Best Tablet for Adobe Creative

[Alex341344437ebc]

Hi, I am thinking of getting a new tablet for using adobe creative with mainly graphic desighn and illustration and I was just wondering what tablet is best for adobe creative. 

Thanks. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, asking in the InDesign forum is a bit off-target, as there is no tablet version of ID and no sign one is coming. 🙂

I don't find tablets or other mobile devices terribly suitable for this kind of work — I disparage even laptops for anything but truly mobile, field-based work — so I don't pay too much attention to the current status of the mobile and web apps. However, I believe most or all of them are available only on iOS/iPad — we're back to the era of things coming late and poorly to The Other Platform (in this case, Android instead of Windows).

So the largest-screen, most powerful iPad you can afford is likely to be 'best'; scale back only for budgetary and convenience reasons.

ETA: And as Derek's reply points up, I didn't really finish that recommendation with the necessary caveat, that none of the tablet versions of the Adobe apps, and perhaps no tablet-based apps at all are anything but limited versions of the computer-based ones. The photo-imaging ones are perhaps most developed, based on backflow from the (ever more absurdly) feature-laden tools in smartphones and the general compatibility between 'massaging pictures' and a touch interface. But the apps requiring text input and precision actions (such as InDesign and Illustrator) are feeble, clumsy versions suited to little more than blog work and quick touch-ups of work on the go.

If you really want to do serious work in this realm, Derek put it plainly: you need a desktop system, preferably one with more than a fixed 12-inch screen. And a fairly powerful one, at that.

[Alex341344437ebc]

Hi James, yeah I a quite new to this I am just wanting to start out getting into graphic design and photo editing and wasn't sure what forum to put it on. Thank you for the helpful info!

[Derek Cross]

Hi Alex

Welcome to the forum.

As James states, you need a computer for the task you describe of using the Creative Suit and you need to get a powerful one with lots of RAM and a large hard disk.

[Alex341344437ebc]

Thanks for the help Derkek! 

[Scott Falkner]

This is a bit like asking which tool is best for wood. What are you trying to acomplish and why do you think a tablet is the ideal device for this task?

Tablets have thier place, of course. A large iPad (Pro or Air) with the new Apple Pencil is a good drawing a painting tool for editing or creating artwork. I have used Affinity Photo on an iPad Pro with the Pencil for photo editing. The appeal was not what I could do but that I could do it on an iPad.

If I had both my iPad (with Affinity Photo and various Adobe apps) or my Mac (with Photoshop and other Adobe apps) to choose from the choice would always be the Mac. The Ipad was all I took when I travelled and its limitations were obvious but acceptable.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I think there's a legit question at the core. At simple face value, the only choice is an iPad, because few of the CC tablet apps run on Android.

Whether any tablet is a good choice is a secondary consideration. 🙂

[Alex341344437ebc]

Hey Scott, quite new to all this but was looking at tablet because of ease of use anywhere and for graphic designing with pencil and didn't know if any other brands were better than iPad really. Thanks for the helpful info!