Skip to main content

Forget video games and tech in general, adult coloring books are the latest way to relax

At the end of a difficult day, what’s better than a game of Fallout Shelter on your phone, watching a video on your tablet, or just trawling the Internet for pictures of cats? Apparently, coloring books are, and not ones for children either. Adult coloring books are the latest, and definitely least techy, method that people are choosing to help relax. However, despite the low-tech appeal, the trend is just as prevalent on social media as it is in bookstores.

How popular are they? According to the Associated Press, in the past week eight of the top 20 books on Amazon’s best-seller list have been adult coloring books, and a spokesman for a publisher specializing in the titles said, “We cannot print them fast enough, we are getting orders of 60,000 at one time from some of our biggest retailers.” Dover Publishing told the New Yorker that it hasn’t “seen a phenomenon like it in our 30 years of publishing.”

Recommended Videos

A check of amazon.com reveals four adult coloring books in the top 11 best selling book list, and on amazon.co.uk, there is one in the top three, right behind Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman and To Kill A Mockingbird. One name which appears on both lists is Johanna Basford, a 31-year old artist from the UK whose Secret Garden book as sold 1.5 million copies.

#jardimsecreto #florestaencantada A photo posted by Cleito Cabral (@cleitocabral) on

The non-tech aspect of the coloring in book extends to Basford’s creation of the beautiful, intricate pictures. Rather than create them digitally on a computer or tablet, she told slate.com she “prefers pens and pencils to pixels,” and admits that she’s not one for using computers at all. In an interview with the Mirror, she said “Computer generated graphics can feel cold and soulless whereas hand drawing captures a sense of energy and character which no pixel can ever replicate.” There’s no arguing that the monochrome results are staggering.

Lunar Botanica - Pencil to Print

However, just because adult coloring books are a distinctly analog, tactile pastime that don’t require ownership of a particular brand of smartphone, or an ongoing subscription to unlock the next picture, doesn’t mean it’s not taking the online world by storm. Just like photos taken with our phones, images of both bare and complete coloring pictures are quickly being spread over social networks.

There are thousands of results related to coloring books on Pinterest, and almost all are shared by adults, about adult books. There are YouTube channels dedicated to hints, tips, and tutorials based on these astonishingly complex pictures. Johanna Basford has nearly 80,000 followers on her Facebook page, and on Twitter, many people share examples of their completed masterpieces.

It’s much the same on Tumblr, and hashtags like #adultcoloringbook and #adultcoloring have tens of thousands of associated images on Instagram. Korean singer Kim Ki-bum, better known as Key, attracted more than 130,000 likes when he shared his own coloring-in efforts, proving its international appeal.

A photo posted by 범키범 (@bumkeyk) on

If you’re tempted to give the adult coloring thing a try, but don’t have a set of pencils, pens, or even crayons handy, don’t worry, there are even apps which capitalize on the trend, with the recently launched Colorfy for iOS a perfect example. However, don’t go sharing the pictures in certain circles, because we doubt adult coloring purists will look at them very favorably.

Andy Boxall
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more