iPad as a pen tablet for Adobe Illustrator?

[kcrossley]

I was getting ready to purchase a Wacom Intuous Pen Tablet. But a better solution my be an iPad. Is anyone using their iPad as a graphic tablet with Adobe Illustrator on your desktop Mac? If so, how does the iPad connect to your desktop? What app, if any, and what stylus have you found works best?

Thanks for your help.

[Monika Gause]

I'm not aware of an app that could connect the iPad as a graphic tablet to Illustrator (it's a little different with Photoshop - you can use the iPad with it).

On top of that, the iPad is not as precise as a Wacom tablet.

What you can do is e.g. use the free app Adobe Ideas (there may be other apps like it) to scribble on the iPad and edit these files with Illustrator (it's vector). There are other vector apps that allow drawing kind of like in Illustrator, e.g. Inkpad.

[kcrossley]

Monika, thanks for your post. This is the video I saw that intrigued me about the idea of using an iPad as a graphic tablet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loX-WLABlz0

[kcrossley]

Here's some more info that explores the subject of using an iPad as a design tool: http://sixrevisions.com/tools/how-to-use-ipad-design/

[_scott__]

I have both... the iPad pales in comparison to a WACOM.

What the iPad actually does is allow you to use it as a mouse not a pressure sensative tablet. Meaning you can use the iPad to control the mouse on any system with any application, including Illustrator. This is nowhere near the same thing as using a WACOM tablet with it's range of input dynamics.

In your examples.. you could easily replace the iPad with a wireless trackball, wireless mouse, or wireless trackpad and they would all perform just the same as the iPad. Don't be fooled into thinking this is remotely close to using a Wacom tablet.

[kcrossley]

Thanks Scott. I was actually going to use it primarily for tracing and perhaps making clipping paths.

[_scott__]

Just from my experience, you'd be very unhappy trying to use the iPad as an input device on a regular basis for anything. Remember... you can't rest your hand on the iPad screen... you'll have to hover over it at all times unless you frankenstien a glove to cover up that skin. Might build strong shoulders but makes for horrible working practices.

The lowest cost Wacom Bamboo will be a thousand times better for Illustrator.

[DrDycke2]

This answer seems to me to be dated given that the IPad Pro is out.  Would the answer be different for the new Pro?  Or is there still no way to connect the iPad Pro to Illustrator?  I have a wacom tablet that I find very dissatisfactory.  I would consider the iPad if it could replace the wacom intuos.

[W_J_T]

DrDycke2 wrote:

1. This answer seems to me to be dated given that the IPad Pro is out.
2. Would the answer be different for the new Pro?
3. Or is there still no way to connect the iPad Pro to Illustrator?

IMHO:

1.) No.

2.) No.

3.) Yes.

"Pro" is a misnomer compared to other actual OS running tablets. Its far from pro, much like many things that Apple has done since Steve's passing its just micro updates of existing features and nothing ground shaking. While other companies are exploring exciting features and advancements Apple is just incrementally updating everything across their offerings for years now. It's sad really.

Your options are therefor:

• 3rd party apps to use your ipad as a monitor

• Adobe touch apps: Draw, Line, Capture (Shape), etc...

• One of the other many Vector apps that can save a file for Illustrator to use (svg/pdf/etc).

• A better tablet 😉

• etc...

[JETalmage]

What the iPad actually does is allow you to use it as a mouse not a pressure sensative tablet.

Said another way:

What the iPad tricks do is effectively allow you to use the iPad as another monitor, but one that happens to be a touchscreen. Being a touchscreen, your finger (or a blunt stylus) becomes the "mouse."

In other words, it's really just about using your iPad for ordinary remote access (which is reasonable), not about using your iPad as an alternate pointing device.

I agree with Scott. Nowhere near a practical substitute for using a Wacom stylus (and I don't even really like using Wacoms, either).

Ever visited a computer store and played with the HP turnkey system bundles that include a large touchscreen monitor? They predated iOS devices, and they are mostly a marketing flop. They just let you work on your computer as if it's a kiosk.

Who really wants to work that way? It's awkward, cumbersome, slow and laborious. Your hand gets in the way, and you get fingerprints all over the screen. Along comes grossly underpowered, overpriced iOS devices and suddenly everyone wants to use to use their iPads as a kiosk. (Okay, with the addition of zoom and pan gestures. But really...do you get excited about using a kiosk at the airport?)

That's why I much prefer using a stylus over my fingers on iOS devices (zoom jestures be hanged); which, in turn, I still find far inferior to using an accurate, sharp stylus on a 10-year old Palm Tungsten with its elegant and efficient Graffiti handwriting recognition instead of tapping an onscreen querty keyboard with what amounts to the stylus version of a fist-sized brick of sidewalk chalk.

We're all fad-chasing suckers, straining for excuses to waste good money on the lastest techno junk. I'm convinced that when the flash-in-the-pan (okay, marketing inferno) new wears offs, bulb-head aliens visiting earth will find these silly glorified finger-painting devices in the ruins, snicker, and count them among the myriad historic curiosities over which humans wasted ridiculous amounts of energy, time and money.

😉

If you seriously want to pursue this for serious work, that $800 iPad fund that's burning a hole in your pocket is already over 3/4 of the way toward the real thing: a 12" Wacom Cintique; a drawing/painting stylus tablet that is also a monitor.

But c'mon...we all know what this is about. You can rationalize a drawing tablet for getting work done, but you just wanna buy an iPad. 😉

Meanwhile, I'll still get more productive (paying) work done with a $39 optical mouse. 😉

JET

[paragonmedia]

What about Ink & Slide? Digital pen, stylus and digital ruler | Adobe Ink & Slide

Anyone tried it yet?

[markgouldsf]

Hi, visit and have a look at Astropad, specifically designed by two former Apple employees just for this purpoeses: Astropad | Graphics Tablet App

Works best via USB but also WiFi, and has built in palm rejection and supports most stylii. Not quite a Cintiq, but I like what they've done so far!

Mark

[Sydopia]

Hi - Don't know if this is too late, but there is now a thing called AstroPad that enables your iPad to be a full graphics tablet. The program itself is only $20. Works like a charm - highly recommend!

[kcrossley]

It's never too late. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out.

[paragonmedia]

Just bought Astropad and it seems pretty good. At least it's a lot cheaper than a graphics tablet if you already have an iPad.

I'm not a graphic designer so haven't had time to get to grips with it properly. I find the setting up of the amount of your Mac screen you can see and the need to arrange tools etc. in a new way to make life easier a little confusing but I think that's mostly due to lack of practice. I assume I can store settings for e.g. photoshop layouts.

Like the fact that it works with my already purchased pen and responds quite well to pressure also like that although there is not much lag, when there is you get a line that shows the path the pen has taken for when the brush catches up. Tiny lag I have to reiterate.

So I recommend this app £14.99 for convenience and price.

[markgouldsf]

Yes Astropad is the only/best answer that I've found.. it tries to approximate a Wacom Cintiq as much as is possible, for less $$$.

A Mac guru for 30 years, I'm about to switch teams, unless Apple figures out a way for me to run Adobe Illustrator on a tablet. Cross/multiple/OS functionality is sorely needed.