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Finox831

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 28, 2010
75
0
Got the Bamboo Fineline and Jot Pro, the Fineline is total crap imo, doesn't register correctly and you have to work around in a 45 degree angle. The Jot was a bit more precise but it scratched my tablet screen up (made sure tips were clean etc). Can anyone recommend a good drawing/writing tablet that's actually good, by being precise. Thanks.
 

Finox831

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 28, 2010
75
0
Just got Wacom Creative 2 or whatever and it's been much more responsive and the button/case are nice to have. Pretty happy so far.
 

Airslide

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2014
11
4
What iPad are you using? I have the fineline and it worked great on my iPad 4, but it's pretty poor on my new iPad Air 2. I'm technically outside the return period by a few days but if the Intous Creative Stylus 2 works okay on the Air then I may see if I can convince customer support to take it back by offering to buy the pricier one.
 

zhenya

macrumors 604
Jan 6, 2005
6,929
3,677
I have found the Jot Touch to be by far the most accurate, but the disc is a bit of a pain. Not sure why you were scratching your screen. I've written hundreds of pages of full pages of text and no issues. Overall I prefer the Jot Script even though it's not so accurate, but they need to update their SDK for the new Air 2, right now it's working very poorly.
 

Finox831

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 28, 2010
75
0
What iPad are you using? I have the fineline and it worked great on my iPad 4, but it's pretty poor on my new iPad Air 2. I'm technically outside the return period by a few days but if the Intous Creative Stylus 2 works okay on the Air then I may see if I can convince customer support to take it back by offering to buy the pricier one.

I'm using Ipad Air 2 and for me the Creative 2 has been much better. It's lighter too and has 2 buttons on it with a cool hard carry case ;D
 

Airslide

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2014
11
4
I'm using Ipad Air 2 and for me the Creative 2 has been much better. It's lighter too and has 2 buttons on it with a cool hard carry case ;D

Turned out I was (barely) in the return period still so I swapped my fineline for the Creative 2.

Love the stylus itself and the case, but I'm having pretty poor luck with it. It seemed to work fine for a few minutes then exhibited the same issues the fineline had. It's pretty evident just using it to scroll in Safari, my finger produces smooth motion where the stylus produces a jittery scroll. Writing has a lot of skips/gaps and gets distorted in weird ways.

Adonit is apparently having the same problems and claim a fix is on the way for their SDK, hopefully Wacom will follow. But I mostly used the fineline as a "dumb" stylus in Notability and was happy on my iPad 4. I have my doubts that software will really fix the stylus, which is a shame because I really want to love this one.
 

Finox831

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 28, 2010
75
0
Turned out I was (barely) in the return period still so I swapped my fineline for the Creative 2.

Love the stylus itself and the case, but I'm having pretty poor luck with it. It seemed to work fine for a few minutes then exhibited the same issues the fineline had. It's pretty evident just using it to scroll in Safari, my finger produces smooth motion where the stylus produces a jittery scroll. Writing has a lot of skips/gaps and gets distorted in weird ways.

Adonit is apparently having the same problems and claim a fix is on the way for their SDK, hopefully Wacom will follow. But I mostly used the fineline as a "dumb" stylus in Notability and was happy on my iPad 4. I have my doubts that software will really fix the stylus, which is a shame because I really want to love this one.

To be honest, i forgot where I read it but from what I read, Apple deliberately makes it so stylus dont work as good on their tablets because they want people not have to rely on using a stylus. Or it might be that we just aren't there yet...I think this is still relatively new and there is nothing really out that works really good. We're spending $80-100 on a stylus and to work sometimes is just not good enough in my opinion. The Creative 2 has been the best thing I've used so far but it does sometimes just bug out. I hear the Pencil 53 or whatever is really good, I have 2 weeks untl I can return this Creative 2, it's been decent so far but if I don't like it I'm just going to go with the Pencil 53
 

Airslide

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2014
11
4
To be honest, i forgot where I read it but from what I read, Apple deliberately makes it so stylus dont work as good on their tablets because they want people not have to rely on using a stylus. Or it might be that we just aren't there yet...I think this is still relatively new and there is nothing really out that works really good. We're spending $80-100 on a stylus and to work sometimes is just not good enough in my opinion. The Creative 2 has been the best thing I've used so far but it does sometimes just bug out. I hear the Pencil 53 or whatever is really good, I have 2 weeks untl I can return this Creative 2, it's been decent so far but if I don't like it I'm just going to go with the Pencil 53

I think it is less Apple trying to undermine styli and more Apple just not officially supporting it. I wish for art and note taking they would add proper stylus support. I understand why they don't want the iPad to be reliant on a stylus, but those are applications where it would be legitimately useful.

I'm in Best Buy's holiday return window for the Creative 2, so I may hold onto it a little while and see how things pan out.
 

mrex

macrumors 68040
Jul 16, 2014
3,458
1,527
europe
if anyone else reading this, Creative 2 wont work ever with air2 (officially said by Wacom).
 

Nausicaa

macrumors 6502a
Jan 11, 2007
607
283
Got the Bamboo Fineline and Jot Pro, the Fineline is total crap imo, doesn't register correctly and you have to work around in a 45 degree angle. The Jot was a bit more precise but it scratched my tablet screen up (made sure tips were clean etc). Can anyone recommend a good drawing/writing tablet that's actually good, by being precise. Thanks.

No offense, but there's like a million threads about this, including several on the front page.

Fact is the capacitive screen of the iPad sucks for stylus input. That's the reality and it's not going to get better until Apple does something about it themselves. All of the "active" stylii are overpriced and overpromise, especially if you've used a Cintiq or some other best in class stylus hardware.

If you really want a stylus you need to be open to non-Apple products like the Note or Surface. Even these have drawbacks, but they work well and are mostly accurate. I'm personally going with a Cintiq Companion 2 because over the years I've finally learned nothing compares to the feel of Wacom's pro level tech.

----------

I think it is less Apple trying to undermine styli and more Apple just not officially supporting it. I wish for art and note taking they would add proper stylus support. I understand why they don't want the iPad to be reliant on a stylus, but those are applications where it would be legitimately useful.

I'm in Best Buy's holiday return window for the Creative 2, so I may hold onto it a little while and see how things pan out.

Apple cares so little about stylus input they didn't even bother to tell manufacturers in this relatively large accessory market that they were changing their screen tech. Nor did they do any testing, I'm sure. I want to believe so badly we're going to see a real stylus for the iPad at some point, but Apple seems pretty uninterested aside from their dozen patents.
 

mrex

macrumors 68040
Jul 16, 2014
3,458
1,527
europe
Apple cares so little about stylus input they didn't even bother to tell manufacturers in this relatively large accessory market that they were changing their screen tech. Nor did they do any testing, I'm sure.


and it was pretty odd. i wonder if those manufacturers are even interested in making products for apple devices anymore. they have been investing alot and suddenly they reliazed that apple didnt bother to tell them that their devices wont work and now they have to face angry, disappointed customers. but manufacturers are giving back and blaming apple on their support forums... if i was a manufacturer i would ditch a company like apple. apple advertises alot productivity and artists playing with styluses, but they still overlook manufacturers like adonit and wacom who play the crucial role of this so called productivity with ipad. im pretty sure they have had long phonecalls about this disregard.

right now, dumb styluses are best for the money if you have air2.
 

ct1211

macrumors 6502
May 3, 2012
311
48
Michigan
Just got Wacom Creative 2 or whatever and it's been much more responsive and the button/case are nice to have. Pretty happy so far.

I have tried the FineLine and the Creative 2. Both have been buggy at best. Sometimes they work other times not. Make sure you turn off Multi Gesture if you want palm rejection to work (and keep image in place) Now that I have a bigger phone, I have no real use for a tablet. My idea is to replace the paper I travel with to meetings with a tablet and pen (with handwriting recognition) The iPad in current design is a consumption device which is all King Steve ever wanted it to be. My guess that a "power user" is someone that drops money on BlueTooth Keyboards for typing etc. When sitting in a meeting I have to write notes out as paying attention to others while hunt/peck typing on glass just does not cut it. Unfortunately I have spent a lot of money on every major note taking app there is in the app store to no avail. Now that Samsung has spent millions with the Note series and pens, the timing is ripe for Apple to take what Samsung has done and clean it up for a good user experience. Having said that, this I feel will have to be accomplished on a 12" type of tablet. As it happens, I spent a month with a Samsung Note 10.1 2014, it works great for my purpose but at the end of the day it is too small (awkward to hold and write on) Today I went to a Best Buy and played with the 12" Samsung Note - Wow. This is the size to get. I am going to wait and see what they introduce as a follow up to this device. Apple may also take a shot at offering a stylus but I'm sure its going to involve a $1000 "Pro" tablet and an $199 Apple (read Wacom) Stylus. I hope they prove me wrong, this would be such a killer feature for me.
 
Last edited:

ct1211

macrumors 6502
May 3, 2012
311
48
Michigan
and it was pretty odd. i wonder if those manufacturers are even interested in making products for apple devices anymore. they have been investing alot and suddenly they reliazed that apple didnt bother to tell them that their devices wont work and now they have to face angry, disappointed customers. but manufacturers are giving back and blaming apple on their support forums... if i was a manufacturer i would ditch a company like apple. apple advertises alot productivity and artists playing with styluses, but they still overlook manufacturers like adonit and wacom who play the crucial role of this so called productivity with ipad. im pretty sure they have had long phonecalls about this disregard.

right now, dumb styluses are best for the money if you have air2.

I agree totally. Read my last post. The iPad will never be for anything more than consumption. I think this may be one reason all tablet sales are dropping off. bigger phones, no reason to upgrade, lack of work related functionality. I know we all love Apple here but they are not going to invest in something that does not give them a way to keep you paying. I think they have taken notice of all the other $99 Stylus being sold that basically do not work. Again. if you're thinking of buying a stylus from Wacom or the others, they DO NOT WORK on a regular basis. Even paper 53 has issues and its now an Apple store darling. I take that back, if you want to doodle they will suffice. If you want functionality for true note taking or handwriting recognition (conversion to typed text) Your best bet is a Samsung 12" Note. That thing does work well (Its on sale for $649 at BB, which when you consider a ipad with 16GB of storage and cellular is almost as much, I guess thats not such a bad price)
 

waynerbbx

macrumors member
Nov 4, 2014
60
3
I agree totally. Read my last post. The iPad will never be for anything more than consumption. I think this may be one reason all tablet sales are dropping off. bigger phones, no reason to upgrade, lack of work related functionality. I know we all love Apple here but they are not going to invest in something that does not give them a way to keep you paying. I think they have taken notice of all the other $99 Stylus being sold that basically do not work. Again. if you're thinking of buying a stylus from Wacom or the others, they DO NOT WORK on a regular basis. Even paper 53 has issues and its now an Apple store darling. I take that back, if you want to doodle they will suffice. If you want functionality for true note taking or handwriting recognition (conversion to typed text) Your best bet is a Samsung 12" Note. That thing does work well (Its on sale for $649 at BB, which when you consider a ipad with 16GB of storage and cellular is almost as much, I guess thats not such a bad price)


I just think this whole thing is silly. If you want something that operates like pen and paper..... get a pen and some paper. It works every time, unless if your pen dries up.
 

mrex

macrumors 68040
Jul 16, 2014
3,458
1,527
europe
I just think this whole thing is silly. If you want something that operates like pen and paper..... get a pen and some paper. It works every time, unless if your pen dries up.


why should i get a pen and a paper when there are fully operational tablets with optimized pens?
 

ozaz

macrumors 68000
Feb 27, 2011
1,575
513
Got the Bamboo Fineline and Jot Pro, the Fineline is total crap imo, doesn't register correctly and you have to work around in a 45 degree angle. The Jot was a bit more precise but it scratched my tablet screen up (made sure tips were clean etc). Can anyone recommend a good drawing/writing tablet that's actually good, by being precise. Thanks.

Anything with active digitiser tech built into the screen is better than an iPad for this. E.g. Galaxy Note & MS Surface Pro at the high end. But there are also several relatively cheap Windows tablets that have this. This is not new technology. It predates the iPad by many years.

I just think this whole thing is silly. If you want something that operates like pen and paper..... get a pen and some paper. It works every time, unless if your pen dries up.

For me the main reason would be to take advantage of organisation/search capabilities once a note is in digital format. I struggle to keep my paper notes organised and easily retrievable.
 
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