If you visit art forums or concept art subreddits, you will find a vocal minority still using this software on Windows 10/11 and legacy macOS systems. Here is why:
No Forced Updates: Modern software (Adobe Fresco, new Sketchbook) updates weekly, often breaking custom brushes or changing UI locations. Pro v9 is static. You build muscle memory once and it never changes.
Offline & Lightweight: The installer is roughly 150MB. It launches in under 2 seconds on an SSD. You don't need an internet connection to verify a license. sketchbook pro 9
The "Glide" Factor: Some artists argue that the brush acceleration algorithm in v9 has never been replicated. Newer versions of Sketchbook (2020+) feel "slippery" or "damped." Version 9 feels like pen on bond paper.
Sketchbook is famous for its brushes. They feel natural and textured. If you visit art forums or concept art
This sounds trivial, but for comic artists, the "Flood Fill" tool in Pro 9 was a miracle. It could detect gaps in your line art—pixels that weren't fully closed—and fill the area anyway based on threshold tolerance. This saved hours of manual painting compared to Photoshop's strict "magic wand."
Long before "Focus Mode" was a buzzword, Sketchbook Pro 9 allowed you to hit Tab to hide literally everything except the canvas. No menu bar, no timeline, no layers panel (until you hovered the edge). This full-screen immersion is a feature that many modern "all-in-one" apps have lost in the pursuit of feature density. You build muscle memory once and it never changes
Sketchbook is known for having one of the most uncluttered interfaces in the digital art world. It is designed to mimic the feeling of a real sketchbook while providing powerful digital tools.