Q: Is drawing/painting on an iPad anything like drawing on a Cintiq (other than screen size)?  I’m weighing my options, as a Cintiq is clearly more expensive than an iPad, but I don’t want to be frustrated by going the cheaper route.

A: There is no comparison. The Wacom Cintiq or any pressure-sensitive tablet or tablet-style computer is FAR more capable for drawing and painting digitally than an iPad.

The drawing capabilities of the iPad or similar devices (for simplicity’s sake, I’ll use the term “iPad” to mean all such tablet devices) are distant secondary thoughts to the functionality of their multi-touch screens. iPads have no pressure sensitivity, which is crucial to easily creating thick and thin linework, mimicking the use of natural tools like brushes, controlling the opacity of washes and paint and many other versatile functions. Many pressure-sensitive tablets like the Wacom Intous line also include “tilt” sensitivity, which while not something crucial does come in handy when using certain brushes and creating certain looks, which of course the iPad also does not have. On top of that, the iPad’s screen is designed to only respond to the touch of skin, and there is no precision stylus that works with it. The “styluses” you see that are made for the iPad have marshmallow-like pillows at the end of them, roughly the size of a fingertip, that provide the input an iPad needs but are hardly natural-feeling instruments. The iPad was designed as a finger-tip interface mobile mini-computer, and the ability to draw and paint on it was not something anyone concerned themselves with in its development. Can you do it? Yes, you can. Is it ideal? No.

A Wacom Cintiq, Intous tablet or similar device, on the other hand, has been designed from the ground up with only one purpose in mind: to mimic natural drawing and painting movements and input. You use instruments that feel and react like pencils, pens and brushes. The pressure-sensitivity mimics your hand’s pressure when drawing on paper, or can be used to control opacity, color and other variables to mimic techniques like washes, drybrush, etc. The tilt sensitivity some of these devices have can control the direction and reaction of individual bristles in a brush. This hardware has no other purpose, and is vastly superior to things like the iPad for creating art.

The downside to using Wacom products is that you need a separate computer to do it. There are several PC based “tablet” computers that allow for drawing right on the screen like a Cintiq, but they get mixed results. It depends on your purpose with them. If the idea is to do digital sketching while on the move and you want to do something more than finger-paint, then something like the Hewlett Packard HP-TM2T tablet PC might be your best bet. It has a Wacom digitizer in it, so pressure sensitivity works in PhotoShop (only 256 levels, but that’s as good as it gets with these types of PCs). There used to be a MacBook custom conversion service from a company called Axiotron, but they have disappeared from the face of the earth, and reports of their credibility were not good.

I personally have a 21″ Cintiq at home and a 12 WX portable one for the road. There are a lot of cables and such, so it is not truly portable in the sense I can use it on the airplane or the coffee shop, but it works great in hotel rooms if I need to bring work with me. I use it with a MacBook Air, and it’s great.

Invariably when I post something like this that denigrates the art uses of the iPad, I get a few folks who disagree and then post a link to some brilliant piece of art they created on their iPad. That’s great, bully for you. I could probably do an internet search and find an even better piece of art created by someone somewhere using nothing but a spork, melted crayola crayon bits and cow manure. That is also great, but why would anyone want to do that? Likely someone could assemble a car from it’s component parts using nothing but Popsicle sticks if they put their mind to it, but why would you do that when perfectly good tools are available? Artists are a resourceful bunch, and they can make art using just about anything given the time, ingenuity and determination. My point is that there are easier ways, and in the digital world using devices made to do what you are looking to do is going to be easier and better than doing it with something not designed for your task.

Thanks to Connie Nobbe for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!

The future?….

Here’s a link to an recent CNN article on how the iPad is boosting the appeal of digital comics.

I absolutely agree that the iPad and it’s descendants will be the new format for publishing, including comics and magazines. I can see a virtual news stand in the future full of individual issues and subscriptions for magazines, comics, comic books and newspapers… delivered without user effort to your mobile tablet device in a format that is easy and natural to browse, read and enjoy. However I don’t see the iPad being that device, but some other piece of hardware that doesn’t force the Draconian limitations on the content providers that Apple does. Unless Steve Jobs and Apple wise up and start playing along with publishers to develop a real business model for digital publishing, the iPad will be the next Betamax player or Macintosh… a superior piece of technology squashed by the concept of free enterprise.

I know I promised an artcentric review of the iPad a long time ago, but I haven’t had the opportunity to test out very many drawing and painting applications on it so far… I’m also wating deleivery of one of those silly marshmallow tipped “stylus’s”.

I did run across this intriguing video recently, showing that someone is working on one of the two biggest limitations to drawing on the iPad… the lack of pressure sensitivity. At first I thought the case the iPad on the video is in might be the source of the pressure sensitivity, but from reading the brief description at tenonedesign.com it seems to be a pure software solution. The pressure sensitivity would be something any drawing app could incorporate into their programs.

Don’t get too excited. According to the developer the software uses a “private function call” to work and Apple of course refuses to allow developers to use private APIs, so right now this functional software is not allowed on the iPad.

Oh, and in case you are curious, the other major limitation to drawing on the iPad: the lack of a precise stylus.

The iPad has been out for all of two days and already we are seeing apps that demonstrate not only how much more this device is than the “bigger iPod Touch” naysayers are dismissing it as, but exactly the kind of content delivery that it and it’s eventual ancestors are going to revolutionize the publication industry with.

Take the new Marvel Comics app. It’s a free app that is used as a gateway to the buying of single issues or a series from Marvel. They have both an iPhone version and an iPad version. Comparing the screenshots of two you can instantly see how the larger screen and form factor of the iPad changes the entire experience of reading a comic on a portable device. Flip the page with your finger, see the entire page on a vertical screen, zoom in for a closer look, browse the entire comic via a thumbnail gallery… all on a screen the same size as a real comic book. Wow. You can preview before you buy an issue, buy single issues or an entire series. You can also buy back issues. The app also syncs with your marvel.com account to back up all your purchased comics, so if your computer goes belly up or you get a new one you can access your entire library with your replacement device. Personally I think $1.99 per issue is a little pricey for a single issue. 99 cents seems more in line to me, but the market will work itself out with pricing.

I cannot imagine any publication not getting on board distributing and selling it’s content via a free proprietary app like this. The logical next step is to have subscribed content delivered via “push”, which would download your issue of MAD or People Weekly or your local daily newspaper right to your device while you are sleeping so it’s waiting for you when you are eating breakfast at the kitchen table, riding the train to work, taking a coffee break, etc with no need to have an active wifi connection or pay to use the 3G network. That kind of convenience, portability and the form factor/interface will get people to part with some money as they understand the difference between this and having to sit in front of your computer or laptop somewhere with a wifi connection and use it’s clunky web-based interface. No doubt publishers will quickly offer only limited content for free on it’s websites as well.

Hopefully DC will follow suit here and create a similar delivery system for it’s comics and maybe MAD.

Image used with apologies to TUAW for the “enhancements”

With all the negative press and the “it’s not that impressive” comments by supposed techie experts I was beginning to think no one was going to grasp some of the potential something like the iPad has for the future of publishing. However yesterday Michael Grothhaus over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog finally put it together with his story “Where’s the iMag Store?”

Printed book publishing is not going anywhere, even though eBooks may become more and more popular. People still love bookshelves and a book is not (usually) a one time consumed media. Readers will put a book they enjoy on their shelf and take it down to reread it later, loan it to friends, etc.

Magazines and newspapers, on the other hand, are disposable media and that is perfect for something like the iPad to be the method of consumption. You subscribe to a newspaper or magazine via the iMag store, or peruse and buy a single issue. Read it at your leisure, and then either delete it or archive it for future referral. One small device has all your newspapers and magazines on it for easy and enjoyable reading.

The form factor of the iPad can’t be compared to using a laptop, which naysayers keep saying they already can use to read online magazines. If you really think it’s as easy, user friendly and convenient to use a trackpad, horizontal-orientated screen and an HTML based web revision of a magazine as it would be to use an iPad, then you just don’t get it. No awkward little pad moving a tiny mouse about, no heavy, clamshell device with a useless keyboard, no waiting for bootup, no unwieldy navigation… I am talking about a universal format for magazines like the ePub format with true multimedia interaction, easy and intuitive touchscreen navigation, and invisible, while-you-are-sleeping push delivery of your morning paper or monthly issue of your favorite magazines waiting for you when pour your breakfast cereal. No need for a constant internet connection. No need to surf about. It’s all there waiting for you, and using the slim touchscreen pad is a joy.

Likely the magazine industry will not be able to convert their same format to digital and make it work. It will have to become a sort of combo webpage/magazine with updates more than monthly and in smaller bites. They will have to conform to the new technology, but the convenience of push delivery and the ease of consumption should hopefully entice people to pay for the content. The price won’t need to be that much, considering the costs of printing, distributing and mailing the publications will be basically zero.

The key to all this is providing a method of delivery and a reading experience that will get consumers to pay SOMETHING for the content they receive. The mindset that the web should be free needs to be changed. It takes professional talent, skills and credentials to produce professional journalism and entertainment, and these creators need to be able to make a living at it. Web based advertising alone won’t do it. People need to pay something to support those doing the creating. The business model needs a reason for them to do so, and the delivery and consumption experience is the ticket.

So, will MAD ever be an eMag? I hope they will give it a try. The addition of simple animations, sound and interactive content delivered to a device like the iPad might be the trick to introducing MAD to a new generation of readers.