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Jun 01, 2024

Adobe Ink and Slide Review

Raise your hand if you've ever seen Adobe branding on a product you can physically touch. Trick question: All hands should be down. For its first piece of hardware, Adobe has created a smart stylus

Raise your hand if you've ever seen Adobe branding on a product you can physically touch. Trick question: All hands should be down. For its first piece of hardware, Adobe has created a smart stylus called Ink and a digital ruler called Slide, which cost $199.99 together and connect to an iPad (4th generation), iPad Air, iPad mini, or iPad mini with Retina Display. The intention is to help anyone draw or design without needing lots of experience with Adobe's Sketch and Line apps. Artists and professionals could find it a handy portable work platform, too. It receives our Editors' Choice award for being a well-designed and integrated hardware and software solution, all while connecting with Adobe's ecosystem and Creative Cloud.

Design and FeaturesSo what does Adobe's first crack at hardware look like? The company partnered with Adonit to manufacture the Ink, which it claims is machined by sheer water pressure into a sleek, slightly warped triangular design that fits any pen-holding style. We've tested many iPad styli, including Adonit's own (and our Editors' Choice) Jot Touch, and the Ink compares well; it's light and comfortable to hold. The Ink has a smooth aluminum finish, with small, white plastic accents at the top and towards the tip of the pen. A lone button breaks the Ink's smooth surface on the bottom half of the pen, which turns it on or off and connects it to your iPad, and brings up a menu in the Adobe Sketch app for quick adjustments and cloud saving or sharing.

What helps set apart Adobe's entry into the digital pen market is the Slide ruler, which looks like a tiny landline phone. It shares the same smooth aluminum and white plastic finishes as its Ink counterpart. When you place it onto an iPad, two straight guide lines appear automatically on either side of the Slide, which lets you draw perfect lines, even if you try to draw a wavy line. Slide's smooth top surface is also interrupted by a single button that lets you cycle through different shapes and templates.

The Ink connects to the iPad via Bluetooth 4.0, and once paired using the Sketch and Line apps (not in iOS settings), subsequent connections are seamless. You'll need to power the Ink up to use it, as the iPad won't register the tip without being connected. The Slide is capacitive, though, and doesn't need to be powered up or connected at all.

In the box you'll find the Ink stylus, the Slide digital ruler, a white plastic case for the Ink, a lid for the case that doubles as a charger, and a micro USB cable.

Adobe Apps and PerformancePowered by social design community Behance, Sketch is a socially connected sketching tool that includes pencil, thin and thick markers, and thin brush options. Adobe's Line app is designed for more accurate and polished results, and has far more options, including 2H and HB pencil effects, along with .25mm and .50mm marker pens, a thin brush, and a thick marker. You also get a 3D visualizing tool that helps with drawing 3D spaces or objects.

One of Line's best features is Line Snapping, which helps you connect lines to other points of your work. Additionally, Line has stamp packs that let you imprint objects, including shapes, nature, people, and furniture, as well as comic book and user interface templates onto whatever you're drawing. It's possible to use other design and drawing apps with the Ink, but you won't get Adobe's additional functionality. The Slide digital ruler won't work in other apps, either.

Colors and instruments are beautifully replicated, and Adobe uses Adonit's Pixelpoint technology for life-like pressure sensitivity. However, it's a little difficult to master; lines made with the .25 and .50 mm markers will always begin with a blob, as if I was applying a lot of pressure from the moment I placed the Ink's tip onto the iPad screen, even though I didn't want to create that effect.

To help make the drawing experience as close to your personal style as possible, you can adjust Palm Preference in the Sketch and Line apps, which is meant to adjust where on the iPad's screen the Ink's tip will draw according to how you normally hold your real pen to paper. But the tip is quite thick, which makes it more difficult to gauge exactly where a line would be drawn. For example, coloring in tight spaces often led to colors bleeding outside the lines, but those who have used Adonit pens before will be familiar with the tip. Additionally, spinning the iPad around to draw at a different angle as I would with real paper caused havoc with the Ink's accuracy, so there's still a considerable learning curve.

You can also enable Palm Rejection to prevent your palm from intruding into your work. But this didn't work all that well, as lines would be drawn where my palm was resting. If you normally lay your palm on the surface you draw on, you may need to make some re-adjustments to your style when using the Ink and Slide on apps. Hopefully Adobe will take notice and roll out software updates to amend this issue.

ConclusionIt doesn't replace innate talent or years of training, but combined with the Sketch and Line apps, Adobe's Ink and Slide can provide non-artists and non-designers the ability to create something they otherwise might not even attempt. And professionals might find it useful for light work when their usual tools are out of reach. Some practice is needed to get used to Ink's and Slide's occasional quirkiness, but once you get closer to mastering Adobe's hardware, the results can be excellent.

In unison with the Sketch and Line apps, Adobe's Ink and Slide hardware can help anyone produce art and design work on an iPad without professional training.

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