how to turn ipad into drawing tablet desktop pc

On the Wacom, it just works or doesn’t.With the exception of Sidecar (Apple’s own free solution), all of the products listed below have some sort of free trial. This program really spells out what is an active area. “I think I was slightly confused because I have not really used a Wacom tablet for a while.

“I had a little bit of a time understanding what it was doing, what was an active area (on the iPad) and not,” Steinlicht said.

Using Astropad effectively required a bit of practice, too. “But the lag is not that noticeable while using Astropad.”Īnd of course the iPad app’s controls can get out your way completely too. “I feel the traditional Wacom input is a little more instantaneous,” he said. Steinlicht encountered minor performance issues, but said these weren’t deal breakers. Steinlicht has never used a Cintiq-style pen display, only a traditional Wacom graphics tablet with no screen, so “seeing the drawing appear on the iPad, right underneath the stylus, is sweet! That is the way it should be.” The small iPad felt a bit claustrophobic, he said, adding, “I wonder if it would have been a little more fun using a full-sized iPad.” But he found Astropad “very easy to get going.” With Astropad’s Mac app in the background, you just see your image being drawn right in Photoshop or whatever graphics app you’re using. First, images on the iPad have been “color-corrected to match what is on the Mac,” says Ronge, and the software aims for “really high image quality.” But Astro-HQ claims superiority over competing apps in a few key ways. Rival apps such as Air Stylus and Limner provide similar capabilities. The developers focused on image quality, so designers and artists can zoom way in when working on their images.Īstropad is not an entirely new idea. (So would a much-rumored 12-inch iPad Pro, they believe.) The developers are crossing their fingers at rumors of an imminent Apple-branded stylus, as well, since they think that would help put their apps on the map. Astropad even lets you program the buttons on such styluses for specific functions. Some styluses incorporate pressure sensitivity, which is important since iPads do not natively build in this capability the way pro graphics displays do. But the developers say the commands also work fine with other Mac graphics programs, and you can customize them as needed.Īstropad has been designed to work with popular stylus models such as Adonit’s $30 Jot Pro, Wacom’s Bamboo line, and FiftyThree’s $50 Pencil. You can zoom in with controls on the Mac or on the iPad.Ĭustomized Photoshop controls work well out of the gate, including a floating pallette with Adobe-specific tools on the right side of the iPad screen. The Astropad software on the Mac shows which part of your image is editable on the iPad’s screen.

How to turn ipad into drawing tablet desktop pc