drawing stays on screen. Ctrl + Shift + C (or Ctrl + Alt + P) switches between them; Ctrl + Shift + D hides or shows everything. All of these can be changed in Preferences.
Am_sketch is a live layer, not a document editor: what you draw stays on screen until you clear it or quit, with undo and redo along the way. To keep something, capture it — a region or the screen, with your notes on it — to the clipboard or as a PNG, JPEG or BMP file. For a live demo there is even the opposite: strokes that fade by themselves after a few seconds.
Open Help → Licensing (the ? on the ring, or the tray icon) and press Import license…, then pick the .lic file from your email. The check happens on your PC; there is no account and no activation server. Until a licence is imported, the app runs locked and shows you where to import it.
Yes. The licence belongs to you, not to a machine: import the same file on the PCs you work on. Nothing needs deactivating when you move to a new computer — install, import, draw.
That is SmartScreen's message for an installer it has not seen many times yet. Click More info, check that it names Am_sketch-Setup-1.0.0.exe, and press Run anyway.
Once a day, when it starts, Am_sketch asks movahhedi.com whether there is a newer version, and stays silent unless there is. It sends the app's name and version, your update channel (Stable or Beta) and a random install ID — never your licence, your name or anything you drew. When there is an update it shows what changed and opens the download page; you can skip a version, be reminded tomorrow, or switch the checks off on the same page.
In Documents\Am_sketch: your preferences, your saved and custom brushes, your own tips and grains, and the imported licence. Uninstalling leaves that folder alone, so a reinstall picks up where you left off.