How are people coping with the colour differences between iPad pro and Mac?

[Macmamamac]

One of the main draws for iPad Pro is AstroPad.

Working in apps like Photoshop on a massive lightweight screen with a quality stylus ( Apple Pencil ) while tucked up on the sofa watching TV is one of the greatest things ever.....but.....

.....the 'small' issue of the colour accuracy problem.

How are people dealing with the massive difference between whats on the main screen and whats mirrored to the iPad Pro?

Even if you aren't using Astropad, then how are people dealing with the lack of colour calibration on the iPad pro?

This was one of those things i totally overlooked but its such a basic oversight for a supposed Pro device thats is almost comical now i think about it. It's a deal breaker that the iPad Pro does not have even the most basic of colour calibration or matching capability.

This device is so far off 'Pro' in so many areas its feels like a rip off now.

The 'Pro' is going if i can't sort out the colour issues without buying annoying calibration devices. I simply just want it to match what i have on my iMac. ( Which has great colour accuracy using just the basic calibration tools which are built in )

Any suggestions on how other people are dealing with this issue would be much appreciated.

 

[aevan]

One of the main draws for iPad Pro is AstroPad.

Working in apps like Photoshop with a quality stylus ( Apple Pencil ) while tucked up on the sofa watching TV is one of the greatest things ever.....but.....

.....the small issue of the colour accuracy problem.

How are people dealing with the massive difference between whats on the main screen and whats mirrored to the iPad Pro?

Even if you aren't using Astropad, then how are people dealing with the lack of colour calibration on the iPad pro?

This was one of those things i totally overlooked but its such a basic oversight for a supposed Pro device thats is almost comical now i think about it. It's a deal breaker that the iPad Pro does not have even the most basic of colour calibration or matching capability.

This device is so far off 'Pro' in so many areas its feels like a rip off now.

The 'Pro' is going if i can't sort out the colour issues without buying annoying calibration devices. I simply just want it to match what i have on my iMac.

Any suggestions on how other people are dealing with this issue would be much appreciated.

Before iPad Pro + Astropad, I used my Cintiq Companion 2 connected to my iMac. And it was actually worse - the colors didn't look anything alike. Granted, I didn't do any special calibration, I just worked out of the box. I'm totally not "pro" in that regard (make no mistake, I've been living of my work for more than a decade, I'm no hobbyist or anything). The stuff we do in our game studio will be viewed on so many different monitors, you try to make the combinations of colors work on any screen, really. The whole idea of perfectly matching two screens becomes a bit silly. I know this sounds like heresy to a lot of people, but I don't really care that much. In a perfect world, I would be able to fine-tune what everyone sees back home, but as it is, I try not to rely on subtle nuances, find relative relationships between colors that work and that's it.

And the color difference between my iPad Pro and my 2014 iMac 5K is not that much of a problem. Actually, it is way better out of the box than any Cintiq or 2nd monitor I hooked up to my Mac. Heck, it is better than the difference between my iMac and my MacBook Pro. I'm really satisfied.

However, if you do need perfect calibration, you're probably using some additional hardware to calibrate your monitors and then I guess you're just out of luck when it comes to the iPad. But you asked for how are the rest of us dealing with it and in my opinion - it's fine the way it is. I prefer my iPad Pro + Pencil to any Cintiq I've used. But hey, as they say: YMMV.

 

[Macmamamac]

Before iPad Pro + Astropad, I used my Cintiq Companion 2 connected to my iMac. And it was actually worse - the colors didn't look anything alike. Granted, I didn't do any special calibration, I just worked out of the box. I'm totally not "pro" in that regard (make no mistake, I've been living of my work for more than a decade, I'm no hobbyist or anything). The stuff we do in our game studio will be viewed on so many different monitors, you try to make the combinations of colors work on any screen, really. The whole idea of perfectly matching two screens becomes a bit silly. I know this sounds like heresy to a lot of people, but I don't really care that much. In a perfect world, I would be able to fine-tune what everyone sees back home, but as it is, I try not to rely on subtle nuances, find relative relationships between colors that work and that's it.

And the color difference between iPad Pro and my 2014 iMac 5K is not that much of a problem, really. Actually, it is way better out of the box than any Cintiq or 2nd monitor I hooked up to my Mac. Heck, it is better than the difference between my iMac and MacBook Pro. I'm really satisfied.

However, if you do need perfect calibration, you're probably using some additional hardware to calibrate your monitors and then I guess you're just out of luck when it comes to the iPad. But you asked for how are the rest of us dealing with it and in my opinion - it's fine the way it is. I prefer my iPad Pro + Pencil to any Cintiq I've used.

Thanks for detailed reply. Appreciate it.

in my case, I certainly don't want perfect colour, i never use any specilised calibration devices even though i work in print. Its just that the basic in built calibration i have on my iMac is pretty accurate, and i just assumed the iPad pro would be able to mirror it.

In the past, if i work from home, then my iMac can easily be matched to the office iMac. No issue with consistancy at all.

However, working on the iPad Pro is unbearable because its so far off the iMac screens and there is no way to fix the problem.

Its not the biggest thing ever obviously. iPad pro is still great consumer device. But the lack of basic in built calibration tools is just absurd. Certainly not 'Pro' at all.

 

[Newtons Apple]

It kinda kills it for it being a Pro device unless you can do a color calibration. No one doing serious work in PS would be able to deal with this.

 

[aevan]

Its not the biggest thing ever obviously. iPad pro is still great consumer device. But the lack of basic in built calibration tools is just absurd. Certainly not 'Pro' at all.

I guess that depends on the definition of "pro". I agree, some way to calibrate the iPad screen would be great (pitch that idea to the Astropad team, perhaps they can offer the option to calibrate the picture within the app).

For me, a Pro device is any device I can do paid work on. iPad Pro certainly fits that area - the Pencil is the best stylus I've used and the level of control and precision, matched with pro-level software like Procreate and Astropad (which I tested with Photoshop and Zbrush, both work great) - makes iPad into a trully remarkable "pro" device. Still, I can't argue that it would be more pro with the ability to calibrate the screen.

Btw, what iMac do you have? As I said, my iPad Pro and my iMac have very very similar colors (at least to my eye). Then again, I've seen here there are different kinds of screen (warm and cold) of iPad Pro.

 

[aevan]

It kinda kills it for it being a Pro device unless you can do a color calibration. No one doing serious work in PS would be able to deal with this.

Than the work that has supported my family for years must not be serious, as I use my screens as they are out of the box.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Than I must've been able to support my family for years by doing non-serious work in Photoshop, as I use my screens as they are out of the box.

Then maybe good color balance does not matter

 

[Nausicaa]

Before iPad Pro + Astropad, I used my Cintiq Companion 2 connected to my iMac. And it was actually worse - the colors didn't look anything alike. Granted, I didn't do any special calibration, I just worked out of the box. I'm totally not "pro" in that regard (make no mistake, I've been living of my work for more than a decade, I'm no hobbyist or anything). The stuff we do in our game studio will be viewed on so many different monitors, you try to make the combinations of colors work on any screen, really. The whole idea of perfectly matching two screens becomes a bit silly. I know this sounds like heresy to a lot of people, but I don't really care that much. In a perfect world, I would be able to fine-tune what everyone sees back home, but as it is, I try not to rely on subtle nuances, find relative relationships between colors that work and that's it.

And the color difference between my iPad Pro and my 2014 iMac 5K is not that much of a problem. Actually, it is way better out of the box than any Cintiq or 2nd monitor I hooked up to my Mac. Heck, it is better than the difference between my iMac and my MacBook Pro. I'm really satisfied.

However, if you do need perfect calibration, you're probably using some additional hardware to calibrate your monitors and then I guess you're just out of luck when it comes to the iPad. But you asked for how are the rest of us dealing with it and in my opinion - it's fine the way it is. I prefer my iPad Pro + Pencil to any Cintiq I've used. But hey, as they say: YMMV.

Agreed. I have a Cintiq 13HD and the colors never matched my iMac, in fact the whole display is just kind of dim and drab and I would frequently work on my main monitor using the Cintiq like an Intuos.

The iPad Pro is all over the place in terms of displays though. Mine (128 GB LTE) is pretty good in terms of color but has some minor spots where the whites are more gray along the edges. Someone in my family got a 32GB gold iPad and the display had a totally different, yellow hue to it. I'm with you though, it really doesn't matter that much.

 

[Beavix]

If you want accurate colors on a tablet, get a Surface Pro. iOS has no color management and this is yet another reason why the iPad Pro needs something more advanced than the joke that is iOS now.

 

[aevan]

If you want accurate colors on a tablet, get a Surface Pro. iOS has no color management and this is yet another reason why the iPad Pro needs something more advanced than the joke that is iOS now.

If you want a superior drawing experience with a better stylus on a touch-optimized pro level app like Procreate, get the iPad Pro. It is a better choice for illustrators than the Surface. Joke that is iOS will serve you just fine - it is more reliable than Windows and more tablet friendly.

Obviously, the Surface is a great product, but iPad is no joke. Anyone who claims different is either trolling or jealous. Again, both devices have strengths and weaknesses. Depends on your needs.

 

[aevan]

Edit - double post

 

[TheAppleFairy]

Support group meetings, every Wednesday night.

 

[nightcap965]

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. -H. L. Mencken
Those who can't teach, teach gym. -Woody Allen

 

[Wando64]

Than the work that has supported my family for years must not be serious, as I use my screens as they are out of the box.

I've no idea what work you do, but if you don't calibrate your screen in line with the printed output you are having a very strange workflow.
I agree with the other poster that a device is ordinarily not quite fully cut for professional photography work if you cannot calibrate its screen in line with the other components in the workflow.

 

[mcdj]

Everyone in this thread needs to re-read it and understand that not everyone using a computer or iPad is creating for print media, and not everyone is creating for digital media.

For game or web designers, calibration is not a huge issue. For commercial photographers and photo retouchers whose final product is a print or a digital file and a match print, calibration is quite important.

 

[aevan]

I've no idea what work you do, but if you don't calibrate your screen in line with the printed output

Simple - I don't work with printed output. I agree with you, but not everyone is in the world of print. In fact, most digital work today is done for other screens. I work in a game development studio, and most of my friends to concept art and illustration for digital media.

For print, I agree, I guess need good calibration between the computer and the printer, but most illustrators don't really do print preparations and you can always open any work you did on the iPad Pro on the Mac to get it ready it for print. I don't think anyone would do print directly from an iOS device even if it did have color calibration. Then again, I could be mistaken. All I know the thing offers the best digital drawing experience on the market today.

 

[Macmamamac]

I guess that depends on the definition of "pro". I agree, some way to calibrate the iPad screen would be great (pitch that idea to the Astropad team, perhaps they can offer the option to calibrate the picture within the app).

For me, a Pro device is any device I can do paid work on. iPad Pro certainly fits that area - the Pencil is the best stylus I've used and the level of control and precision, matched with pro-level software like Procreate and Astropad (which I tested with Photoshop and Zbrush, both work great) - makes iPad into a trully remarkable "pro" device. Still, I can't argue that it would be more pro with the ability to calibrate the screen.

Btw, what iMac do you have? As I said, my iPad Pro and my iMac have very very similar colors (at least to my eye). Then again, I've seen here there are different kinds of screen (warm and cold) of iPad Pro.

I have a late 2015 27". Its true out of the box colours match quite well between devices, but out of the box is far too blue with not enough contrast to replicate the printed page. So i've had to adjust the white point and play with the luminance to get close to the printed page on the iMac.

The inability to do this with the iPad pro makes it a non Pro device as far as i am concerned.

Technically, everything you can do on an iPad Pro you can do on an iPad Air, only with a third party stylus in place of the Apple Pencil, but no one is calling the Air a Pro device and with good reason.

iPad pro. Not quite Pro unfortunately. Just bigger than the Air and supports Apple Pencil - Something i am sure will change next year with iPad Air 3.

 

[aevan]

The inability to do this with the iPad pro makes it a non Pro device as far as i am concerned.

Have you considered the possibility that it is a pro device, just not for the work you do?


Most - if not all - "pros" I know don't use one device. Whether they work in studios or freelance alone, they have multiple devices. As a standalone product, iPad is not enough for pro work. But neither is a Cintiq or an Intuos. You need to have a desktop computer alongside all these products (that may change some day, but that day is still far away).

The iPad Pro is a device to help you with a PART of the workflow. In this regard, it is very much 'pro'. It allows me to do concept sketches, illustrations, give visual instructions to my team, etc. It is the closest thing I have to a piece of paper and a pencil ever since I started illustrating digitally. And speaking of paper - you cannot really "calibrate" a piece of paper, can you? Does that mean physical canvas is not pro? No, it just means you need a desktop computer to prepare your scans for print. Same with iPad Pro.

What continues to amaze me is how most people here always find reasons something is not good enough. Meanwhile, most of my friends and me were ecstatic like little kids for finally having a large piece of digital canvas in our hands with a pencil that works so naturally and precisely that the device starts to fade and almost disappears, taking a back seat to the magical process of art creation. It's like a paper notepad with unlimited number of pencils and brushes. Calibration be damned, it - is - pro. It's not just pro - it's great.

 

[Sanlitun]

One of the main draws for iPad Pro is AstroPad.


This was one of those things i totally overlooked but its such a basic oversight for a supposed Pro device thats is almost comical now i think about it. It's a deal breaker that the iPad Pro does not have even the most basic of colour calibration or matching capability.

These were my concerns initially as well, and I ended up returning my first IPP after a few days.

After a while I began to miss some of the better points of the IPP and purchased another. I suppose I came to the conclusion that it is still a companion device and just a piece of the creative process rather than an all in one solution. And to that end I think it is the best portable device or tablet ever available.

And there is always the future and whatever capabilities that will bring for the platform.

 

[PattyMc]

All I can say is if the Surface Pro can be called pro for its desktop capabilities then the IPad Pro can for certain be called pro for its tablet capabilities!

I can do many things on IPP, rarely have to go to laptop these days, and I'm loving it. It makes me smile every darn time I pick it up, can it walk on water, stand on its head and spit bb's.... Nope, but when I want a portable device to do just about as close to my MacBook Pro as can be right now, it's fabulous!

I have owned just about every IPad from the very first one and the IPP has impressed me more than every one that came before it. I'm not expecting it to replace a full size computer for everything, I expect it to be portable, fast and powerful, nice display, and able to do my most day to day activities that I'd usually have to do on my laptop. It does 99% of what I need it to do and it does it very well, I'm excited about what IOS 10 has to bring to the IPP.

Color differences, don't see much of a difference when printing from MacBook Pro than IPP. If I was concerned with calibration, I'd expect to do that from a desktop, not a portable device. Each person has different expectations, I get that, but for what the IPP gives us....I'm very happy with it and would recommend to anyone who loves working in the Apple ecosystem and wants a great device that's portable.

 

[sparksd]

In a another thread I pointed to lack of color calibration as one of the reasons I don't do much serious photo editing on any kind of mobile device (while recognizing that in a lot of cases it doesn't matter). I prefer to use a larger, calibrated monitor (and Adobe Lightroom for RAW) for photo work.

 

[Beavix]

If you want a superior drawing experience with a better stylus on a touch-optimized pro level app like Procreate, get the iPad Pro. It is a better choice for illustrators than the Surface. Joke that is iOS will serve you just fine - it is more reliable than Windows and more tablet friendly.

Hey, I'm glad it works for you, but it looks like the iPad Pro is pro only for a very small group of people who do illustrations for a living.

 

[Macmamamac]

Have you considered the possibility that it is a pro device, just not for the work you do?


Most - if not all - "pros" I know don't use one device. Whether they work in studios or freelance alone, they have multiple devices. As a standalone product, iPad is not enough for pro work. But neither is a Cintiq or an Intuos. You need to have a desktop computer alongside all these products (that may change some day, but that day is still far away).

The iPad Pro is a device to help you with a PART of the workflow. In this regard, it is very much 'pro'. It allows me to do concept sketches, illustrations, give visual instructions to my team, etc. It is the closest thing I have to a piece of paper and a pencil ever since I started illustrating digitally. And speaking of paper - you cannot really "calibrate" a piece of paper, can you? Does that mean physical canvas is not pro? No, it just means you need a desktop computer to prepare your scans for print. Same with iPad Pro.

What continues to amaze me is how most people here always find reasons something is not good enough. Meanwhile, most of my friends and me were ecstatic like little kids for finally having a large piece of digital canvas in our hands with a pencil that works so naturally and precisely that the device starts to fade and almost disappears, taking a back seat to the magical process of art creation. It's like a paper notepad with unlimited number of pencils and brushes. Calibration be damned, it - is - pro. It's not just pro - it's great.

No, you can't calibrate piece of paper, but you should be calibrating the scanner if colour accuracy is important to your work.

I applaud your rock solid dedication to Apple devices despite their flaws, i love my Apple products too, its just that there are certain things that are not perfect, and basic colour calibration is one of those things. It has to be said.

I can do work on the pro and then just hand off to the iMac of course, but, sometimes i just want to email the work off immediately without having to check on the iMac what the colours look like. Unfortunately, thats not possible so instead of a dedicated Pro device, its more like a companion device. Which is great, but just don't call it Pro because it lacks basic features some ’pros' need.

Lack of colour calibration is even more ridiculous when you think Apple has marketed this product to artists more than anyone else, and so you would think colour calibration would be high on the priority list.

Moaning about Apple is fun, we do it because we love Apple and want the products to be the best they can be. No one moans about Microsoft because everyone knows they are s**t.

 

[cycledance]

diazepam.

 

[aevan]

Hey, I'm glad it works for you, but it looks like the iPad Pro is pro only for a very small group of people who do illustrations for a living.

This may be the case but I cannot speak for other people, though. I only speak from my personal experience and would never claim any product is great for everyone.