Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have an entire design studio in the palm of your hand? With the advancement of technology, it is now possible thanks to the use of graphic design applications for iPad that exist today.
Without a doubt this device, with its power, portability and versatility, has allowed designers around the world to take their ideas from the mind to the screen with an ease and fluidity never seen before. So if you want to know a little more about the suitability of the iPad for graphic design and what apps we recommend, this post is for you.
Is it worth using an iPad for graphic design?
If we have to defend the use of the iPad for graphic design, without a doubt we have enormous reasons to think that we are facing one of the most versatile and functional platforms for it.
Touch screen and digital pen
The iPad touch screen and Apple Pencil offer an intuitive and precise drawing and design experience, similar to working with pen and paper, but with the inherent advantages of using digital methods, such as being able to erase without leaving marks and being able to process the image digitally from scratch.
Plus, iPad is lightweight and portable, allowing you to take your work with you and design anywhere. Plus, it can connect to keyboards and other accessories for greater productivity.
Powerful applications
There are a variety of graphic design apps available on the App Store designed specifically for iPad, such as Procreate, Affinity Designer, and Adobe Fresco, offering advanced tools and professional features within reach of any user.
Performance and power, but with familiarity
The most recent iPads have powerful hardware that allows graphic design applications to run smoothly and quickly, even with complex projects, with a power similar or analogous to a laptop and desktop, but with the main advantage that the iPad interface is Intuitive and easy to use if you've used mobile, making it accessible to designers of all experience levels, from beginners to professionals.
The best graphic design apps for iPad
adobe express
Ideal for creating graphics for social media, blogs and just about anything, with a wide variety of templates and customization tools, adobe express is one of the best graphic design apps for iPad.
This app offers a wide variety of pre-designed templates designed by professionals for a variety of purposes, such as social media posts, greeting cards or advertisements that will serve as inspiration and a starting point for your own designs, as they are fully customizable.
And all this with the guarantee of a brand like Adobe, which has always known how to reinvent itself and be on the side of graphics creators since almost the beginning of graphic design on PC.
Canva
Canva is a “do-it-all app” that offers a wide range of pre-designed templates to create attractive designs for social networks, presentations and cards, with an easy-to-use interface that anyone will master in just a few minutes.
In addition to these pre-designed motifs, the app has an extensive library of graphic elements, such as images, icons, shapes and backgrounds, that users can use to personalize their designs and that will also allow us to work collaboratively with other people. Almost nothing, right?
Shapr3D
Shapr3D provides Intuitive and easy-to-use 3D modeling experience, specially designed for touch devices, with which users will be able to create complex 3D models using simple gestures and intuitive tools.
Despite its intuitive interface, Shapr3D offers a high level of precision and control in 3D modeling, letting us work with precise dimensions, angles and other measurements to ensure our models meet design requirements.
If what you are looking for is to do 3D modeling as if you were on a computer, without a doubt Shapr3D is one of the best graphic design applications for iPad that you need.
Pixlr
De Pixlr We are going to talk little, since some time ago we dedicated a post only to her and I think little more can be said.
This application contains a wide variety of tools and effects to retouch your images and create surprising compositions and also has a powerful photo editor that offers a wide range of editing tools, including color adjustments, red-eye correction, cropping, retouching, layers and filters.
If what you are looking for is an all-terrain vehicle that is suitable for everything, it is undoubtedly your app.
Which is better, iPad or Android for graphic design?
The choice between an iPad and an Android device for graphic design depends on your personal preferences and specific needs, like everything in life, but it is true that the iPad has a number of advantages that are considerable.
iPad strengths
For example, one of the main if not the most important of all is the number of high-quality graphic design applications, such as Procreate, Shapr3D and Affinity Designer, which are available exclusively for the platform.
Basically, it is of little use to have a premium device with the best components and processors, if in the end the software does not accompany it and for better or worse, Apple has been able to attract the development of great professionals from the world of apps for its platform.
Furthermore, the using the Apple Pencil It offers a very precise and pressure-sensitive drawing and design experience among the best on the market, which although it is not a unique feature as such, it is true that it does it very well.
And finally, if something would make us opt for an iPad instead of an Android device, it has to do with the ecosystem that exists between different Apple devices and value-added services that interconnect them such as iCloud, which greatly increase the use of the iPad for graphic design.
Android: the contender that we cannot ignore
Little by little, despite Apple's reign in the world of graphic design, new devices from other manufacturers are opening up, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Huawei Notepad that offer high quality digital pencils and pressure sensitive very similar to the Apple Pencil, at a lower cost.
And thanks to this, More applications for graphic design begin to appear in PlayStore such as Infinity Painter or Sketchbook from Autodesk, which favor the use of this type of peripherals.
Although at the software level there is still a long way to go in the Android world, it is true. the cost/benefit is much better on Android since iPads are generally much more expensive.
our final verdict
In short, both systems can be excellent for graphic design, but from the software catalog without a doubt Today, I would only value an iPad for graphic design, and for the comforts it offers.
But honestly, I think we shouldn't rule out the rebirth of a graphic design community on Android with increasingly attractive devices that allow you to get into the world without having to spend a fortune on it. And here Apple, especially among students and people who are learning, will have a difficult time gaining a foothold.