The 5 Best iPads for Graphic Design in 2023 October
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With its lightweight design and long battery life, you can take it with you anywhere and work on your designs whenever inspiration strikes. Overall, the iPad (2022) is a reliable and affordable tablet for graphic designers who want a powerful device without breaking the bank. Affinity Designer by Serif Labs is a powerful design application that offers professional graphic designers an extensive range of features to create anything from illustrations to UI/UX designs on the iPad. The Wacom Intuos Pro (Small) is an excellent graphics tablet that offers a natural and intuitive way of working with digital media. Its compact size, pressure sensitivity, and customizable features make it an ideal tool for digital artists, designers, and photographers who need precise and accurate control over their work.
The top drawing tablets you can buy, according to digital artists
It also has smart guides that intelligently snap layers into position while you move them around. Pixelmator Pro is a compelling application when it comes to graphic design. It has the flexibility of being an app for painting and drawing in vector and an app for editing and retouching photos. This makes Pixelmator Pro a very excellent substitute for Adobe Photoshop. Your drawings and sketches are stored in journals that serve as your sketchpads.

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Knowing what you need helps you choose an app with the right features for you. The UI of this app is fully customizable and the workflow comes with the latest graphics technology written entirely in METAL 2. Procreate has tons of other features that make life easier and better for artists. Overall, it’s a great application to have on your iPad and a great investment to have if you’re an artist. Let’s explore more about the features of these apps so we can find the best fit for you as a graphic designer. However, it’s worth noting that the app’s tools are more for assisting artists rather than allowing them to create artworks from scratch.
The best value iPad for drawing
Of course, when comparing models, you need to compare them by their release date too—a newer iPad Air can be more powerful than an older iPad Pro. Be careful not to confuse the release date with the generation number—iPad Pro 11 4th generation and iPad Pro 12.9 6th generation were released the same year. The generation number should only be used to compare the models from the same line (e.g. one iPad Air to another iPad Air). Of course, not all brushes work this way—they need to be specially designed with pen pressure in mind. The brush above, for example, is a part of the Pencil Photoshop Brushes set. You can find more sets like this on Envato Elements (and download as many of them as you want within one subscription!).
iPad Pro (9.7, 10.5, 11 1st-4th, 12.9 1st-6th)
To copy and paste elements into your sketchpad, you’ll need to use the scissors tool. This will allow you to select a portion of your drawing, then delete, cut, or copy it. This application aims to emulate the experience of having a sketchpad without the need to use actual paper.
iPad Mini ( (Best Portable iPad for Designers)
It has 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity, which means that it can accurately detect even the slightest changes in pressure, allowing for more precise and natural drawings and sketches. Whether you’re an artist, illustrator, designer, or just someone who just enjoys digital drawing and painting, the Wacom One is definitely worth considering. We found that it also comes with a bundled software package that includes painting and drawing software, making it an all-in-one solution for artists and designers. Overall, we highly recommend the Wacom Cintiq 22 to anyone who is serious about digital art and design. While it is a bit on the pricey side, the quality and performance of this tablet are truly unparalleled, and it is an investment that pays off in spades for years to come.
Battery Life
Overall, the active community of users and the company’s commitment to bringing more features to the app make it a worthwhile investment for digital artists and designers. Pixelmator is jam-packed with tools to edit and make images better, perfect for quick fixes on the fly. With Drag and Drop, moving images and graphics between your iPad and other apps is super easy. You can also stash your images in iCloud Drive so you can reach them from wherever you are.
As with any shortcut, it doesn't capture the whole picture, so you should still compare the other specifications to see if the chosen model is a good fit for you. If you have a Creative Cloud subscription, it's likely that Fresco is already part of it—you just need to log in with your Adobe ID credentials. Otherwise, this app can be purchased as a separate license for $9.99/year.
How Should You Choose Your iPad for Drawing?
The iPad, however, as a mobile device, has a battery that limits the time you can spend on it. And using drawing apps is certainly a pretty demanding task for the hardware, so you can expect it to drain the battery very fast (especially since 100% brightness is often necessary to see the colors correctly). Technically, you can draw on any device that supports drawing apps—be it a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone.

I suspect that Apple’s XDR (extended dynamic range) technology – which only the iPad Pro has – is the reason behind the 12.9’s incredibly accurate screen. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews.
The best iPad for graphic design - Creative Bloq
The best iPad for graphic design.
Posted: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The A14 Bionic chipset—the same chipset used in the iPhone 12—is powerful enough for almost every task and the display is larger than the previous generation despite almost identical measurements. Whether you’re taking your work on the go, playing some of your favorite mobile games and more, the best iPads offer the flexibility of laptop-like processing power in a more portable chassis. Unlike the iPhone, which sees a new phone launch every year, Apple refreshes its iPad lineup far less frequently. It still offers plenty of options, and the top pick, the Apple 12.9-Inch iPad Pro (6th Generation), has a strong blend of features for both work and play. Adobe makes loads of apps for iOS now, but the 2024 update to Adobe Express packs in a lot.
It’s also got a range of cool and unique tools like a clone tool, text tool, and fill bucket. Plus, it works like a dream with an Apple Pencil or Wacom Tablet, has a great layers system, and live editing capabilities. It’s like Photoshop’s cool little brother, but at a fraction of the cost ($39.99 for one time purchase).
In his early career he wrote for music and film magazines including Uncut and SFX. He's also a keen Cricut user and laser cutter fan, and is currently crafting on Glowforge and xTools M1. My picks would be the Logitech Crayon (2023), which was designed and developed for digital artists.
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