Dear Adobe, Your Mobile Apps are a Mess

Our favorite illustrator/humorist/tech reviewer Brad Colbow is back with what may be his best video yet.

After his M3 Surface Pro 4 let him down due to some stroke anomalies, Brad turned his attention to the new Apple iPad Pro. Without a Pencil available to test, he has instead surveyed the wide array of iOS apps, especially those from Adobe.

I'll let him tell you the rest, but I agree 100% with his observations.

Got my new iPad but it will be a few weeks before I get the pencil and can review it. In the mean time I'm checking out what apps are out there and here are my thoughts on what Adobe is bringing to the table.

Guest post: Tablet Pro test drives Surface Pen, new nibs

EDITOR'S NOTE: Justice Frangipane is one of the co-developers of Tablet Pro, formerly TabletPCMouse. That utility is currently in beta 35 and coming along really nicely. We'll have an updated post soon.

By JUSTICE FRANGIPANE

I had looked forward to this event for a full year, waiting, anxiously awaiting. Would the Surface Pro 4 work for me as an artist? I should state that I am not a journalist, which will likely become evident in the next few paragraphs. I’m a software developer for a tool that’s built to enhance the tablet drawing experience. I am a tablet art geek to the core. I can site in a matter of seconds 15 different components that are needed for the Surface Pro 4 to meet my expectations as an artist and as a developer. But frankly, most artists don’t freak out over specs. So let’s get to the “goods”.

How does it feel? The answer my friends is “goods, very goods”

I have been fortunate enough to try out both the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book as drawing tools. As tools for graphic artists, they are the exact same machine so I will only refer to the Surface Pro 4 from here forward with the notion that both work the same for artists. The differences start to vary more when you consider the needs of motion/video graphics, and 3d modelers. How do they compare to the Wacom Standard or the standard set last generation with the Surface Pro 3? Initially, during my first use of the Surface Pro 4, I was immediately in love, head over heels,. If I could have snuck away on a romantic honeymoon with either device I would have. The friction of the pen to the screen was lovely, it has just the right amount of glide and traction to make it feel smooth and natural. The glassy pen feel of the Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 2 are gone. Or at least that was my initial impression. 

Pen tips - Not what I was expecting

I was handed a set of pen tips by the manager of the Microsoft Store. The tips all had familiar names to me. 2H - H - HB - B. I knew what I expected to feel. Soft with the B, Harder tip with the 2H. What I experienced was kind of a shock to me. I also was looking for a different line on the screen to show up. Lighter with the 2H, darker and softer with the B. But the lines were exactly the same. Perhaps in a different program with different settings I may have experienced more of the intended user experience. But they ended up feeling like the term “hardness” was being swapped for “frictionless”... B had the most traction and grip on the screen, it felt identical to me to the standard tip in the Surface Pro 4 pen. HB and H were similar to the Surface Pro 3 pen or Surface Pro 2 pen. 2H was very glassy. So how does that affect my opinion on the device for artists? Not at all. The standard tip is likely the only one that I plan on using (at the moment), but time will tell. Do the tips come with the pen? Microsoft, I would love to be able to get a little more info on the final shipping product. Bought separately the tips cost $10. 

Screen Size and Thickness

The Surface Book screen is pretty large. 13.5 inches felt vast to me, especially coming from a Surface Pro 2. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as when it was detached it was very easy to hold. The combined weight of the keyboard and the tablet was more than most people will want to casually carry around. I’ve been told that the battery life of the Surface Book tablet (minus the keyboard) is around 3 hrs. While I haven’t been able to confirm this information it does sound reasonable and probable. 

The Surface Pro 4 has a smaller footprint than the Surface Book and one that is identical to the Surface Pro 3. Below is an image of the Surface pro 2 - 4 with the Surface Book in the bottom right and Surface Pro 4 directly above it. 

Tablet thickness can be seen below with the Surface Book being the closest in the shot. 

Tracking - How does the tip line up? 

The tracking on the device is one of the most stand out features. It was immaculate and accurate. Spot on. Corners we excellent and on point as well. It really does feel like a ball point pen on paper. This is not a surprise as the tracking on the Surface Pro 3 was also quite good. 

Eraser - Why not? 

Eraser users are a diminishing populace. This is I believe due to the extra time it takes to flip the pen around and use the eraser on the end, a feature which was missing on the Surface Pro 3. If you fancy an old school eraser feel... you are in luck. The eraser on the pen feels sticky and EXACTLY like you would expect. I kept looking for the little rubber eraser grunge that knocks off the end when you use a real eraser. If you are one of the few remaining eraser buffs on the planet you will likely be very satisfied. 

Pressure sensitivity - Is 1024 levels enough to compete with the Wacom Cintiq professional standard? 

This is a tricky topic as there is a few ways to address this issue as an artist. I’ve had tablets (about 8 in total) where I’ve had 256 levels of pressure sensitivity and it worked great. I’ve also had other tablets with more that worked far worse for a number of different reasons. Pressure sensitivity has not been a “make or break” aspect in my experience. Do I like that the new Surface Pro 4 has 1024? Yes. In testing have I been able to notice or use those levels? No. 

While testing the two machines I was not able to test pressure sensitivity in photoshop. Different drawing programs use different api’s that handle pen tip pressure in different ways. I saw great range in line thickness in artrage, while corel painter 2016 (which was preinstalled on the Surface Pro 4) I was unable to see that variation likely due to my ignorance of that program. 

Bugs and Buttons - Is it ready for primetime?

Not yet, during my tests on about 5 Surface Pro 4 and 1 Surface Book I found the majority to suffer from a pen issue that kept the pen tip down even while the tip was off the screen. This resulted in one line unintentionally being connected to next line and “drips” from the tip while drawing. 

Does that concern me or alter my decision to buy one (most likely the Surface Book to allow for the addition of more intensive gaming)?

No. Microsoft has proven that they can get the N-trig tech to work on the Surface Pro 3. The machines I tested were pre release units that didn’t contain the full system specs of the final product. (the Surface Pro 4’s I tested had 4gb ram, 128 gb ssd and an i5 6300u processor, while the Surface Book I tested had 8gb of ram, 512gb ssd and also had an i5 6300u processor) neither option is available online. 

The Surface Pro 4 pen does come with a side button, which may not be visible to most people. It is a single button (not two buttons like the Surface Pro 3). 

I couldn’t find any way to customize the pen side button (a process I’m familiar with), this would be a welcome addition if it isn’t there yet. As most of us know, the pen does require a battery, it requires pairing to the device (extremely easy to do) and the battery is supposed to last 1 year. 

Final thoughts?

If you are on the fence about getting a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book for digital art, go for it. Microsoft’s track record has improved year over year. They have bug fixed the units before and I believe that they will do so again. If you are needing a machine to work perfectly as soon as you open the box, this may not be the safest bet just yet. 

Microsoft, my hat is off to you, stellar product, a few things to fix yet, but I can’t wait to get my Surface Book. 

for more watch the video

Winbeta.org went hands-on with SP4 and it was 'awesome'

The tech blog WinBeta.org sent artist Oliver Fuh to test a Surface Pro 4 and he wrote up an exhaustive post on his first impressions.

Rather than test with the default apps or Sketchable, Oliver was able to install the PaintTool SAI 2.0 beta. He captured the following video.

Check out http://WinBeta.org for more. Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/WinBetaDotOrg

The store staff also allowed him to test the new pen nibs and his findings are fascinating and somewhat disappointing.

2H – the thickest nib of the four, and it’s SUPER slick. The slipperiest drawing experience I’ve ever had on a digital display, and that says a lot, as most of them are pretty slippery. It also feels like the softest of the four. I’d love to use this for super fast sketching, or for drawing extremely long, flowing curves.

H – similar to 2H in slipperiness, but with a much thinner, even a bit harder tip. It feels much more conducive to precision drawing. It’s extremely faint, but I detect just a bit more resistance when drawing with this nib.

HB – I’m can’t exactly recall, but this might be the same as the standard nib that comes with the pen. I haven’t confirmed that for sure though. This feels very similar the standard pen nib, which has a strong, if even slightly rubbery, surface resistance. This, and the standard pen (if they’re not same thing) both feel great for standard note-taking and precision stroke drawing.

B – the most grippy of the four, but only slightly more so than HB/standard. Truth be told, I had a really hard time discerning the difference between this and HB .

You can find the full post over at WinBeta.org.

Hands on with the VAIO Z Canvas

Pity poor VAIO. For over a year, the Japanese startup that bought up the remains of Sony's computing division has been plotting a splashy debut on the world stage by targeting creative users with an expensive, but high-powered graphics behemoth.

The company's first entry into the U.S. market, the Z Canvas was even selected to be an exclusive Signature PC offering at Microsoft Stores. And Monday, that $2199 tablet PC with 12.3-inch WQXGA+ 2560 x 1704 IPS touchscreen, true quad core Intel Core i7-4770HQ processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD finally went on sale and held its launch event here in the Century City Microsoft Store. With those specs, the Z Canvas was without a doubt the most powerful Windows 10 tablet on the market.

Then, only 24 hours later, Microsoft announced its Surface Pro 4 and Surface Tablet lines. And 24-hours after that, rather than owning the premium shelf space to itself, VAIO sits right next to demonstration units of the new Microsoft products: a little bit more expensive, two generations of processor behind, no longer the only N-Trig tablet offering 1,024 levels of pressure.

So is the Z Canvas still worth considering, especially given its premium price-tag that balloons up to $3099 for the 16GB/1TB model? I decided to check it out for myself and I'm sorry to report I have decidedly mixed feelings.

It's so unfair to base an opinion on a few minutes of scribbling with inappropriate software, but having no other option, I'd say my reaction to the pen performance is lukewarm. It wasn't bad by any means; it just didn't feel special. In fact, it felt familiar, bearing many of the niggling problems of other current generation N-Trig devices.

First the positive: the hardware buttons located at the top of the tablet (pictured below) for disabling touch and calling up on-screen keyboard shortcuts are amazing. The latter especially is an indication that VAIO has worked with and clearly understands the needs of artists. Rather than having to rely on third party artdocks or other hacks, the Z Canvas lets users configure their own shortcut overlays, customizable for each individual program.

Although not as useful as the Surface Pro's variable angle kickstand, I like the attractive Z Canvas mechanism that lets you smoothly adjust its angle with only one hand.

And the flared, rubber pen grip is a huge improvement over the cold aluminum cylinders of most DuoSense2 pens. If the pen is sold separately, I might pick one up to replace my Sony Active Pen, which I purchased for the VAIO Flip 15A.

I'm not a fan of the flat detached keyboard. I like that it covers the closed tablet like a clamshell, but the flat orientation doesn't lend itself to long typing sessions. However, perhaps VAIO was focusing on artists who only need to tap on shortcut keys as they work. The tablet is Bluetooth and continues to work while detached. No need to purchase a standalone keyboard.

The demo units at this store don't have Clip Studio Paint installed, even though I think that software is bundled with each device. I'm not a OneNote guy and Fresh Paint doesn't do anything for me, so I was able to get the helpful Microsoft Store staff to install Sketchable. The free version only includes one brush, but it was good enough to test.

I created an A4, 300 dpi canvas and started scribbling away. Response is good, but the cursor didn't ever line up with the pen tip. It always was behind and to the right of the tip until I physically came in contact with the screen. It's possible that my pen was setup for a left-handed user, but I never dug into the pen control panel to see if I could set the orientation.

Diagonal jitter is present in slowly drawn strokes. I think we just have to accept that this is a fact of life with all N-Trig devices. Speed up your strokes or use brush stabilization.

More of an issue is that when I drew a bunch of half circles, random ones would end up quantized (with straight line segments instead of a smooth curve). In the image below, notice how the third curve from the right is segmented. Also notice the very thin end to that curve, which is a typical N-Trig artifact.

Could it be a problem with the Sketchable app? Perhaps. I contacted the developers and let them know. But until someone here can test with more software, my recommendation is to proceed with caution.

The biggest advantage of the VAIO Z Canvas is its quad core processor. Although it's a Haswell generation CPU, it should still beat the dual core Skylake processors in the new Surfaces. Running real world tests with more than sketching programs is the only way to determine whether the speed difference is noticeable.

With its serious venting along the top and back of the tablet, the Z Canvas is probably loud too. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell in the noisy mall setting of the Microsoft Store.

I don't know if I'll be able to do any further testing with the device. A couple of TabletPCReview members have purchased Canvases and I'll be scouring that site for their reviews. In the meantime, if any of you get hands on with the tablet, please leave your impressions below.

I want the new VAIO to succeed. They're clearly interested in catering almost exclusively to digital artists and that's worth a lot in a tech world where other OEMs don't even bother publicizing whether or not they are penabled.

Hands-on with the new Surface Pen

Surface Pro 4 demonstration units are now available for testing in Microsoft Stores across the US, so I rushed down yesterday to try to answer some of the questions that have arisen since Tuesday's unveiling. I also wanted to see if I could try out the device with a more reliable or up-to-date paint application than Fresh Paint.

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The new Surface Pen is N-Trig DuoSense 2 compatible and will work with the Surface Pro 3. It should also work with every N-Trig equipped device released over the last couple of years. In fact, I was also able to use the Surface Pen on the new VAIO Z Canvas (more on that device in a separate post).

The pen is AAAA battery powered and Microsoft is claiming that the battery will last at least one year. If you purchase a standalone Surface Pen you will also get an assortment of four nibs (pictured below) which mimic the feel of different writing instruments. This nib assortment will also be sold separately for $10. I wasn't able to test anything but the default pen nib. 

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OneNote and Fresh Paint are the only relevant apps pre-installed on the Surface Pro 4 demos, but I was able to convince the helpful store staff to allow me to install the free Sketchable demo from the Windows Store. I would ideally like to test with Clip Studio Paint or another popular desktop application, but due to security concerns I wouldn't allow customers to be installing a bunch of random software either.

The free version of Sketchable only installs one brush and an eraser, but it was more than enough to provide a better sense of the pen experience on both generations of Surface Pro tablets.

Although the new Surface Pen won't add additional pressure levels or reduce the initial activation force on the Surface Pro 3, it does make a world of difference and I can absolutely recommend that all SP3 owners consider upgrading their pens.

The resistance offered by the new nib is just right (your mileage may vary!). The pen eraser feels exactly like a rubber eraser. As you press down harder on the screen, you receive tactile feedback as your stroke thickens.

To make sure I wasn't just imagining things, I went back and tried the original pen on the Surface Pro 3 and the difference was very dramatic. No feedback whatsoever as I increased pressure. Drawing on the SP3 had never felt so glass-like.

Turning to the Surface Pro 4, the lower initial activation force was immediately evident. Even the lightest strokes are recognized (and this is without any pressure curve tweaking in the Surface app). The increased pressure range is apparent as strokes move from light to heaviest.

The hover distance appears to have increased and is certainly larger than on Wacom Active ES devices I've tested. The hardware cursor still lags as you hover the pen, but it is absolutely aligned with the pen tip as it touches the display.

According to Microsoft, parallax has been improved on the Surface Pro 4. I haven't been bothered by parallax on current gen Surface Pros, and I didn't notice any issues here.

The brief video below illustrates the performance I saw. Apologies for the shaky video. It's hard to shoot and draw at the same time.

Unfortunately, diagonal jitter, the bane of slow inkers everywhere, still exists on the Surface Pro 4. It appears to have been reduced somewhat by the new pen. Using the SP3 pen on the 4, I got much worse results. However, as the video below demonstrates, speeding up the strokes eliminates the problem. I suspect that the Surface Pen will require much lower levels of brush stabilization in software that offers that feature.

Shown here in Sketchable but evident in every app I've tried so far. Solution? Use stabilization settings if available or speed up your strokes.

These are obviously preliminary reactions based on one application. And for the record, during the course of my tests I discovered an odd bug that I reported to Sketchable's developers. I won't describe it, but if you choose to play with the app on a Surface Pro 4 near you, let me know if you encounter any issues. (I sometimes think I'm a bug magnet. I also know a reproducible issue that I can call up on any N-Trig device running Fresh Paint. But why beat a dead horse?)

Let me know if you have any further questions and if you have a chance to perform tests of your own, please let us all know in the comments section below.

Surface Pro 3 Makes Surprise Appearance on MacBreak Weekly

Although I'm a longtime listener to Leo Laporte and the TWiT podcast network, it's sometimes hard to sit through all the FUD around Microsoft and its products. It's definitely not a place to find much love of penabled Windows tablet pcs, where even Microsoft journalists Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley regularly dismiss the desirability of pens.

So it was certainly a surprise to listen to Alex Lindsay's surprise Pick of the Week on the latest episode of MacBreak Weekly. Lindsay is an fx artist and runs Pixelcorps.com, so he obviously uses Windows devices professionally, but you'd never know it watching or listening to him on TWiT...at least until now.

Video review: Surface Pro 3 as a Wacom Cintiq replacement

Brad Colbow is an independent web and UX designer based in Cleveland, Ohio. Below is a very entertaining follow up to his Surface Pro 3 video review (I've also embedded the original below it).

According to his website, Colbow is "best known for my illustration and comic work with The Brads that can be seen on my other website and in .Net magazine. Occasionally I'll take on an illustration project but I prefer to take on new web projects where I can use my UX skills or team up and collaborate with a development team."

It's been several months since my original review of the Surface Pro 3 as a drawing tablet so I figured it was time to do a follow up. Since I use it every day in my work I have a lot more perspective on it than I did when I first got it.

I've been looking to replace my Wacom Cintiq tablet with something more portable. This is my review of the Surface Pro 3 as a drawing tablet. The Surface Pro 3 I'm using has the i5 processor and 8gb of ram with the 256gb hard drive.

Happy Thanksgiving! Please help support this site!

On this Thanksgiving Day 2014, I'm thankful to all my readers who have helped make this blog such a pleasure to operate.

But despite the steady stream of both regular and new readers, our display advertisements cover only a tiny fraction of the hardware and software costs for this site. Most of the stuff I test and review on these pages is bought with my own cash and I can't justify continuing to spend at the level I have over the last year.

Several of you have donated directly but an even easier way to help is to click on one of our many Amazon links and ads located throughout the blog. You don't have to buy the specific item in the link, but any purchases you make during that session will be credited to us and we'll receive a tiny finder's fee.

Thanks again for visiting and come back soon for a new set of news, reviews, previews, tips and tricks.

Updated with video: Microsoft steals Adobe show with Surface Pro 3 giveaway

For much of this morning's Adobe Max keynote, it looked like all the company's innovations had been created exclusively for Apple users.

But starting with the introduction of Adobe Illustrator's Touch Workspace running on the Surface Pro 3, the presentation took a decided turn.

Out trotted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen to discuss how the two companies have been collaborating on enriching the touch capabilities in Adobe's desktop applications.

In quick succession, the two demoed a mix of new features, beta products and a conceptual video (see below) that illustrated the story that we Surface Pro and Windows tablet users have known all along: creating is simply more natural and fluid when it is accompanied by pen and touch.

After sparking the crowd's imagination with the possibilities of touch on a full-powered pc, Nadella brought the 5,000-plus attendees to their feet with the announcement that each was going home with his or her own Surface Pro 3, including touch keyboard and a one-year membership to Office 365.

Surface's Panos Panay wrote a lengthy post about the event over at the Surface Blog.

It will be fascinating to see the effect that exposing so many creative users at once to the strengths of the Surface Pro and Windows 8. Many of these are the hardest core of Apple's devotees and will no doubt struggle with the peculiarities of the Microsoft platform.

But it's safe to say that a significant percentage of these new users will have the vision to take these creative tools to a whole new level, creating work that will doubtless inspire even more new adopters.

That's the hope at least.

As these new users Google around for help on the Surface Pro, some will end up here. Please identify yourselves and let us help welcome you to the Windows creative community.  We're here to help make you feel at home.