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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

Nicely said. For those who don't know, iPad Pro + Apple Pencil Pro + Procreate == awesome art tool

For me, Procreate is the killer app that made me want an iPad and my 7 year old iPad Pro is my favorite computer.

I can't believe it's only $13 (I think I paid $10 many years ago). It's one of those rare apps that I wish was more expensive because a $13 purchase doesn't feel sustainable.

I should probably sign up for a Procreate course. The app is so deep that I know I'm only using the most basic features. If anybody has books or courses to recommend, I'm all ears.

Well, people who make a lot of money, do so, by selling lots of cheap, as opposed to few expensive, and I think that Procreate may be one of the best-selling apps ever.

I remember Corel Painter. It was about $400, and did many similar things.

I think it may no longer be around.

Last release in 2022, so probably still alive.

The marginal cost of selling software is so small that with enough customers, almost any price is sustainable. They are estimated to earn $2M/month from this app [1], which should be more than enough to cover their costs. 150k new customers per month is pretty incredible, when you think about it.

[1] https://app.sensortower.com/overview/425073498?country=US

I say this to everyone who keeps telling me that an iPad would make a better jailbroken Linux computer than what it currently is today.

A close friend of mine (art college degree) has switched from oil / acrylic / watercolor to iPad - after trying it once.

There seems to be demand for a general purpose tablet computer and stylus similar to an Apple iPad and Pencil. I wonder why nobody makes one?

Not enough demand to make it worth the effort.

Making a screen tablet is really hard. The iPad is general-purpose enough (and does not require a stylus) to make it worth the effort (and price -they ain't cheap), but a specialized one would likely fizzle, due to a limited customer base.

For artists theres many options and you end up paying for those products, quite a bit.

I keep wondering. Is there even a decent FOSS tablet (as opposed to desktop) environment? There are plenty of reasons why iPads and Macs have vastly different UIs. KDE seems strictly desktop-focused. Gnome seems to be pulling in both directions, but a considerable amount of functionality is only accessible thru crammed menus and buttons.

What about the apps? I've heard really good things about Krita, but what's the killer app?

KDE actually has the best tablet interface I've tried, but it's still a long way behind iOS and Android

There are movements towards making these. It's an integrated SW+HW stack problem and Apple has had years of leadership on that space. Times are changing.

What you would see in the past are "PC or Android with a tablet manufacturer's sticker on it". Wacom has a history of occasionally licensing their stuff for a laptop. And XPPen, for example, has made a few in the "Magic Drawing Pad" series now and they needed a few iterations to move away from being a generic OSI tablet to actually using their digitizer tech. These products don't excite tech enthusiasts - a fully integrated device, as opposed to screen and digitizer, comes with more concerns about all-round performance and value - and so far, the premium on them makes them compete with iPads. But there is tremendous demand for it - seemingly every "art kid" sees an iPad and Procreate as a milestone, because that combination is what the content creators they watch are using.

> Times are changing.

Are they? The iPad is in it's 15th year now. Apple has shown exactly what needs to be done yet there isn't enough interest in the open source community to develop (or sponsor development of) a solution. I don't see much evidence of change.

> because that combination is what the content creators they watch are using

But also because it's the best hardware and software and can be relatively inexpensive, especially if you are willing to buy used.

Yeah happy customer here for that combo. There is nothing that even gets close to it.

Remember when Wacom tablets were supposed to deliver that?

The iPad/Pencil combo knocks it into a cocked hat.

The kicker is that the Cintiq is around the same price (or more), and is less ergonomic.

Yeah. Cintiq isn’t much use when you’re sitting in a field in the middle of nowhere sketching.

iPads can be a bit more ergonomic than Cintiqs, but if you can deal with the pen-screen disconnect then classic non-screen tablets are significantly more ergonomic than either, on top of being significantly cheaper. YMMV though, some people need that pen-screen connection.

as someone who's eyeing this combo (for a beginner) - does it need to be the iPad Pro or will i be able to get away with an iPad Air?

Air works fine

And there's a big Air (same size as the Pro).

I do suggest splurging for the more expensive Pencil Pro, though.

If you want to go the other way, the Mini works with the Pencil Pro (I have both).

You will be fine with the Air.

https://www.creativebloq.com/buying-guides/best-ipad-for-pro...

About the same. The 120Hz on the pro feels very slightly better and has slightly lower latency. This does help a tiny bit for detail work. But you get used to not having it after about 30 mins.

You will probably be very happy with the Air. I'd recommend the big one.

I use a 2018 13" iPad Pro and I love that size because it's basically the same size as a sheet of 8.5x11 (or A4) paper. It's the perfect size for reading and marking up PDFs too.

Last year I bought and returned the M4 iPad Pro because they didn't make a Smart Keyboard Folio for it which I prefer to the more heavy duty Magic Keyboard. So I'm still using my 7 year old iPad worrying about what I'm going to do when it dies. I thought for sure somebody would make a knock off, but nobody has made anything that I think is as good as the Apple product.

For me, Procreate and GoodNotes are a killer combination that justify owning the device.

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