Within CEWEEK in NYC there were a few devices that prove the digital pen is possibly still mightier than the sword. Or, at least, in consumer products. Although Steve Jobs insisted that there would be no pen or stylus for the iPad, others have jumped to fill in that gap, both with specialty and all-purpose tools, and there were three notable adaptations on view.
Paper (and Pencil) by 53
Though not the first drawing/sketching program for the iPad (and exclusively for the iPad), Paper by 53 has become a favorite by anyone with strong attachments to physical sketchbooks and simple, basic tools, such as pencil and watercolor brush. Offered with a single basic virtual pen for free on the iTunes Store, additional drawing tools and a color mixer are in-app purchases, but the full kit is less than $20. The program works as much as possible like its analog counterpart, and even offers users the ability to print moleskin branded books from digital collections created on their iPad. But the biggest draw to using Paper is probably their unique Pencil, a stylus which looks much like a traditional carpenter’s wide pencil yet, makes up for the iPad’s lack of pressure sensitivity and overly wide, fingertip-sized responsive area on the tablet.
Martha Napier using fiftythree.com’s PAPER at CEWEEK
Artist Martha Napier (@MarnaniDesign) was in FiftyThree’s booth demonstrating the application and the Pencil as seen drawing in this Instgram video above. The Pencil comes in a Walnut
version for $74.95 with a magnetic strip that makes the pencil cling to your iPad, or a more basic black graphite
version at $59.95.
The Pencil will work on any app on the iPad, but the magic happens when it’s connected to Paper, not connecting through Bluetooth in the iPad Settings app, but through a simple touch on a button alongside the Paper app’s palette.
Connecting the rechargeable Pencil to Paper gives the tools the pressure sensitivity lacking in the iPad, and, in the case of Paper’s paint brush tool, a nearly natural effect of spreading a brush when pushing down on the rubbery soft tip.
The simple interface allows for undo functions, but doesn’t support multiple layers and vector shapes, reinforcing the effects of using “real” pencil, pens, and watercolor paints, working in real time. You can, however, export the artwork with no background layer, making transparent PNGs the largest concession to working in a digital environment. However, a lovely 15-page foldout Moleskin book you can produce from your work (for $40, ordered directly through the app) might be potentially far more engaging then a JPEG gallery online.
Adonit Jot Touch
Adonit has been producing precision point styluses for the iPad for a few years, most notably their first with a small plastic circle that pivoted on a small metal ball, the Jot Pro, which has no electronics and therefore will work on every app. I didn’t find it consistent enough to use steadily for drawing, but they’ve been working on other stylus types, and I think they may have found a winner in the Adonit Jot Touch with Pixelpoint pressure sensitive stylus for iPad
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Adonit Jot Touch’s small tip is more like a standard pen then an iPad stylus.
This stylus, unlike the 53’s Pen, is intended to be used across a wide variety of both writing and drawing applications, with a high level of pressure sensitivity transmitted from the pen’s small tip via Bluetooth to the individual applications. The stylus also has palm rejection, a huge source of “hand up in the air” drawing that happens because of the iPad’s technology that cannot distinguish between a finger or the brush of the side of the hand.
The Touch is so new there is are only two drawing app that takes advantage of the stylus’ features as of this week (Adobe’s LINE and SKETCH apps), and a handful of writing or note-taking apps as well, but Adonit is happy to take your requests to get their SDK into the hands of developers.
Here’s my 2-minutes of a quick hands-on, using Adobe Sketch. Please disregard the quality of the drawing, my goal was to feel responsiveness to speed and pressure, palm rejection, and how the stylus feels in my hand for weight and balance. (The video was shot through my Google Glass, which also meant turning my head to a lower angle than I normally would to draw, as I was standing over the table rather than sitting at a desk or in a chair.)
[youtube url=”http://youtu.be/v8oqd6E2l6k” hd=”1″ rel=”0″ showsearch=”0″ showinfo=”0″]
I’d say the pen is quite good in many ways, I’d like to see it working in SketchBookPro, for instance, or even Paper, if the two worlds can meet!
While the price point might be high for many at $119.99, the technology for getting past Steve Job’s mandate of “no stylus for the iPad ever” is definitely being met with this stylus, especially if you want a stylus in your hand for most of the day to do all of your writing and drawing. Battery life is listed as 11 hours of use, and the nib should last “90 Kilometers of Drawing Distance”, but I wonder if the nib would need regular replacement after a few months of use, as from experience, typically with everyday use, stylus nibs get worn and dirty simply from being uncovered and kept in pockets or bags when not writing with them.
More importantly, let’s see how quickly app developers can get the Andonit SDK into their apps for drawing and writing.
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Which would you use more frequently, the artistically oriented Pencil, or the all-purpose Jot Touch? Or would you carry both?
[…] Within CEWEEK in NYC there were a few devices that prove the digital pen is possibly still mightier than the sword. Or, at least, in consumer products. Although Steve Jobs insisted that there would be no pen or stylus for the iPad, others have jumped to fill in that gap, both with specialty and all-purpose tools, and there were three notable adaptations on view. Paper (and Pencil) by 53 Though not the first drawing/sketching program for the iPad (and exclusively for the iPad), Paper by 53 has become a favorite by anyone with strong attachments to physical sketchbooks and simple, basic tools, such as pencil and watercolor brush. Offered with a single basic virtual pen for free on the iTunes Store, additional drawing tools and a color mixer are in-app purchases, but the full kit is less than $20. The program works as much as possible like its analog counterpart, and even offers users the ability to print moleskin branded books from digital collections created on their iPad. But the […]