Well, perhaps marking a first step to bridge that gap, top-of-the-heap pen tablet maker Wacom is now throwing in on Apple’s device. Their new app, called Bamboo Paper (after their Bamboo line of USB input devices) is a digital notebook featuring an excellent ink engine, fluid and responsive.

But with a very limited palette of nibs and colors, this finger-pen app is clearly designed more for written notes and simple sketches than for detailed artwork. We might have to wait for a collaboration between Wacom and Apple on the hardware side of the device before we have an iPad well suited for digital drawing and painting.

The Bamboo Paper app is noted to be free until the end of June. Perhaps this app is positioned to encourage sales of Wacom’s quality, if not overpriced, rubber-tip iPad stylus, the Bamboo Stylus for iPad.  Or perhaps it is a sign of better things to come: a true artist’s iPad.

Apple’s iPad 2 has just been released to much acclaim: now with video chat, this tablet computer certainly packs a punch. With it’s silky touchscreen and lightweight profile it practically begs to be held like a sketchbook and drawn on. But: is the iPad a capable graphics tablet? (And by extension: is the iPhone a graphics tablet?)

The short answer is: not quite. But the iPad can indeed be a powerful creative tool, and with some additions can mimic the drawing, painting, and design power of an pen tablet display.

Pen display: ultimate digital design tool?

The Wacom Cintiq pen display

An interactive pen display–a combined pen tablet and LCD display–certainly has great potential as a powerful tool for artists, engineers, and designers. One of the main downsides of a standard graphics tablet, unlike traditional pen and paper, is that your pen strokes don’t appear where you lay them down. A display tablet is the best of both worlds, as you can interact with digital editing software, but directly on the screen. The Wacom Cintiq line of devices are a good example of dedicated pen displays, with sophisticated and sensitive stylus input.

Is the iPad a Pen Display?

Though pen displays have only been adopted by a small niche of creative professionals, another device with much in common to pen displays has taken the consumer world by storm: the Apple iPad. The popularity of the device has attracted a plethora of software developers, and the iPad is being widely used as a creative tool for many purposes. And unlike dedicated pen displays such as the Cintiq, they’ve got the computer built right in.

The iPad is tablet-like in size and shape and has a directly interactive high-resolution screen. What separates the iPad from a Wacom-style graphics tablet or pen display, however, is that the iPad–employing a capacitive touchscreen–is designed to be operated with fingers, . Not supporting the wireless stylus of a graphics tablet, the iPad lacks the pressure-sensitivity and precision of a serious designer’s input device. Some applications also have a noticeable lag that make them quite uncomfortable for drawing.

Unleashing the Graphics Potential of the iPad

“The Last Undeveloped Hills in Brea”, and iPad painting by p0ps Harlow

There are a few ways to improve the iPad’s functionality as a drawing tablet. While a normal stylus or pen won’t work with Apple’s device, a blunt-ended capacitive stylus can be bought (or made) that will mimic the touch of a finger, but with the control (though perhaps not precision) of a pen. A capacitive stylus will also work to control the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Ten One Design (makers of the Pogo Sketch, one well-designed capacitive stylus) released a video teaser in mid-2010 demonstrating a software technique to simulated pressure-sensitivity on the iPad. Although their video suggests that they’d soon close the gap between the iPad an a fully-capable graphics tablet, as of 2011, pressure-sensitivity has yet to actually appear in iPad apps.

But a computer is as good as its software…

While the iPad lacks the precision and sensitivity of a full-on graphics tablet, quite a few well-designed applications have been developed that turn the iPad into a still very useful graphics tool.

Brushes painting app for iPad

Brushes is a powerful painting app with realistic brushstrokes, six layers, and stroke-by-stroke painting playback. The artist Jorge Columbo has used Brushes to paint covers for The New Yorker magazine.

The newly-released Adobe Ideas, with a free version available, is another very capable drawing app for the iPad. It draws vector graphics, and it’s files can be further edited in Illustrator on a desktop computer.

Layers and Artstudio are two other nice sketching apps.

Penultimate is designed for scribbling words and doodles, like a digital notebook.

There are also a variety of other drawing, painting, sketching, notetaking, diagramming, wireframing, and photo editing apps for the iPad that tap into its drawing tablet potential.

Is the iPad a Graphics Tablet?

No, not really, but it will aptly serve sketching and design needs for many purposes. We look forward to the day when Apple releases an all-in-one device with precise and pressure-sensitive input for serious art production.

KoalaPad: the first graphics tablet

Looking back in graphics tablet history brings us to the KoalaPad, the first ever digital drawing tablet for home computers. This device was first produced in 1984 by US company Koala Technologies and designed by Dr. David Thornburg.

The KoalaPad could be operated with the pressure of a pen stylus, or a finger for less precise work.  It included two buttons along the top for operating additional software features.

A digital still life created with the KoalaPad by Robert Robinson.

Versions of this tablet were compatible with a number of 8-bit PCs, including the Apple II, the TRS-80, the Atari, the Commodore 64, and the IBM PC. It was packaged with a simple drawing application called KoalaPaint or Koalapainter, depending on the platform.

Koalapad+ packaging for Apple II.

KoalaPad packaging for Commodore64

KoalaPainter toolbox for Commodore64

For more information about the KoalaPad, check out this illustrated review of the Apple II version, this review of the Commodore64 version with more illustrations, or the Wikipedia article.

• Wacom is currently the most well-known and well-respected of the graphics tablet makers.  They offer three main lines of tablet input devices: the Cintiq LCD pen displays, intuos4 professional-grade graphics tablets, and the Bamboo line of tablets for home and office.
• Genius offers models of graphics tablet called G-pen, MousePen, EasyPen, and PenSketch.  They also manufacture a colorful tablet for children called the Kids Designer.

 

• VisTablet offers graphics tablet products called Muse, PenPad, Original, and Mini.  They also sell accessories individually, such as a variety of pen styles and replacement coversheets.

 

• DigiPro, or UC-Logic, is another maker of reletively inexpensive USB graphics tablets.

 

• Aiptek produces tablet models called Sirius, Venus, and Slim Tablet, as well as a dual-touch tablet, a bluetooth tablet, and the MyNote Digital InkPad.

 

• CalComp produces the DrawingBoard line of large-format graphics and digitizing tablets especially for CAD and GIS users.  They also make the Roll-Up flexible digitizer, the Super-L large extra large format digitizer and the Surface-Lit AccuTab digitizer for specialty users.

 

• Dynalink of the Netherlands produces a USB graphics tablet.

 

• Adesso produces the CyberPad and CyberTablet lines of input devices for Mac and Windows.

 

• Hanvon produces the Art Master, the GraphicPal, the Rollick and the Wireless Tablet models of drawing tablets for Windows and Mac.  They also produce the SenTip LCD display tablet.

 

• iVistaTablet produces a range of digital inkpads and tablet input devices including the  Q-Pad Flex flexible graphics tablet.

 

• iMPROV Electronics makes the Boogie Board, an inexpensive LCD writing tablet.

 

• Manhattan makes and A5 and an A6 size graphics tablet for Windows and Mac.

 

• Penpower of China makes the Tooya Pro and the Picasso digital graphics tablets.

You can find a graphics tablet on the desk of just about any modern computer-based artist or designer, web professional, CAD engineer, 3D modeller, or anyone who needs more precise input than a mouse can offer. But graphics tablets aren’t just for pros–they are just as valued by amateur artists and home photo editors, and many lower-priced models are aimed at the home user. Many people who suffer repetitive stress injuries from mice also benefit from using graphics tablets as computer input devices. Drawing tablets are ideal for operating such software as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk AutoCAD, and Corel Painter.

There are several options in choosing a graphics tablet. The first is brand: Wacom has traditionally been the dominant maker of tablets with their Bamboo, Intuos, and Graphire models. They now also offer a line called Cintiq that feature LCD displays embedded within the tablet–allowing you to interact directly with your display. But Wacom faces competition from many other manufacturers of drawing tablets, some of which now rival them in quality. Other tablet brands include UC-Logic, Aiptek, CalComp, Dynalink, Genius, Trust, Adesso, LaPazz, and VisTablet. The best graphics tablet is of course a matter of personal preference.

Another option is size–any size of tablet will let you cover your computer’s entire display, but a larger tablet will give you more a more comfortable drawing space, as well as letting you draw more precisely for a more natural pen-and-paper feel. Graphics tablets come in such sizes as 3 x 4″, 6 x 8″, 9 x 12″ and others. You can also also find European standard sized A4 graphics tablets.

Almost any computer user can benefit from a graphics tablet, as there is no easier or more natural way to operate a computer. You can often find a cheap graphics tablet online at discount prices. Coupon codes will also often bring that special tablet into your price range.