Remember the prototype drawing
tools that Adobe showed last year at the MAX conference in Los Angeles? Well, the company’s
Project Mighty and Napoleon have come out of development and into mainstream
market as the Adobe Ink and Slide.
Generally, the form factor has remained almost the same
although the Ink and the slide has more a minimalist look compared to its predecessors. The Slide for instance
no longer has the LEDs of the Napoleon while the Ink’s LED indicator has been
moved to the top of the stylus.
Both devices sport hydro-formed aluminium shells that give the
Ink and the Slide a premium look as well as a comfortable feel. The Ink uses
Adonit’s Pixel point technology giving the stylus pressure sensitivity up to 2048 levels allowing
users to control the thickness of the lines drawn based on how hard they push
the stylus against the screen. There’s also an LED indicator at the top of the
Ink that shows which colour is to be generated when a user slides the stylus on
the tablet’s screen.
The Ink also comes with a special case that doubles as a
charger. The case (which connects to the Ink using magnets) charges the stylus
using a micro USB cable for about an hour.
Meanwhile, the Slide is a straight edge for the iPad. When
used with the Ink, the Slide allows the users to draw straight lines and other
shapes easily. The buttons on the devices provide users with shortcut actions
including selection of different shapes for the Slide or the pen tip menu for
the ink.
Adobe is also making the SDK for the Ink and Slide available
for developers. Moreover, both devices require a Creative Cloud membership for
Cloud-connected capabilities including the Pen Tip menu, access to Kuler
themes, Cloud clipboard and sharing to Behance.
The Ink and Slide works with Adobe’s new apps – Line and
Sketch and connects to the iPad via Bluetooth v4.0 LE. Both devices work with
the 4th Generation iPad, the iPad Air and the two iPad Minis.
