Apple’s popular tablets are excellent, highly portable alternatives to laptops and PCs when you’re starting or finishing a project on the go. Several iPads now have more than enough power to cover all graphic design workloads, while the touchscreen can be a great addition to a workflow.
As part of our tests, we use them for vector illustration, page layout and image editing using a range of iPadOS apps. Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.
Along with its smaller 11-inch sibling, this packs Apple’s M2 chip and can handle graphically demanding workloads with ease. Only the larger tablet has a Liquid Retina XDR display, which uses smaller mini-LEDs for a brighter image and broader dynamic range.
We were immediately impressed when we wrote our full iPad Pro 2022 review , and we found colour coverage to be excellent for creative work. The downside is the price, and while we rate this as the best iPad for graphic design, you probably won’t actually need such powerful specs unless you’re also doing video work.
The original iPad has just received a massive and well-deserved upgrade this year, with Apple giving it a more powerful chip inside as well as a bigger and brighter display. It’s powered by the same A14 chipset that allowed the 4th-generation iPad Air to tackle demanding tasks such as video editing and, naturally, graphic design. Note that it only has 3GB of RAM, so it’s not going to give you great performance on some graphic design software (Adobe Illustrator for iPad requires 4GB).
Graphic Design with an iPad: Pros, Cons and Limitations
In this article I’ll share with you in detail about the pros, cons and limitations of using the iPad for graphic design work. For personal work, I have created graphic design such as name cards, invoices, Youtube thumbnails, eBooks, etc.
I have also reviewed many art related tech products for artists and designers and that includes the various iPads over the years.
: Web banners, ads, layouts, Youtube thumbnails User interface design : Icons, UI elements, mockups
The iPad excels at hand drawn art, e.g. painting, comics, sketches, concept design, calligraphy. A computer or laptop excels at graphic design, and can be used to create hand drawn illustrations when used with a drawing tablet.
Body postures can also be changed but that will require more work as it involves re-drawing the soccer players. And if the illustration was hand drawn, making changes involves re-drawing, and that will take a lot of time.
Adobe Illustrator is an important graphic design app available on Windows, MacOS and iPad.
It is a monthly subscription app so I would recommend the competitor Affinity Designer instead which is a one time purchase. There isn’t any significant advantage to using tablet version Adobe Illustrator to create the soccer graphics above. This illustration was hand drawn with Concepts which is an app available on iPad, Android and Windows.
Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo are good for hand drawn illustrations. Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Vectornator and Amadine are good for creating vector style art. The colour accuracy on iPads is good enough for creating designs for the RGB space, aka the web, and for video production (if you don’t mind working on a small display). When creating print graphics, you should choose CMYK as the colour space for your new document.
At the time of writing this article, you cannot create a CMYK file with Adobe Photoshop tablet app. The 4:3 aspect ratio of iPad displays is alright but not ideal for working with graphic design.
When you consider palettes and UI elements are usually on the sides, when working with squarish or horizontal content, there will be wasted space at top and bottom. This is how Photoshop looks on an external display connected to an iPad (with the help of Apple Stage Manager).
In this case, Photoshop is showing on the external display, and the tablet interface on the iPad. The wider display can present the content larger even with the palettes open by the side. Affinity Photo, at time of this writing, cannot be made full-screen on the external display. Currently, Affinity Photo can use the external display to present a larger version of the graphics you’re working on.
Apple Stage Manager external display support only works with iPads that use the M1 processor. The tablet versions of Photoshop and Illustrator are not designed with ability to place more than one column of palettes yet. In the event that the tablet is lost, damaged or stolen, you can get a new iPad and restore everything from iCloud. If your graphic files are stored on the cloud, the downtime is how much time it takes for you to get a new iPad.
The cursor on the iPad is a circle, and it’s gray by default which is not easy to see against darker backgrounds. If you look at the pricing, the M1 Macbook Air just provides more value for money simply because it’s cheaper at $999 and the iPad Pro 12.9 with 256GB storage and Apple Pencil is US $1328.
If the main reasons you’re considering the iPad for graphic design work is because you like the touch interface, Apple Pencil is awesome, or the iPad is so compact and portable, the display is so nice, well, those reasons may not be enough unless they really improve your productivity compared to creating graphic design on a computer. Graphic design is just more productive with desktop apps, a larger display and keyboard shortcuts.
When you add a keyboard and case to the iPad, the weight isn’t too different from a 13-inch Macbook Air. I’ll choose a computer for graphic design any day unless I have to create hand drawn art.
Best iPad for Graphic Design
Along with the matching second-gen Apple Pencil, the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro (updated in October, 2022) will help you create second-to-none art pieces, vector projects, and much more. The Pro features enabled by iPadOS16 include the new multitasking experience with the Stage Manager and Reference Mode to match the color requirements for all the design specialists.
When you add in True Tone, which regulates the brightness levels automatically to make the display appear more natural, it is evident that this is the ideal option for creators, artists, and designers.
The Top 5 iPads for Graphic Designers in 2023
In recent years, iPads have become a game-changer for graphic designers, artists and creatives providing a new level of flexibility and portability that was previously impossible.
Best iPad for design and sketching?
The iPads Pro are the opposite end of the scale – top of the range, with cutting edge capabilities and hardware. Between these two extremes is the iPad Air5, this model offering a mid-range high performance option. Ensure that you choose the correct Apple Pencil for your chosen iPad – as they are not interchangeable. If you run out of internal storage for your documents, photos and other data, you will forever struggle and become a source of frustration.
A good rule of thumb is to quantify how much data storage you will need – add a healthy margin – then double it. Whilst I and others cannot make definitive recommendations for your personal needs, objectively I would council against purchase of any iPad with any less than 256GB storage, 512GB and higher having a greater margin for growth. Purchase of a WiFi+Cellular model provides access to precise location services, but does not commit you to using Cellular connections.
Best iPad for graphic designers 2024
Our team of Apple experts have years of experience testing all kinds of tech and gadgets, so you can be sure our recommendations and criticisms are accurate and helpful. Add to that ProMotion high-refresh rate, P3 wide color, and True Tone, it’s far and away the best display on an iPad and a top pick for creatives.
If you’re working with large files, you may also stand to benefit from the extra storage an iPad Pro offers with up to 2TB configurations available.
Though not necessarily for graphic designers, the feature works with the device’s dual cameras, motion sensors, and frameworks to measure depth.
11-inch iPad Pro (2021) More portable choice Today’s Best Deals From $749 at Amazon Reasons to buy + More portable + Powerful M1 chip + Up to 2TB storage and 16GB RAM + Apple Pencil 2 support + Face ID + Thunderbolt port Reasons to avoid – Lacks mini-LED that the larger model offers – Still expensive – Replacement could be incoming It brings many of the same features found on the iPad Pro series but for a little bit less, including the super-speedy M1 chip and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil.
If you can live without the higher refresh rate of the iPad Pro and the mini-LED tech offered by the 12.9-inch model, the Air could be a good way to save some cash while still enjoying the features that matter most. As we mentioned above, the iPad Pro offers some advanced, AR-ready cameras, but those aren’t necessarily all that useful for graphic designers.
Apple’s most colorful tablet, the iPad Air (2022) is available in space gray, starlight, pink, purple, and blue with 64GB or 256GB of storage.
iPad Air 5 (2022) – 10.9-inch, Wi-Fi, 64GB Feel it in the Air Today’s Best Deals From $600 at Amazon Reasons to buy + Affordable price + M1 chip + Still has a large display + Apple Pencil 2 support + Choice of colors + USB-C port Reasons to avoid – No ProMotion or mini-LED – Touch ID instead of Face ID – Limited to 256GB of storage
Apple Pencil using color wheel tool in drawing app (Image credit: Luke Filipowicz / iMore) It does feature True Tone, which automatically adjusts white levels to match your ambient lighting, but misses out on the P3 wide color display found on every other iPad, as well as the ProMotion of the Pro models.
The display also isn’t fully laminated like the other models in the lineup meaning your taps and Pencil swipes feel a little more detached from the content on-screen. iPad (2021) Save cash with this selection Today’s Best Deals From $329 at Apple Reasons to buy + Excellent price + True Tone display Reasons to avoid – Smaller and lower quality display – Old-school design – Limited to Apple Pencil 1 support – Less powerful A13 Bionic chip – Lightning port If you can get away with a larger device, it may well be worth spending the additional $100 to get the extra screen real estate and M1 chip of the iPad Air. iPad mini 6 (2021) – Wi-Fi, 64GB, space gray Portable powerhouse Today’s Best Deals From $459 at Amazon Reasons to buy + Super-portable design + Speedy A15 chip + Apple Pencil 2 support + USB-C port Reasons to avoid – Pricey for its size – No Smart Connector It supports the second-generation Apple Pencil and includes a super-fast Thunderbolt port for hooking up extra storage or an external display — all of which will be a boon to designers.
iPad Pro
Watch apps and widgets expand on the Home Screen as you move over them.
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