I understand the need for a flashy iPad theme to attract new people to Chinese, but would it be possible to include a stripped down theme that more closely resemblances ordinary text on paper/screen? So just a black font on a white background, with plain buttons.

Nope; it's a ton of work to add a new theme, even a minimalist theme. That's why we didn't even do the dark theme for the iPad, sticking just to the light theme.

Damn, I love the dark theme. It makes me feel so badass.

就是坏屁股

Dark Theme: Yeah, I feel like Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes. By day I am a mild mannered Chinese learner, but at night I put on my long black leather overcoat, trusty fedora, and turn on the dark theme. Zzzzzzzzt! Pffffing! Look out!

I might hold off on updating from the current iPhone app on the iPad. It will be hard to use the light theme which I only tried for a few seconds before switching permanently to the dark theme.

Oh nooooo! I've been looking forward to the iPad version ever since, but now that you say "by the way" that you removed the dark theme I wonder if I should update at all :*-((( life's not fair *sigh*

Is there anything in particular about the light theme that irks you? It seems that a native iPad light theme would look better than a blown-up iPhone dark theme, even for most dark-themers. Also, you can't get the improved stroke recognition, advanced study, multi-device sync bug fixes, or other minor improvements without updating at some point.

I like the dark theme, too, but it's just way too many image resources to create.

Hey Nick!
Well what I don't Iike about the light theme are, precisely, the colors and the thin lines while drawing the characters. It also doesn't feel as cool as the dark theme. I mean you know it best, from comments in the past etc :) the special effects while drawing etc. are awesome, and people like to have something which looks nice or cool. It also makes studying in Skritter not feel like work but actually play, which also encourages to study more.
The light theme feels more like the pen and paper exercise, which I think on real paper I would have never ever done ;-)
As for the new features I'd miss, yes, I know, sigh. I was the one who complained most about the sync problems I guess, so for this reason I am really struggling, as I would miss this new feature a lot. Maybe I will decide once the new version comes out and I see screenshots and comments.
Nick, please correct me if I am wrong. From your comment I understand, that: the iphone version will still have dark theme, but additionally all the new features, right?
As for the iPad version, the iPhone version on my pad will be automatically replaced, I.e., you will not be able to select the pure iPhone app to download it on iPad, correct?

Can I add a voice to say 'don't touch the light theme!' I really don't get on with the dark theme (which I think is related to an eye condition I have, so I may be unique) but the light theme works really well for me.

Or maybe I'm just not badass (look at me, learning all these Americanisms!) enough to cope with the dark theme :) Light and fluffiness all the way for me (with some unicorns and rainbows now and then for variety!)

What a shame there can't be a plain theme as suggested above.

I use the dark theme for want of anything simpler.

But I'm using the dark theme on the iPad as well as iPod - have I got the wrong app?

Zeppa, the iPad App is not out yet. Wait till November 25.

Nick, I like the variety that comes with switching the theme once in a while, but I really just want to say that I am extremely happy that you guys are prioritizing not clogging the app with features, and slowing it down that way. I have not seen you being given enough credit for that. Thank you.

zhangyanglu, your understanding of the app update situation is correct.

I must admit I don't like either theme much aesthetically. But I particularly dislike the light theme. To put it plainly:
In the light theme, I find the lettering e.g. in 'What's the pinyin?' even uglier than Comic Sans. Then if you click on it here comes up a lighter box containing the pinyin - in a much nicer font - with funny wavy edges. There are changes of lightness of background which I don't much like, and if you say you got the pinyin right itturns a funny pale green colour. I find the theme messy and ugly so I don't use it. But I suppose if the features appeal to me enough, I might be forced to do so.
The dark theme is not so fussy. The small capitals in 'What's the pinyin?' are odd, but I don't find them so ugly. I only just noticed that the pinyin turns green when you mark it right - I usually just look at the colours of the options below - but it is a darker green so it doesn't disturb me.
I do quite like the flashes when I write in the dark theme, but normally I would prefer a white background.

In general I find that the light theme looks a bit cheezy, and the brighter screen is harder on my eyes, but neither of those nor it's "light"-ness are the worst things for me.

The light theme "what's the pinyin" font is really really ugly. The "so-so" etc icons at the bottom of the screen look a bit weird with black borders in the light theme, and the the flashes of light don't look right on a light background.

The variable thickness strokes in the dark theme feel much more like I am actually drawing the characters; the light theme feels like I am using mspaint.exe

I will probably use my iPhone a bit more than the iPad after the update; if I can't stand using the old app on the iPad I will probably use the iPhone 100% rather than use the iPad with the light theme.

Personally I also really prefer the dark theme, but what is more useful to me is just having any two themes to unmistakably differentiate 2 users.

My 5-year-old daughter and I often use the same iPad for Skritter. When she goes into the app and sees the dark color it gives her an unmistakable visual that she is using my account, so she knows to stop, change the color theme, and switch the account via the settings.

Of course I can probably teach her to remember to check the home screen or account settings so she doesn't accidentally start practicing with my account, but having a unique theme just made that difference totally obvious.

I have 3.5 years old daughter and was wondering when should I give her a Skritter account...maybe in 1 year time.

Back to the topic. I used dark theme mainly but I've recently switched over to light theme. I find that the edges of each stroke is more defined than the dark theme and make them look better. This probably due to the contrast with the background.

I'll throw my two cents in about the dark and light themes, although I won't be using Skritter on an iPad.

I really wanted to like the light theme, because the dark theme is a bit too dim if you're studying without a light on.

It feels like a lot of time was put into the light theme, but that translated into over thinking it. The biggest improvement would definitely be with that font. The font is flashy, but not eye friendly and rather straining to constantly glance over.

I had the feeling when I was writing that I was just swiping chicken scratch at the screen rather than actually writing the characters.

There was some other issue with the transition of layout between prompts that wasn't appealing. Though I can't quite say what.

The dark theme is much more appealing, but I still prefer the cleanliness of the website. So I must agree that overly "simple" tracing paper look is actually nice.