Slate tablet? Hmmm … Can an IPad be set up yo to this?
Sort of, (via Air Display and a couple other apps), but it’s neither pressure sensitive nor particularly precise – the iPad really is meant for fingers. You can get a stylus for it, but even with that it’s not nearly the precision input device that a $99 Graphire or Bamboo would be. I’ve tried using Photoshop on it via Air Display and a stylus…maybe a better artist than I could use it, but it’s slow, laggy, imprecise, and just generally clumsy for this (admittedly way off-label) use.
I mean “slate tablet” as “Windows Tablet PC without a keyboard” – the clunky kind that have been around for a half decade or so now, not the new generation of low-powered ultralight tablets like the iPad. Tablet PC’s have stylus handwriting recognition, useful enough for small amounts of data entry on a keyboardless device. But as an indicator of the limitations of this, note how very, very, few tablet PC’s are slate (no keyboard) style.
I have an Axiotron Modbook. It’s my new (last 4+ months) primary illustration tool. It uses a Wacom-made digitizer in the screen, and a MacBook as its body/brain.
I think it’s pretty rad. It has a much smaller visual separation (due to the thick glass on the Cintiqs) between pen tip and actual cursor than the Cintiqs do—something I always found distracting to the point of not wanting to use a Cintiq after I tested them out.
You can get them new, or modify an existing MacBook of the proper vintages. It was win-win for me, because I simply had my existing MacBook modded, which not only gave me a tablet computer, but also removed all of the cracked plastic parts of the aging laptop’s housing and replaced them with milled aluminum!
It does have some caveats:
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You need an external keyboard. Using the on-screen keyboard is laborious, and only for emergencies
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The digitizer quality is not as good as an Intuos/Cintiq. It’s Graphire-level quality in terms of pressure sensitivity, etc. I’ve been able to adapt, but I do find it to have a much steeper pressure curve… sometimes, pushing a little does nothing, and then pushing more does too much. I find I need to switch brushes very deliberately now, whereas with the Intuos, I could often make, say, a 19-px brush in Photoshop work for both large-diameter and very small-diameter situations.
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There can be some glitchiness from time to time (cursor jumping, etc.). Rebooting the digitizer (there’s a button for this) usually cures it, but not always
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The control panel is not as full-featured as Wacom’s own control panel, and you can’t create application-specific shortcuts—i.e., like setting the stylus button to be “command-z” (undo) for Illustrator but “command-option-z” (back history) for Photoshop.
I travel a lot during the year, though, and ANYTHING beats having to stuff my 9x12 Intuos tablet into a suitcase (which is gradually damaging the cable on it, etc…). Now, it’s all built in.
I’ve decided to do a non-destructive (at least for the tablet) build.
Similar to what this guy has done:
Just going to make a sleeve with some sort of simple prop to act as a stand, and build a monitor into it.
Problem is all of my designs so far involve the controller card and inverter being at the top of the display… ultimately it means having the LCD upside down. Not a huge problem since I can always flip it via gpu or osd, but still a pain.
I am also still hunting down a good 15" monitor and a supported controller card.
I found a nice UXGA 15" display… just need to hear back about a controller card.