Is iPad Pro ready for design work?

[ThorntonArt]

For 2d digital painters with a somewhat simple workflow (of which there are many), I think the iPad has finally arrived.

Since I'm currently working on some complex Photoshop stuff, 3d sculptures in ZBrush, and a game in Unity...the Surface Pro has arrived.

So it just depends.

Either way, I've followed their smart pen patents for years, and bet that pen feels wonderful to use.

 

[chaosbunny]

Its just a simpler, faster way to get data entered in with mobility and convenience.

Sure it is. But let's say I spent 3 hours on an illustration on an iPad that's let's say 2000x2000 px at 72 dpi. But now I need that for print 5000x5000 px at 300 dpi. Had I done that illustration at the correct size and dpi in the full version of a drawing application under Mac OS or Windows in the first place I would be finished now. But since I did it on the iPad I'll now have to the same illustration again at a bigger size and spend additional time. So yes, it may be a faster, simpler more convenient way to enter data, but it requires more effort and time in the end.

 

[tbrinkma]

Sure it is. But let's say I spent 3 hours on an illustration on an iPad that's let's say 2000x2000 px at 72 dpi. But now I need that for print 5000x5000 px at 300 dpi. Had I done that illustration at the correct size and dpi in the full version of a drawing application under Mac OS or Windows in the first place I would be finished now. But since I did it on the iPad I'll now have to the same illustration again at a bigger size and spend additional time. So yes, it may be a faster, simpler more convenient way to enter data, but it requires more effort and time in the end.

If you needed it at 5000x5000 px, why didn't you do that in the first place? You'd have the exact same issue with "I'll now have to the same illustration again at a bigger size and spend additional time" if you'd made the same mistake on a Mac Pro or top of the line Windows box.

 

[chaosbunny]

If you needed it at 5000x5000 px, why didn't you do that in the first place?

Because, as far as I know, I can't work with documents that big or bigger with iOS apps. Makes sense, since you can only go so far with 2 or 4 gb ram. Add some 50+ layers to that 5000x5000 px and you have quite large documents ... how will you handle these on a device that comes with such limited disk space like the iPads? How will you transfer them - on a standard internet connection uploading 500 mb easily takes about 1 hour where I live.

On a propper OS X machine I just start every illustration this big in case I need it. There it makes no difference if my file has 50 or 500 mb in terms of storage or performance these days.

 

[wheelhot]

Because, as far as I know, I can't work with documents that big or bigger with iOS apps. Makes sense, since you can only go so far with 2 or 4 gb ram. Add some 50+ layers to that 5000x5000 px and you have quite large documents ... how will you handle these on a device that comes with such limited disk space like the iPads? How will you transfer them - on a standard internet connection uploading 500 mb easily takes about 1 hour where I live.

On a propper OS X machine I just start every illustration this big in case I need it. There it makes no difference if my file has 50 or 500 mb in terms of storage or performance these days.

Hmm, I guess this goes to how optimised the app is. I use this app called Concepts on the first iPad with Retina Display and considering how heavy the program is, I'm impressed at how fast its performance and I've used it over a year now and has seen the performance improvement from the initial version I've used.

Looking at Apple iPad Pro Keynote, it seems apps that's build for iOS will have a different performance then a Computer, it could be cause the platform is more optimised or the apps are build with speed in mind, hence even though the new iPad Pro has just 4GB ram, it might perform closer to a 8-12GB ram computer. That Autocad iOS performance was really impressive.

 

[russ99]

I really don't see the limitations on the hardware side, with larger amount of RAM, the 2K retina screen, the Pencil and how iPad Pro is the first apple device to support color profiles.

But the real issue is the apps. If Adobe is going to keep on with the same gimped apps that also work on an iPhone, they're going to take themselves out of the tablet space. We need Pro apps developed for iPad Pro. I haven't heard anything that this will change.

For example, Autodesk's Graphic does vastly more than the Illustrator apps, and I expect other developers to fill the gap to give Pro design users what they need to be able to work on the iPad Pro.

 

[ProjectManager101]

What makes me upset is the assumptions of Tim Cook. The guy would be Silicon Valley's biggest failure but Steve Ballmer still on top. Without Ballmer, Cook would be under the limelight.

 

[wheelhot]

I really don't see the limitations on the hardware side, with larger amount of RAM, the 2K retina screen, the Pencil and how iPad Pro is the first apple device to support color profiles.

But the real issue is the apps. If Adobe is going to keep on with the same gimped apps that also work on an iPhone, they're going to take themselves out of the tablet space. We need Pro apps developed for iPad Pro. I haven't heard anything that this will change.

For example, Autodesk's Graphic does vastly more than the Illustrator apps, and I expect other developers to fill the gap to give Pro design users what they need to be able to work on the iPad Pro.

Well there's work ongoing for Affinity Designer on iOS coming up. So probably Adobe is taking their time to get it right with the apps then rushing it out. And remember, they probably has to rewrite lots of backend code as most of it in Illustrator, Photoshop and etc. is very old and not suitable for modern OS purposes.

 

[mw360]

Because, as far as I know, I can't work with documents that big or bigger with iOS apps. Makes sense, since you can only go so far with 2 or 4 gb ram. Add some 50+ layers to that 5000x5000 px and you have quite large documents ... how will you handle these on a device that comes with such limited disk space like the iPads? How will you transfer them - on a standard internet connection uploading 500 mb easily takes about 1 hour where I live.

On a propper OS X machine I just start every illustration this big in case I need it. There it makes no difference if my file has 50 or 500 mb in terms of storage or performance these days.

I know the post is somewhat old, but since the thread has been revived anyway, you'll be pleased (or maybe not) to read that ProCreate supports 8kx4k (or custom sizes in along those lines) on iPad Air 2 and more on iPad Pro. A 1920x1080 image can have 92 layers on my Air 2. That's not 50x5k layers, but it's plenty for slightly less demanding users

 

[admwright]

I know the post is somewhat old, but since the thread has been revived anyway, you'll be pleased (or maybe not) to read that ProCreate supports 8kx4k (or custom sizes in along those lines) on iPad Air 2 and more on iPad Pro. A 1920x1080 image can have 92 layers on my Air 2. That's not 50x5k layers, but it's plenty for slightly less demanding users

Thanks for the info. I tried searching for this yesterday but it is difficult to find (well I did not find it ;-) )

 

[Jonathon71]

With existing iPads, there’s a difference between what they can do in theory and what a professional would use them for in practice. In theory, you can do pretty much anything on an iPad. Video editing, audio mixing, photo-editing and design all have competent iOS apps.

In practice, however, the small screen and limited processing power of a standard iPad means that, while you can do any of these things, and a professional might use one to do a little of each in the field, any serious work is going to be done on a Mac. The iPad is a companion device, there to help out when needed.

But the A9X in the iPad Pro appears to be a serious laptop-equivalent processor. Apple says that “the 64‑bit desktop‑class architecture [gives the] iPad Pro the power to easily take on tasks that were once reserved for workstations and PCs.” That’s just marketing copy, of course, but the company backs it by stating explicitly that users will be able to edit up to three 4K movies simultaneously and that AutoCAD 360 will run at 60 frames per second.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I agree that for concept work, sketches, and even the occasional finish illustration, the iPad Pro might work fine enough. But it remains limited because of its operating system, which AFAIK doesn't allow for user file control and organization. Most apps appear to be stripped down in some ways to accommodate the IOS environment (whether that's due to RAM limitations or other IOS restrictions, I don't know).

One thing that isn't mentioned much, if at all, is the use of fonts in IOS. I remember IOS 6 (or 7, I forget) on my iPad3 had no obvious means of adding or managing fonts. I seemed to be stuck with what Apple installed. As Donald Trump would say, "That's a YUUUUGE limitation!".

I have over 500MB of fonts that I'd like to have access to when I'm working on design, regardless of which Adobe application I'm working in. I don't know if the latest IOS has instituted any font import and/or management capabilities, but that's crucial to making the device a "professional" tool, in my opinion.

Since the thread's been resurrected...

Here's the thing. If the question is, "Will this replace a desktop Mac in an office/studio environment?" then the point is missed altogether. This is a mobile device. It's not about whether it can replace the studio, but how much can be accomplished away from the studio.

I spent decades in recording studios and making concert recordings on location. Toss in a fair number of years doing audio in TV studios, 45 years of carrying around a day pack loaded for nature and travel photography...

Studios are controlled environments; large, dedicated spaces with difficult-to-transport gear designed to provide an optimal working environment. Mobile gear (even when shooting a feature film on location with a 100-person crew and dozens of support vehicles) is by its nature a compromise. You do your best in the field, then fix it (if necessary) in post.

Color calibration? Unless you have control over ambient lighting, precise selection of a color profile becomes meaningless. Nobody's likely to work with their iPad under a hood, like some 19th century portrait photographer. For that matter, as a photographer today, I wouldn't make fine color adjustments prior to sending my images to a publication's art director - it'd be pretty dumb to try to anticipate the color balance of the rest of the page layout.

Fonts? Same thing. Presuming Adobe produces full-strength versions of its pro apps, they'll undoubtedly support font substitution. As it is... I occasionally author/revise book manuscripts in InDesign on my office Mac (it's an efficient way to work when you have a tight, complex page design). I don't carry the same, huge font set the art director carries on her office Mac. I have the fonts needed to support those manuscript designs. Occasionally, I'm missing a font or two, and Adobe makes a substitution. Sometimes it looks like garbage, and the art director may have to tweak the layout once she gets her hands on it, but trust me, she'll do that even if no fonts were substituted. No doubt, if InDesign ever comes to iPad, things will be little different.

"Grownup" file systems are made for managing terabytes of data, but mobile devices have significant on-board storage limitations. If this was the age of paper, you'd carry sketch pads into the field, not truck around a room full of filing cabinets. All you ought to need on a mobile device is the current project - that hardly requires more than several levels of nested folders. That's hardly so complex that you can't use a simplified file system like DropBox or iCloud Drive (have you even looked at iCloud Drive???). Yet, we're connected wirelessly to the web. If we need to connect to the archives, we're able to access that entire, massive data store back at the office or on a cloud server. Most likely, there's a lovely, web-based file browser to log into.

So, back to the original premise... It is not whether mobile gear can totally replace the studio environment. It's how much you can do, and how well you can do it, in sub-optimal environments....

If you sketch digitally, do you have to carry a laptop plus a Wacom tablet, or can those two items be combined into a single, mobile computing device less than a third of the weight and bulk of the combo? Will the results be stored as a low-res bmp (no), or can it be stored as a high-res TIFF or vector graphic (yes)? If I shoot in the field, can I edit the images sufficiently that all the art director needs to do is fine-tune after I upload? If so, then a professional in the field has a pretty worthwhile tool.

 

[richinaus]

Since the thread's been resurrected...

Here's the thing. If the question is, "Will this replace a desktop Mac in an office/studio environment?" then the point is missed altogether. This is a mobile device. It's not about whether it can replace the studio, but how much can be accomplished away from the studio.

I spent decades in recording studios and making concert recordings on location. Toss in a fair number of years doing audio in TV studios, 45 years of carrying around a day pack loaded for nature and travel photography...

Studios are controlled environments; large, dedicated spaces with difficult-to-transport gear designed to provide an optimal working environment. Mobile gear (even when shooting a feature film on location with a 100-person crew and dozens of support vehicles) is by its nature a compromise. You do your best in the field, then fix it (if necessary) in post.

Color calibration? Unless you have control over ambient lighting, precise selection of a color profile becomes meaningless. Nobody's likely to work with their iPad under a hood, like some 19th century portrait photographer. For that matter, as a photographer today, I wouldn't make fine color adjustments prior to sending my images to a publication's art director - it'd be pretty dumb to try to anticipate the color balance of the rest of the page layout.

Fonts? Same thing. Presuming Adobe produces full-strength versions of its pro apps, they'll undoubtedly support font substitution. As it is... I occasionally author/revise book manuscripts in InDesign on my office Mac (it's an efficient way to work when you have a tight, complex page design). I don't carry the same, huge font set the art director carries on her office Mac. I have the fonts needed to support those manuscript designs. Occasionally, I'm missing a font or two, and Adobe makes a substitution. Sometimes it looks like garbage, and the art director may have to tweak the layout once she gets her hands on it, but trust me, she'll do that even if no fonts were substituted. No doubt, if InDesign ever comes to iPad, things will be little different.

"Grownup" file systems are made for managing terabytes of data, but mobile devices have significant on-board storage limitations. If this was the age of paper, you'd carry sketch pads into the field, not truck around a room full of filing cabinets. All you ought to need on a mobile device is the current project - that hardly requires more than several levels of nested folders. That's hardly so complex that you can't use a simplified file system like DropBox or iCloud Drive (have you even looked at iCloud Drive???). Yet, we're connected wirelessly to the web. If we need to connect to the archives, we're able to access that entire, massive data store back at the office or on a cloud server. Most likely, there's a lovely, web-based file browser to log into.

So, back to the original premise... It is not whether mobile gear can totally replace the studio environment. It's how much you can do, and how well you can do it, in sub-optimal environments....

If you sketch digitally, do you have to carry a laptop plus a Wacom tablet, or can those two items be combined into a single, mobile computing device less than a third of the weight and bulk of the combo? Will the results be stored as a low-res bmp (no), or can it be stored as a high-res TIFF or vector graphic (yes)? If I shoot in the field, can I edit the images sufficiently that all the art director needs to do is fine-tune after I upload? If so, then a professional in the field has a pretty worthwhile tool.

This is a great post and one obviously crafted based on experience. As a designer [jack of all trades], I see the IPP sitting at the start of my workflow, in terms of image management and concept design. It will never be able to replace my 27" monitor that I need for CAD work, but is a fantastic tool for research and development. The final 'production' will often require a more powerful computer and large screen and the 'controlled environment' as mentioned above.

 

[sigmadog]

Since the thread's been resurrected...

Here's the thing. If the question is, "Will this replace a desktop Mac in an office/studio environment?" then the point is missed altogether. This is a mobile device. It's not about whether it can replace the studio, but how much can be accomplished away from the studio.

I spent decades in recording studios and making concert recordings on location. Toss in a fair number of years doing audio in TV studios, 45 years of carrying around a day pack loaded for nature and travel photography...

Studios are controlled environments; large, dedicated spaces with difficult-to-transport gear designed to provide an optimal working environment. Mobile gear (even when shooting a feature film on location with a 100-person crew and dozens of support vehicles) is by its nature a compromise. You do your best in the field, then fix it (if necessary) in post.

Color calibration? Unless you have control over ambient lighting, precise selection of a color profile becomes meaningless. Nobody's likely to work with their iPad under a hood, like some 19th century portrait photographer. For that matter, as a photographer today, I wouldn't make fine color adjustments prior to sending my images to a publication's art director - it'd be pretty dumb to try to anticipate the color balance of the rest of the page layout.

Fonts? Same thing. Presuming Adobe produces full-strength versions of its pro apps, they'll undoubtedly support font substitution. As it is... I occasionally author/revise book manuscripts in InDesign on my office Mac (it's an efficient way to work when you have a tight, complex page design). I don't carry the same, huge font set the art director carries on her office Mac. I have the fonts needed to support those manuscript designs. Occasionally, I'm missing a font or two, and Adobe makes a substitution. Sometimes it looks like garbage, and the art director may have to tweak the layout once she gets her hands on it, but trust me, she'll do that even if no fonts were substituted. No doubt, if InDesign ever comes to iPad, things will be little different.

"Grownup" file systems are made for managing terabytes of data, but mobile devices have significant on-board storage limitations. If this was the age of paper, you'd carry sketch pads into the field, not truck around a room full of filing cabinets. All you ought to need on a mobile device is the current project - that hardly requires more than several levels of nested folders. That's hardly so complex that you can't use a simplified file system like DropBox or iCloud Drive (have you even looked at iCloud Drive???). Yet, we're connected wirelessly to the web. If we need to connect to the archives, we're able to access that entire, massive data store back at the office or on a cloud server. Most likely, there's a lovely, web-based file browser to log into.

So, back to the original premise... It is not whether mobile gear can totally replace the studio environment. It's how much you can do, and how well you can do it, in sub-optimal environments....

If you sketch digitally, do you have to carry a laptop plus a Wacom tablet, or can those two items be combined into a single, mobile computing device less than a third of the weight and bulk of the combo? Will the results be stored as a low-res bmp (no), or can it be stored as a high-res TIFF or vector graphic (yes)? If I shoot in the field, can I edit the images sufficiently that all the art director needs to do is fine-tune after I upload? If so, then a professional in the field has a pretty worthwhile tool.

I understand what you are saying and I largely agree. As I said in my post I can see the utility of the iPad as a concepting, initial sketching tool. I don't see it replacing a real OS any time soon. The full OS is still my primary tool and will be for the rest of my career, as far as I can tell.

The iPad is designed as a preliminary mobile tool, but that's not really how Apple was selling it. I remember them saying something in their initial presentation that suggested it could replace a PC, which is ludicrous. Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly; as my wife says, it wouldn't be the first time or the last.

As for mobile tools, I much prefer paper and pencil. In truth, the best workflow for me is an initial thumbnail on paper that I take to my office and translate to a real piece, using all the tools at my disposal in my office. That's how I've done it for 30+ years. I'm not really going to change now.

So I guess I'm not really in the demographic for this product. I've seen some cool things done on the iPad by others. It has it's place, but anyone who thinks they can create anything close to a finished ad, publication, or anything requiring specific fonts or output settings for print using only IOS is full of it.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I understand what you are saying and I largely agree. As I said in my post I can see the utility of the iPad as a concepting, initial sketching tool. I don't see it replacing a real OS any time soon. The full OS is still my primary tool and will be for the rest of my career, as far as I can tell.

The iPad is designed as a preliminary mobile tool, but that's not really how Apple was selling it. I remember them saying something in their initial presentation that suggested it could replace a PC, which is ludicrous. Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly; as my wife says, it wouldn't be the first time or the last.

As for mobile tools, I much prefer paper and pencil. In truth, the best workflow for me is an initial thumbnail on paper that I take to my office and translate to a real piece, using all the tools at my disposal in my office. That's how I've done it for 30+ years. I'm not really going to change now.

So I guess I'm not really in the demographic for this product. I've seen some cool things done on the iPad by others. It has it's place, but anyone who thinks they can create anything close to a finished ad, publication, or anything requiring specific fonts or output settings for print using only IOS is full of it.

That's the thing about us old dogs - not every new tool or process is going to change the way we work. However, that won't be true for others. I've seen it happen over and over - someone pushes the boundaries of a new tool and it spawns a new aesthetic/form of primary expression. From what I've seen of the iPad Pro + Pencil, there's little doubt that someone's iPad art could catch fire. That success will encourage others to try. Software developers will push the capabilities of the 1.0 hardware, the 2.0 hardware moves things farther along...

"Preliminary mobile tool," despite what I said previously, is not how Apple is selling it, but they're not saying that it's a universal laptop replacement, either. It seems a nuanced message - for some people, this will change the way they work. I find that very easy to believe.

The original iPad (with a Bluetooth keyboard) freed me as a writer. I didn't need a full-fledged laptop to commit words to ASCII. At the same time, I'd given up on paper and ink decades earlier - I hated erasures, strike-throughs, the relatively glacial pace (compared to my typing speed), transcribing, dull/broken pencil points, globs of ballpoint ink on my fingers, the stacks of paper on my desk and in my briefcase... And the thing booted in seconds, instead of minutes. While I'd never bring a laptop with me to a bar or for a walk in the park, iPad became a steady companion. The frustration of having pent-up ideas rattling around in my brain was severely eased.

At this point, my iPhone's/Watch's speech-to-text capabilities could replace the iPad for that kind of brain dump; I've just never been comfortable giving dictation. I think it has a lot to do with the (for me, negative) social connotations of having a shorthand-taking/Dictaphone-transcribing secretary. But that, as they say in Yiddish, is my mishegas. I know I have to get over this - Siri is only going to become more pervasive and useful as time goes by. But I'm still at the stage of remembering it's a possibility - the difference between translating thoughts to a new language, and thinking in that language.