Posted on 09/13/2015 9:55:35 PM PDT by Swordmaker
The iPad Pro is huge. No one will argue you on that point. It may only weigh 1.6 lbs and be as thin as other iPads, but this is a massive tablet that you probably won’t want to carry with you everywhere. And yes, large tablets have failed in the past — Just look at Samsung’s Galaxy Note Pro tablet, which even came with a stylus. It was not a rip roaring success. Microsoft’s Surface tablets are also large, and most people haven’t been enamored with those either, even though Microsoft’s stylus is pretty bad ass.
The most exciting thing about the iPad Pro is not the tablet itself, it’s the stylus. However, the iPad Pro isn’t a typical mobile device — it’s something all together different. So what makes the iPad Pro special? It’s simple: This is a tablet for artists and creators. Apple can talk up how productive it is and try to sell it as a touchable MacBook, but really, this is the first tablet artists will flock toward.
I want it, and I have spoken with a number of artists who are already sold. The big screen gives artists a lot more freedom to create amazing art without running out of room, and the 2,732 x 2,048 pixel resolution (264 pixels per inch) means that when you’re drawing or editing a photo, it renders in crystal clear detail.
Apple’s devices are already home to most drawing apps — and many artists, illustrators, designers, or architects who use a tablet at all, own an iPad. In fact, Apple’s hold on the creative community is so strong that many drawing apps like Forge, Paper, and Astro Pad come to iOS first, or exclusively. I’ve asked the creators of these apps why they snub Android, and I always get the same answer: “Our users are on iOS.” The iPad Pro will only cement Apple’s informal relationship with those who “think different.”
The most exciting thing about the iPad Pro is not the tablet itself, it’s the stylus. From what we learned in the keynote, the Apple Pencil is billed as the most amazing stylus ever made. I’ve used excellent styli from Adonit, FiftyThree, Wacom, Microsoft, and others, but Apple’s Pencil looks spectacular. DT’s Jeffrey Van Camp used the Apple Pencil during the Apple event, and he said it’s among the best styli he’s ever used. It felt natural and there wasn’t any lag.
The Pencil contains multiple pressure sensors to measure a range of forces, so you should be able to draw any kind of line. If the images created by the artists in Apple’s demo video are any indication, it will produce everything from fine lines and thick brush strokes, to watercolor paint’s motion on paper. You can even use it with FiftyThree’s Paper app, which is among my favorite drawing apps because of its deceptive simplicity.
Additionally, two tilt sensors built into the tip of the Pencil can detect the exact angle of your hand. That way, you can tilt it on its side to mimic a thick piece of charcoal or a pencil’s side face and create a broader stroke. FiftyThree’s Pencil (which ironically has the exact same name as Apple’s stylus) already does this, but it does struggle with finer lines, which is something Apple’s Pencil seems to have down to a science. No other fine-point stylus can do side shading with accuracy. This matters, because you need to shade to create shadows and different textures.
Apple also claims that lag with the Pencil is virtually nonexistent, because the display’s subsystem scans for its signal 240 times per second, which is double the amount of times the iPad scans for your finger. In other words, when you draw a line, it happens immediately — you won’t notice that you’re using a digital pen.
When Apple controls hardware, software, and accessories, magic can happen. Although Adonit and others have managed to limit lag, it is still occasionally noticeable. If Apple manages to kill lag completely and convince me that I’m drawing with a normal pencil, that would be a game changer.
Pencil’s other main benefit is that it was made specifically for the iPad Pro — the company that designed both the software and hardware experience. Call it evil, closed-minded, or whatever, but when Apple controls hardware, software, and accessories, magic can happen.
Apple specifically designed the touchscreen of the iPad Pro to detect its Pencil stylus and distinguish between the digital implement and your finger, even when both touch the screen at the same time. Most styli get confused when you use your fingers, but Pencil should be able to tell the difference. Theoretically, you could draw a fine line with Pencil and smudge it with your finger, just like you would with a real pencil on paper.
Finally, Pencil will last you 12 hours before it needs a charge, which is pretty impressive. If you’re really in the creative flow, 15 seconds in a lighting port will charge it up for 30 more minutes. You can’t beat that.
Pair this amazing stylus with the iPad Pro’s huge screen, and you’ve got an iPad that could kill off Wacom tablets.
I’ve used my first-generation iPad Mini to sketch out ideas for drawings and other art, and I’ve created some cool art in the process. Normally, the iPad Mini is the perfect size, but as soon as you start drawing, it’s too damn small. Ask any artist what size they like to work in, and most will tell you the bigger the better. Even 8 x 10 sketchbooks can feel limiting sometimes. The iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch screen is the ideal size for artists, and I can’t wait to draw on it.
So, the next time someone says, “Yeah, well. Steve Jobs said the stylus was stupid and a signal of failure,” you can tell them that he was right. We wouldn’t want to use a stylus from 2010. But this is 2015, and Apple has invented a stylus with purpose and accuracy an old Windows Mobile phone would have killed to have.
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DT’s Jeffrey Van Camp used the Apple Pencil during the Apple event, and he said it’s among the best styli he’s ever used.
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Among the best? Why didn’t he say it was the best?
The mother ship isn’t going to be happy with him.
No..........ever...........
It looks useful for sketching but I doubt that it will be widely adopted for serious projects for now since the ipad pro still lacks that power or ability to run the heavy duty programs like photoshop and illustrator that are industry standard.
You think so?
Adobe Illustrator Draw for iPad now at version 2.1.1
Or perhaps you missed the engineer from Adobe demoing what Adobe software could do on an iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil in the Apple event on Wednesday when they said they exciting new Adobe apps specifically optimized for Photoshop and Illustrator coming?
I recently installed a Photoshop plugin called Lazy Nezumi Pro on my PC. It makes my Wacom Intuos tablet sing. The program does a great job of smoothing out lines drawn with a stylus. Only works on Windows, and sells for $35. It actually makes raster-based sketching on screen a pleasure.
Not ‘just a stylus’ – Apple Pencil is perfect, better than any stylus I’ve ever used by a wide margin
Mac Daily News—Saturday, September 12, 2015 · 11:39 am“It’s just a stylus,” David Pierce writes for Wired. “You’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise, though. Watching that gorgeous video, listening to Jony Ive tell you in reverent terms how Apple made a pen that feels like every other pen but is nothing like any other pen, you might believe the Apple Pencil is some radical new technology. But it’s just a stylus.”
“These are all things I told myself when I first picked up the perfectly round, perfectly white device and began to scribble on a blank page in the Notes app, filling the 12.9-inch screen of the new iPad Pro. It’s just a stylus. It’s just a stylus,” Pierce writes. “That’s when I noticed the difference between the Pencil and just a stylus: It felt great. Perfect. Better than any stylus I’ve ever used by a wide margin… it’s the first time I’ve ever written on a screen and actually felt like I was writing on the screen. There was almost zero latency, meaning the ink appeared to flow out of the Pencil and not trail half an inch behind. With the tiniest added pressure, the line became the tiniest bit thicker. I tapped on the No. 2 pencil mode, and it wrote and shaded just like all the pencils I used to sharpen with that wall-mounted thing you had to crank.”
“So what gives? How did Apple make a stylus that doesn’t feel like every other stylus? The answer is one of the oldest in the book, the line we’ve used to explain Apple’s success for a decade,” Pierce writes. “The products change, but the upshot doesn’t: Apple can make it better because it controls the hardware and the software.”
what other stylus has he used? from what I read, it doesn’t seem like it would come close to Wacom’s multiple nib pens. It may be better than a regular stylus but that is a far cry from being a true artists tool like they seem to be trying to say.
I must ask if other stylus products have the touch and angle sensitivities of the Apple product?
It may not need to be as good as Wacom. It just needs to fill a big enough niche by being a cheaper, easier to use solution than Wacom, while being almost as good.
There are a lot more people out there who just want to create an illustration for a presentation, than serious professional artists who need something better.
Good morning sword. I’ll be interested in seeing something more in depth than this. Anything can look great when demonstrated on a screen in a prepared presentation. Once the hands on reviews start coming in, I expect they’ll be more useful.
It may not need to be as good as Wacom. It just needs to fill a big enough niche by being a cheaper, easier to use solution than Wacom, while being almost as good. There are a lot more people out there who just want to create an illustration for a presentation, than serious professional artists who need something better.from what I read, it doesn’t seem like it would come close to Wacom’s multiple nib pens. It may be better than a regular stylus but that is a far cry from being a true artists tool like they seem to be trying to say.
I have never considered myself to be anything at all of an artist. It would seem, from that biased perspective, that the world of artists is not unlimited, as the market for cell phones and even smart phones and laptops.But one must always consider growth pathways. Namely, children. If I could cause a grandchild to be happier because more creatively expressive by the mere act of writing a thousand dollar check, I’d do it yesterday. So the question becomes, from that POV: will art teachers adopt it, and be able to help kids with it? Will peer competency envy arise, challenging kids and drawing out their abilities?
Maybe the “Etch-a-Sketch” has finally grown up . . .
Go read up on Wacom. They make pens and pen tablets plus direct screen drawing artists monitors.
It isn’t just a stylus, they make a pen that has different nibs for different feels.
Wacom’s low end are quality pens. Their low end drawing tablets are very good too. They work with your computer and your software.
Apple’s pen may not be that expensive (I don’t know the price offhand) but if you need an ipad pro, then you are spending in total- a lot of money.
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