“There are a ton of fun sketching apps for the iPad, but none of them offer the power of some drawing tools that you’ll find on the desktop. Today, a small developer is trying to bridge that gap,” Jacob Kastrenakes reports for The Verge. “It’s releasing an app called Astropad that allows you to use your iPad as a sketch board that transfers over to apps on your Mac. That means you can load up Photoshop, grab a stylus, and start drawing on your iPad while using all of the tools and brushes [to which] you’d normally have access.”
“The app makes your iPad display whatever is on your Mac’s screen, and when you draw on it, your marks immediately show up on both your tablet and computer,” Kastrenakes reports. “You can load up any app that you want, but you’ll probably want to be using a professional creation app to get the most benefit here.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Built by former Apple engineers, Matt Ronge and Giovanni Donelli, for the needs of creative professionals, Astropad is true to your source material with color corrected output and retina resolution. What you see on your iPad is the same as on your Mac.
Astropad features breakthrough networking technology that keeps up with you even when wirelessly drawing. Creating Astropad required innovative new technology the company calls LIQUID. The result is crystal clear image quality and responsiveness never before seen in similar tools. It really works, allowing you to work from your desk or the sofa.
Features:
• Provides a natural drawing experience
• Works with your Mac
• Delivers unprecedented image quality
• Blazing fast, keeps up with your drawing
• Bursts to 60 FPS even over Wi-Fi
• Works wirelessly or over USB
• Supports most iOS styluses
• Pressure sensitive
• Customizable shortcutsGreat for:
• Illustration
• Sketching
• Painting
• Photo editingRequires a Mac companion app that you can try for free (buy for $49.99, educational discount available) via the Astropad website here.
Sounds like this is the sort of thing to take iPad to the next stage of userbility and be a fantastic companion tool for all sorts of pros beyond the promise it has always had but doesn’t quite deliver.
It must use a Liquid Metal display. /joke
This is what I’m talking about! Sweet! Let’s see the PC world try to reproduce this (to the same quality and experience).
When Apple produces an iPad with pressure sensitivity and a stylus with the ability to sense angle and rotation, I’ll pay attention. Until then, a dedicated tablet is the way to go.
Professionals working with the likes of Photoshop like to have oversize monitors, with enough real estate for the images as well as the toolbars and/or other auxiliary windows.
I guess several iPads could be arranged on your living room table to assume those different roles.