By Rachel DiNunzio
Imagine being able to create an entire journal, digital magazine, or even an illustrated book including elements like HD videos, animations, and interactive content right from your iPad. Adobe has just taken a major step toward that goal and in many ways, that day has just arrived.
As with every other field of book and journal publishing, just in the past few months, the production department is experiencing the advent of some pretty astounding tools that will change, expedite, and possibly even lessen costs of entire creative workflows. Adobe is leading the way with their release of a brand new Adobe InDesign, an entire line of iPad apps, and has teamed up with the leader of stylus technology Adonit to bring us the most advanced styli on the market.
Which apps are right for my production department?
In my experience, it is always a combination of a few and project-depending.
Oh, and don’t worry about the cost… they are all free!
Descriptions provided by Adobe.com. For more information on Apps, visit http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html
Imagine being able to create an entire journal, digital magazine, or even an illustrated book including elements like HD videos, animations, and interactive content right from your iPad. Adobe has just taken a major step toward that goal and in many ways, that day has just arrived.
As with every other field of book and journal publishing, just in the past few months, the production department is experiencing the advent of some pretty astounding tools that will change, expedite, and possibly even lessen costs of entire creative workflows. Adobe is leading the way with their release of a brand new Adobe InDesign, an entire line of iPad apps, and has teamed up with the leader of stylus technology Adonit to bring us the most advanced styli on the market.
Which apps are right for my production department?
In my experience, it is always a combination of a few and project-depending.
Oh, and don’t worry about the cost… they are all free!
Descriptions provided by Adobe.com. For more information on Apps, visit http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html
Illustrator Line: Easily draw perfectly straight lines, geometric shapes, perspective views, and more with Line, Adobe’s mobile app for precision drawing. Line brings your favorite drawing tools and Adobe Creative Cloud together with Adobe desktop app integration, and gives you seamless ways to share your work. |
Photoshop Mix: Adobe Photoshop Mix gives you powerful, easy-to-use tools that let you combine and cut out images, apply looks, and make nondestructive edits on your iPad and iPhone — all compatible with Photoshop CC. Take advantage of features like Content-Aware Fill and Camera Shake Reduction, and refine your work in Photoshop CC. |
Styli:
There are hundreds of styli in existence but for a professional it comes down to one of these three.
The Ink & Slide and Adonit Touch with Pixelpoint both have the same nib and the share pixel point technology. The Ink (The slide is a separate piece) has a great ergonomic design that fits beautifully in your hand. The Slide is a separate piece made for shape and precision line drawing.
Adonit Jot Touch is essentially the same pen as the brand new Adobe Ink. However it is weightier, includes a side button, and is a cylindrical shape.
Adonit Jot Touch 4: This styli is durable, has a battery that lasts a MONTH, it is incredibly sensitive, and the price point is unbeatable. I have one of these and will stand by its excellence,
It was not an easy choice between the Ink & Slide and the Jot Touch. I spent a great deal of time talking via phone and email with both Adobe and Adonit’s support staff. Hands down, Adonit has one of the best and most knowledgeable customer service departments I have ever experienced. Adobe’s representatives on the other hand were not even aware of their new product launch, and could not find me any answers to the basic app questions. This did contribute to my Adonit decision, however the main determining factor was the Slide. I never had a need to take it out of the box. Unless you are into architecture or industrial design, the Slide may be a useless (and very expensive) tool.
The new and improved: Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is already an app unlike any other. Now it has just taken one more incredible leap, in its capabilities to create interactive fixed e-Books!
Why are these advancements such big news?
These Apps function with the Creative Suite enabling its user to no longer be bound to their Mac and Wacom Tablet. With an iPad and a styli, one can travel and be productive from anywhere outputting high quality work with little to no compromise, and is an incredibly cost effective solution.
Until now, the Cintiq has been the answer. Cintiq is a line of pressure sensitive on screen display tablets. The low end of these are $999, but realistically a professional user should have (at least the) $2,499 model, plus software. If the iPad can compete, one is looking at a $499 price point plus a $100-$200 styli, making the solution incredibly cost effective.
What is the catch?
As with anything new, there are some technological bugs to work out and there are a few functional concerns that I have noticed:
First: These apps, although awesome, are still not the complete solution. One still needs her Mac for advanced editing tools within the Creative Suite. Especially in the finalizing stages and creating printable files. There is no replacement or new mobile version(s) to take over any of InDesign’s functions.
Second: Although I love my brand new stylus, illustrating on the Mac still produces higher quality results. It is just barely, but enough for me to have to be strategic in my illustrating choice depending on the project I am working on. The Photoshop app for Mac (along with my Wacome Intuos Pro tablet) still produces superior results: high quality, extremely precise, and can be output to many formats.
Third: The iPad apps do crash. Saving work and leaving the app periodically has to become a regular part of iPad wokflow for saftey reasons.
Fourth: Until resolution and art board size are able to be customized, these apps can only be so useful: especially if a creator is looking to produce soemthing for print purposes.
Fifth: (and most importantly) Adobe is really boxing in its users by forcing the use of the Creative Cloud. This leasing process gets incredibly expensive for each user. For a company of users, it is even more costly! One has to purchase a monthly plan to gain access to many of the features of these new iPad and computer apps. This withholding of features is very disappointing and frustrating.
All in all, production departments are in for some new processes, workflows, tools, as well as abilities that were barely imaginable last year at this time! I look forward to see what may be coming down the pipeline and can’t wait to see what player jumps into the creative app and device market next!
Source Articles:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/how-to/interactivity-fixed-layout-epub.ht
http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html
http://www.adonit.net
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/intuos-pro-m
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/cintiq-22-hd-touch
https://www.apple.com/ipad-air/
There are hundreds of styli in existence but for a professional it comes down to one of these three.
- Adobe Ink & Slide: 199.99
- Adonit Jot Touch with Pixelpoint Technology: 99.99
- Adonit Jot Touch 4: 59.99
The Ink & Slide and Adonit Touch with Pixelpoint both have the same nib and the share pixel point technology. The Ink (The slide is a separate piece) has a great ergonomic design that fits beautifully in your hand. The Slide is a separate piece made for shape and precision line drawing.
Adonit Jot Touch is essentially the same pen as the brand new Adobe Ink. However it is weightier, includes a side button, and is a cylindrical shape.
Adonit Jot Touch 4: This styli is durable, has a battery that lasts a MONTH, it is incredibly sensitive, and the price point is unbeatable. I have one of these and will stand by its excellence,
It was not an easy choice between the Ink & Slide and the Jot Touch. I spent a great deal of time talking via phone and email with both Adobe and Adonit’s support staff. Hands down, Adonit has one of the best and most knowledgeable customer service departments I have ever experienced. Adobe’s representatives on the other hand were not even aware of their new product launch, and could not find me any answers to the basic app questions. This did contribute to my Adonit decision, however the main determining factor was the Slide. I never had a need to take it out of the box. Unless you are into architecture or industrial design, the Slide may be a useless (and very expensive) tool.
The new and improved: Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is already an app unlike any other. Now it has just taken one more incredible leap, in its capabilities to create interactive fixed e-Books!
Why are these advancements such big news?
These Apps function with the Creative Suite enabling its user to no longer be bound to their Mac and Wacom Tablet. With an iPad and a styli, one can travel and be productive from anywhere outputting high quality work with little to no compromise, and is an incredibly cost effective solution.
Until now, the Cintiq has been the answer. Cintiq is a line of pressure sensitive on screen display tablets. The low end of these are $999, but realistically a professional user should have (at least the) $2,499 model, plus software. If the iPad can compete, one is looking at a $499 price point plus a $100-$200 styli, making the solution incredibly cost effective.
What is the catch?
As with anything new, there are some technological bugs to work out and there are a few functional concerns that I have noticed:
First: These apps, although awesome, are still not the complete solution. One still needs her Mac for advanced editing tools within the Creative Suite. Especially in the finalizing stages and creating printable files. There is no replacement or new mobile version(s) to take over any of InDesign’s functions.
Second: Although I love my brand new stylus, illustrating on the Mac still produces higher quality results. It is just barely, but enough for me to have to be strategic in my illustrating choice depending on the project I am working on. The Photoshop app for Mac (along with my Wacome Intuos Pro tablet) still produces superior results: high quality, extremely precise, and can be output to many formats.
Third: The iPad apps do crash. Saving work and leaving the app periodically has to become a regular part of iPad wokflow for saftey reasons.
Fourth: Until resolution and art board size are able to be customized, these apps can only be so useful: especially if a creator is looking to produce soemthing for print purposes.
Fifth: (and most importantly) Adobe is really boxing in its users by forcing the use of the Creative Cloud. This leasing process gets incredibly expensive for each user. For a company of users, it is even more costly! One has to purchase a monthly plan to gain access to many of the features of these new iPad and computer apps. This withholding of features is very disappointing and frustrating.
All in all, production departments are in for some new processes, workflows, tools, as well as abilities that were barely imaginable last year at this time! I look forward to see what may be coming down the pipeline and can’t wait to see what player jumps into the creative app and device market next!
Source Articles:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/how-to/interactivity-fixed-layout-epub.ht
http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html
http://www.adonit.net
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/intuos-pro-m
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/cintiq-22-hd-touch
https://www.apple.com/ipad-air/