[geeks] iPad - a 'Miss' for me I'm afraid

[Joshua Boyd]

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 04:09:48PM -0800, velociraptor wrote:

> > Along the lines of using an iPad as a "cheap" cintiq, lack of pen
> > support is a killer.
> 
> But the multi-touch surface *can* support a pen, there's just not one
> out there yet.  I know this as I've seen a mod for gloves that allows
> you to wear gloves and still use the iPhone.

Do the gloves (or bare fingers for that matter) have sufficient
resolution?  And that is obviously  subjective anyway.
 
> > First, wacom isn't multi-touch (well, they do have the bamboo fun touch,
> > but that is really new).  So, the only thing missing would be
> > handwriting recognition, and I think that the iPad doesn't have that
> > either.
> 
> I wasn't implying that the Wacom had multi-touch.  My intention in
> what I said was to show that drawing tablets (and the tablet computer
> screens are just another version of the external tablet overlaid on
> the screen) have been around for a long time, and what little support
> for them there is in Linux has been quite recent.

Well, a lot of things are recent.

Gimp has support tablets well, in linux, since close to the beginning.
I know I was using a wacom with the gimp close to 10 years ago.

Inkscape seems to have had reasonable wacom support the entire time I've
used it.  

Blender having reasonable support is recent, but the blender having a
paint mode is also recent.

Unlike multi-touch, presure pen support is something that is less widely
useful. 
 
> > Gimp, inkscape work pretty well using the presure sensitivity.  I hear
> > that Blender and Krita also have good presure support, but I haven't
> > tried using the wacom on linux with them yet.
> 
> Not familiar with Inkscape, but I dislike Gimp, a lot.  Again, there
> may be support, but compare it to drawing pad support in Adobe apps or
> similar.  You're talking night and day--because there's a commercial
> impetus to integrate them.  $10-15 Adobe Elements-like app for the
> iPad? I'm there.  I think a multi-purpose device like this that can do
> double-duty as a drawing pad would be very attractive to a graphic
> arts student on a limited budget who has access to more powerful
> computers in their school's lab.

When gimp was fairly new, the gap between it and photoshop didn't seem
that large because photoshop was stagnating.  Since then, gimp went
through a long stagnation period and photoshop kicked development into
high gear.

More recently, Gimp version 2.6 finally seems to be getting back in
gear, and 2.8 is supposed to be arriving soon with even more change,
including finally a major UI overhaul.  I think they will still be
lacking healing brushes though, and that is a big issue in my book.