Astropad transforms your iPad into a true graphics tablet

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,240   +192
Staff member

A pair of former Apple engineers has released an app that more or less transforms your iPad into a graphics tablet. It’s called Astropad and it could replace the need for something like a Wacom tablet, assuming of course you have an iPad and a Mac.

Astropad is based on a proprietary technology called Liquid which is key because it reduces latency to just 12ms and allows for 60 frames per second mirroring.

To use Astropad, you’ll need the app for your iPad (iOS 8 only) and Mac (Mavericks or later). When launched together, the iPad will mirror exactly what’s on the Mac screen using either Wi-Fi or USB connectivity. While you can use the app with virtually any service on your Mac, the most obvious / productive use scenario would be with a program like Photoshop.

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Astropad works with multiple pressure-sensitive pens and best yet, the app color-corrects to match what you see on the Mac. It even uses ARM assembly code for the most efficient use of battery life should you be away from a power source.

The app is available as of writing at a price of $49.99, or $19.99 for academic users. That may sound like a lot of scratch but if you’re an artist that frequently transfers work from one device to the other, this could be a worthwhile investment.

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