A Napkin AI alternative for sketches you draw by hand

Checked on 6 November 2026 on Napkin's website and pricing page:

• It starts from text: you write, paste text or import files (PPT, DOC, PDF, HTML, Markdown). Napkin creates visuals from it: diagrams, flowcharts, mind maps, infographics, data charts and presentations. Napkin's website doesn't describe a photo of a sketch as a starting point.
• Where it runs: in the browser at app.napkin.ai, no download. On a phone you can view work and edit presentations; according to Napkin, generating visuals there isn't available yet.
• Export: PNG and PDF on every plan, PPT and SVG from Plus.
• Prices: Free with 500 AI credits a week and Napkin branding on visuals; Plus $9 per person a month with 10,000 credits, no branding and three brand styles; Pro $22 per person a month with 30,000 credits, unlimited brand styles and your own fonts; yearly billing 25% cheaper according to Napkin; Enterprise on request.

You draw as you always do: on a pad, in a notebook, in the margin of a meeting. Then you photograph the page with the Axsuro iPhone and Android app or upload the photo in the browser.

• Axsuro finds the drawing on the page and marks it with a dashed frame.
• "Keep sketch" cuts it out 1:1. Every stroke becomes editable on its own: move, scale, recolour, delete. Plus line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, text and pictures.
• Straighten strokes: on request, a selected stroke becomes a clean line, box or circle. It never happens by itself, and undo brings the stroke back.
• Turn into a diagram (Pro): boxes and arrows become a clean diagram next to the sketch when you want one, as Mermaid code to copy, as SVG or PNG. The sketch itself stays as you drew it.
• Export as PNG, PDF or SVG, or print.

More under edit hand-drawn sketches online and digitise sketches.

Napkin and Axsuro do different jobs. Napkin designs a visual for you; Axsuro keeps the one you've already drawn.

• You have text and need a visual for it, for a blog post, a LinkedIn post or a slide.
• The visual should look designed, in consistent styles or your brand colours.
• You need many kinds of visuals: infographics, mind maps, data charts, whole presentations with PPT export.
• You don't like drawing by hand.

• You think with a pen and the sketch is already on paper: a process, a floor plan, a mind map, a plan from the whiteboard.
• The sketch should stay yours, 1:1 as drawn, and still be editable.
• Boxes and arrows should become a diagram you can take into Notion, a wiki or a presentation as Mermaid (Pro).
• The same page also has tasks and events: Axsuro reads the whole page, not just the drawing.

You can combine them: write your notes on paper, let Axsuro type them up as a document, and give the text to Napkin when you need a designed visual from it. Every new account starts with 14 days of Pro without a card; details on the pricing page.

• How to digitise hand-drawn sketches and edit them online
  Digitise hand-drawn sketches: take a photo, keep the sketch 1:1, edit it online, draw together, export PNG, PDF or SVG, or turn it into a diagram.
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