A Matter of Stylus
Article Transcript
It is a very exciting time to be a digital artist! There was a time, not long ago, when it was difficult to find a decent stylus for your tablet device, let alone have more than one option for a tablet to work with. Now we face a wealth of choices. For the casual point and swipe user, any of these will work as well or better than your fingertip. But as artists we prefer a little more control. As with any tool, your mileage may vary.
The Apple family of products has never embraced active digital interfaces. The capacitive touch technology necessitates a larger surface contact, and this provides a problem of precision and supplies zero pressure sensitivity. The only advantage to early styluses was that they didn’t leave fingerprints on the glass. My testing regime for each pen was to draw a variety of short strokes, long strokes, letter forms and curved shapes and attempt to match up lines as my “warm up” with these styluses. When testing them, I try them in Zen Brush, Art Studio, and Bamboo Paper on my iPad1. Then I take about a half hour to an hour to draw a cartoon in Art Studio.
Basic Rubber Trip
The most popular option for styluses are ones that use a rubbery tip. Not all tips are the same by a long shot! The Wacom Bamboo is a favorite of many artists (including me) for it’s bouncy response and low friction when drawing (www.wacom.com/en/products/ stylus/bamboo-stylus).
If you prefer a little more drag to your tool, a good Targus pen may serve you better. Pogo also makes a couple of good options, with the Pogo Sketch or Sketch Pro, which are longer models that fit the hand better than the stubby “golf pencils” (tenonedesign. com).
I’m also fond of the AluPen, which had a fatter hexagonal body, like a big crayon. I find it very comfortable in my meaty man paws. The tip of the AluPen is very nice. Slightly firmer than the Wacom but as responsive for drawing. (www.just-mobile. com/ipad/alupen.html)
Kickstarter
The More/Real Stylus Cap was an early Kickstarter which replaces a Sharpie or Pilot pen cap with a stylus tipped cap. I found this tip very firm with a high drag. For basic stylus usage, light notetaking and app manipulation, I think this is a fine stylus. It’s a great company that you can order replacement tips from if one wears out, meaning that there will be less overall heading to landfills. As I tend to have a Sharpie in my computer bag when I travel, this is a handy addition, but I can’t see myself using it on any regular basis. (more-real.com)
The Cosmonaut was another Kickstarter success with a body shaped to model after a fat marker body. While comfortable to hold, it has a solid silicon tip that gives it an advantage of creating a superb drawing angle experience, but the tip itself demonstrates a poor response time. It needs a fairly firm pressure to register, and lighter strokes and taps often fail to register. (www.studioneat.com/products/ cosmonaut)
The Estylo was an interesting experiment in conductive wood. This very pencil- like stylus feels like a nice art pencil but instead of a tip has an angled edge that must be held in contact with the screen to register. If you naturally fall into that drawing angle it’s fine but there is very little room for varying your drawing angle and it was easy to lose contact with the screen. (www.plai.tv)
The iFaraday substitutes the rubber tip with a conductive mesh. This gives it a very nice glide across the screen. The company was an early leader in the stylus market and has a number of models and colours available to choose from at a range of affordable prices. They tend to be a nice, long, comfortable length and very lightweight. (www.ifaraday.com)
Precisely my point
The oStylus, Adonit Jot and GoSmart are styluses that offer a better degree of precision due to their tip solutions. The oStylus features a round disk with a empty center, meant to give you a cross hair to view the cursor in the center. In practical use though, this is less than ideal as the disk partially obscures the lines drawn. Still it’s very responsive and does deliver a slightly more precise experience. (ostylus.com)
The Adonit Jot has a clear plastic disc balanced on its tip. The disc swivels freely, offering a great drawing range, and when it works, it works great. Unfortunately the discs aren’t always as conductive (due to a manufacturing error), but the company appears to have addressed that issue by now. Still the disc can lose contact with tip from time to time, making the experience inconsistent. Once again, your mileage may vary. They are widely available in a great range of colours. (adonit.net)
The GoSmart is the latest (and my favourite) conductive stylus. It employs a Teflon-coated wire tip, molded into a short springy disc shape. The wire is all but invisible as you work, providing minimal visual distraction, and allows for the best precision I’ve yet experienced. The metal tip also appears to be most responsive material. Some may not trust the wire to not scratch the glass but it must be remembered that tablets and phones now use Gorilla Glass, which is a high-tech solution that makes it nigh impervious to casual scratches and marks. The tactile experience is quite different from rubber tips and may not be for everyone. (justgosmart.com/)
Pressure sensitivity
Finally, there are three high-tech options for iOS that promise pressure sensitivity. All three are supported by most of the popular art apps and require you to activate them in the individual settings for each program. Full Disclosure: I stopped using the iPad as soon as I got my Samsung Note 10.1, so it’s quite possible that updates to drivers and programs have fixed any issues I may list here. The Adonit Jot Touch is a Bluetooth 4.0 solution (meaning it doesn’t work with older iPads so I haven’t had a chance to extensively test it). It charges with a USB cradle and promises over 2000 levels of sensitivity. Since it’s Bluetooth, you are not allowed to use it on airplanes. (adonit.net)
The Pogo Connect is another Bluetooth 4.0 solution. I’m leery of this pen since it only promises “hundreds” and has the same large rubber tip as any other non powered stylus, which defeats the goal of precision. It is powered by a single AAA battery. An added benefit is a free app which allows you to track your pen if you misplace it! (Tenonedesign.com)
The Jaja by Hex3 is powered by a single AAA battery and uses a sonic interface. Theoretically this pen operates at a frequency that should be unaffected by environmental noise and is safe to use on airplanes. In practice I found my experience inconsistent and the signal frequently dropped, causing the line to skip. Whether this was due to sound, or possibly my hand blocking the sensor I could not determine. The pen features 1024 levels of sensitivity. (hex3.co/products/jaja)
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