I decided to try out an iPad stylus on June 17th. I did all my research and was going to buy an Adonit Jot Touch Pro 4. I had settled on that one, after all of my review-scouring. Much to my surprised, the next morning Adonit announced a brand-new stylus. At long last, I was going to be on the front-lines of a technology! Early Adopter achievement unlocked.
Adobe’s own flagship stylus and ‘ruler’ product, Ink & Slide, share the same Pixelpoint technology found in the new Adonit stylus. Their partnership in developing the hardware means that the Adonit stylus benefits from the Creative Cloud features of Adobe’s own stylus. More on that later.
The stylus arrived in a bubble-wrap lined plastic envelope, a USPS first-class parcel package. I ripped it open and found the retail packaging. Inside was a very short directions brochure, nested inside a neat and minimalist black envelope, and the USB charger for the stylus. The USB charger is magnetized, and I was happy to be able to charge the stylus from pretty much any of my existing USB port configurations.
The Adonit site lists two Adobe apps as Pixelpoint ready as of now. These are Adobe Line and Adobe Sketch. Both apps are meant to integrate with Ink and Slide, Adobe’s new stylus and ruler. For the purpose of this review I enjoyed working with Adobe Line best.
It took a little while to get all the configuration sorted out. I attempted to pair the stylus to my iPad mini Retina’s Bluetooth, but recommend just using the ‘Connect a Pen’ feature within the drawing app. Within the Adobe Lines app, the stylus performs beautifully. The app supports pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, and the 2 shortcut buttons on the stylus. It also supports Creative Cloud integration. With an Adobe ID, you can copy and paste artwork between two iPads with the stylus. This is a neat feature if you plan to collaborate on sketches. You can also create custom color palettes in Adobe Kuler and use them in your sketches. Lastly, you can import files from the Creative Cloud.
It’s important to select the correct palm preferences. I initially was too excited and started using the stylus with the top right-handed drawing preference and my lines were a little unpredictable. However, I tested the second right-handed preference from the top, and it worked like a charm. Another important thing to note, palm rejection works best if you disable Multi-Gestures in the Apple settings menu. Otherwise, I found your palm sometimes swipes between apps. No fun at all.
During the initial tutorial for the Lines app you’ll be introduced to the gesture-based controls for undoing and redoing and scrubbing through your drawing history. When the pen is connected these gestures only work if you hold down the little button on the far left of the screen while performing the gestures.
In the Adobe Lines app, the stylus creates lines exactly where you’d expect them to appear, by far the biggest win for this stylus. The form factor is excellent, feeling like a real pen in your hand. The material for the tip mimics the feel of drag you feel with pen on paper. Aside from the frequent but tolerable lag, it’s the closest an iPad stylus has ever come to replacing traditional quick sketching tools for me. All of this is for free-handed drawing.
However, I see myself using Adobe Lines and my Adonit Jot Touch with Pixelpoint a whole lot because of the smart guides included in Adobe Lines and Adobe Sketch. Many basic shapes are included as guides, that allow you to trace the outlines, and link the shapes together in your drawing, as well as a full library of stamps. It includes UI elements, devices, people outlines, foliage, and all manner of other stamps to include in your sketches. I could definitely use this to quickly mockup an interface design or even storyboard. The brush tool is the most sensitive and painterly of the tools available, supporting variable opacity, very noticeable pressure sensitivity, and color blending.
Overall, the Adonit Jot Touch with Pixelpoint is a welcome next step in the iPad stylus lineage. It’s a tool to expand your art set, not yet completely replace anything. The biggest factor to consider is whether or not your lifestyle would benefit from an all-in-one digital sketching solution. If you’re already in the market for a smart stylus, this would be the one to get, especially as more apps roll out support for it.
Available for 119.99 at adonit.com
I paid full price for all review materials, and decided to review on my own. All opinions are my own.
