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Makosuke

macrumors 604
Original poster
Aug 15, 2001
6,832
1,576
The Cool Part of CA, USA
Is anybody here using Clip Studio EX for comic/manga production on an iPad? If so, has anybody tested it for serious work on a non-Pro iPad?

My use case: I work with an artist using Clip Studio EX for greyscale art, ~50 page story files, at print resolutions (600dpi), in two-page 6"x8" spreads (so 12"x8" documents, 7200x4800 pixels).

They're currently using a garbage PC and cheap tablet, so the "at least this good" point here is a low bar--not coming in from a pro rig with a Cintiq or something. The upcoming iPad Air with a Pencil mk2 is looking like an extremely tempting primary art tool. What I'm wondering, though, is whether the performance is going to be acceptable working on that vs. an iPad Pro.

CSP doesn't do a lot of parallel processing that I've seen, at least on Mac, so on paper the CPU grunt on an A14 should actually be faster than an A12X/Z for a lot of things, and most of the "Pro" features aren't relevant for this sort of work, meaning the primary difference is 6GB of RAM versus (apparently) 4GB. Also screen size, if the 13" was both affordable and desirable, neither of which is a given.

I spent a half hour goofing around with some files on my iPhone 11, which (again, on paper) has a slower CPU and the same amount of RAM driving a smaller screen, and it honestly felt good. Crowded tiny-screen UI aside, at least as responsive as on a 6-core i9 laptop. But I'm not an artist, so this wasn't a heavy-lift test. RAM use was surprisingly low, the phone got nowhere near as warm as it does running video conferencing apps, and the battery drain was almost shockingly mild.

Obviously nobody here has used a next-gen iPad Air, but has anybody used CSP with print-res files on an older non-Pro iPad or iPad Air? How was it? Battery life? Responsiveness? Lag with the Pencil?
 
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