Turn your iPad into a drawing pad for your Mac using Astropad

Funny how you stumble onto something

I've been watching youtube videos tonight that compare Cintiq Companions, with iPad Pros and Surface 3's. I'm kinda leaning towards the iPad + Apple Pencil, but I wanted to see some opinions from some of the pro artists.

I stumbled across a comparison of an iPad Pro and the Cintiq 13HD, which while it isnt' a like for like comparison, he had it set up so the iPad was working as a drawing tablet for his mac. He was able to do this with an App called Astropad.

That got me thinking, I have an ipad and jot script stylus, for the sake of £15 it was worth a try. And if it doesn't work very well then I can still use it for a new iPad Pro, should I decide to go for that.

Astropad Purchase Screen in the App Store

Installing Astropad

After purchasing the App (and I think it's the most expensive one I've bought so far), you next download the Mac software which enables the link to be made. It does make you wonder why Apple don't do something like this, but perhaps it's a little niche.

Next step is to decide whether to use WIFI or USB to connect. I chose USB because the battery was running low on my iPad. It then just worked straight away. I've used screen sharing software before but this is a two way link. It gives you control of the Mac.

Next thing was to boot up SketchBook Pro and have a play. Astropad has a tool side bar which has a number of useful actions. It almost worked correctly for SketchBook, but can be configured how you like (as long as you know the key presses for the desired actions).

Next think to do was set up my Jot Script, which was simple enough, but I couldn't get it to use the pressure sensitivity. (That's a shame - a little frustrating)

Doodling in SketchBook Pro

I had a good play, that ring at the bottom right show/hides the tool sidebar. It can be moved about, and does a good job to preserve as much screen as possible. I'm not sure if the set of tools can be altered, but that's something to explore another day.

In summary, all I've done so far is mess about and play, not tried anything too serious. It's not quite the same experience as my Bamboo. It's a little too slippery because of the metal tip on glass screen, but hopefully it'll prove useful and tide me over until I buy some better hardware.