Using iPad as a second screen for Photoshop on my Mac?

[stanw]

I want to use an iPad as a second screen, and be able to draw/digitally paint directly on the iPad while using Photoshop and Illustrator on my Mac. From what I have read this can be done using Astropad, and Duet, though the info on the apps websites indicate you need to pay for some upgraded plan to be able to do this? Does anyone know what the differences are between the basic versions of these apps and the ones that try to get you to spend more money on for doing what I'm trying to do?

Thanks.

 

[Ideanj]

I want to use an iPad as a second screen, and be able to draw/digitally paint directly on the iPad while using Photoshop and Illustrator on my Mac. From what I have read this can be done using Astropad, and Duet, though the info on the apps websites indicate you need to pay for some upgraded plan to be able to do this? Does anyone know what the differences are between the basic versions of these apps and the ones that try to get you to spend more money on for doing what I'm trying to do?

Thanks.

I personally use Duet which works great. It's a one-time charge of $19.99 to receive the iOS app but there is no subscription and once you purchase it, it is yours.

I can't recommend it enough.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Duet is great, but this is the answer.

https://lunadisplay.com

 

[Ideanj]

Duet is great, but this is the answer.

https://lunadisplay.com

Is there any benefit of paying $80 for this vs $20 for Duet?

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Is there any benefit of paying $80 for this vs $20 for Duet?

Wireless. I feel there is less lag in my use, but may depend what you are doing.

 

[LibbyLA]

I’ve used Duet briefly. Lunadisplay is hardware, works over wifi. My use case is a strange one. I want to be able to use my iPad as a second screen for my Surface Go when we’re at our camp. Wifi is a hotspot, so no connecting one device to another. (We don’t have electricity unless we run a generator. I suppose that I could take an old router there and just use it for wifi and run the generator if I really need to have wifi connection device to device.)

That’s where the cable comes in, and Duet is the solution for me. It isn’t something I’ll use a lot but it does mean that if I have to do some actual work while we are at the camp for two weeks in December/January, I can actually get work done with small portable devices.

 

[macduke]

I would be very surprised if Apple doesn't include this functionality natively in iOS 13/macOS 10.15 with the move to USB-C.

That being said, I purchased Duet Display just to use as a second display. I didn't find myself using it much, but it seemed to work fairly well for basic secondary display, especially when I tried it on an iPad Pro with USB 3.0. I tried Astropad but didn't end up buying it because it's expensive and I don't use that enough. It seemed okay. There's another company that's trying to sell a dongle for wireless displays too, but I would be very surprised if it works very well. Anyway, I think Astropad probably still has a free trial if you just want to check it out yourself. You just need to make sure to unsubcribe before the free trial is up by going to your App Store settings.

Now that I'm moving up to a 12.9" iPad Pro, I will probably start using it as an external display more often.

 

[christophermdia]

Luna is amazing, I use it in my office everyday ... also great to use at home to access your Mac remotely from the couch right on the iPad ... I got mine on Kickstarter for like $60 but definitely worth the $80 ... latency with the hardware is way better than Duet.