I think the Surface tablets are superior hardware compared to the new iPad Pro, HOWEVER, since I'm mainly going to use the iPad Pro for art, I'm afraid the apps on iOS are actually going to be cheaper and better.
I've been surprised by the quality, low price, and useability of of iOS and OSX creative apps. Hype, Pixelmator, Sketch, and Over. Are really good tools, and they are cheap.
The Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) are still the best tools from a feature perspective, but they are expensive, and they are now on a subscription plan. I don't make art for a living ... I do it for fun ... so I can't justify spending that much money every month, for something I might or might not use.
I have rented Creative Suite to use for a month on occasion (to edit a Wedding video and to design some invitations), but day to day, I'm usually messing around in Pixelmator these days.
The only thing I miss from Adobe is Lightroom. There's nothing like Lightroom. I'm stuck using the last non-subscription version of Lightroom, and will probably never upgrade. Pretty sad about that.
I wish there were products like Pixelmator and Sketch for PC.
The only thing I miss from Adobe is Lightroom. There's nothing like Lightroom. I'm stuck using the last non-subscription version of Lightroom, and will probably never upgrade. Pretty sad about that.
Lightroom is actually available for purchase separately, I think it might be the only Creative Suite product that's still available that way. Just search Amazon for Lightroom 6 or buy directly from Adobe.com.
I will say I like Lightroom but the way Adobe force updates annoys me. Instead of a new Lightroom offering new features and benefits, you HAVE To upgrade Lightroom for new Camera Raw versions (meaning if a camera is newer than the next version of Lightroom, it won't be supported on the old version).
For example, I own Lightroom 4 (2012), it does everything I need but I cannot use it with my camera purchased in 2014 because Camera Raw doesn't support it (even though the actual format of the RAW files is identical, just the camera's ID metadata has changed).
PS - Disclaimer: I actually have Creative Cloud now. Got it after my Lightroom 4 stopped working. It is the "At Home" deal via work ($10 per year for me for home, because my work already pays for an enterprise license).
>I wish there were products like Pixelmator and Sketch for PC.
Sketch hasn't really been replicated on PC yet exactly but I think web tools are now getting there. Webflow, Pinegrow and this new webbased one called "UX App" come to mind.
For photo manipulation, getting something like pixelmator is pretty simple on PC I think. I mean you have the corel software, serif software, xara software plus now Krita is a pretty good and fun painting program. You also have manga studio (aka Clip studio paint) and a bunch of other little ones. PD Howler, formerly known as Project Dogwaffle. I think even adobe released another recent photoshop elements too, which I would think could take care of a huge number of things that pixelmator does.
What do you want from an app that you'd like on PC? If you can't get a student version of Photoshop or something, then presumably Corel Paintshop Pro, Manga Studio, GIMP would cover your needs? Manga Studio is my preference.
Personally I couldn't fathom using iOS to produce anything significant without having a large hard drive, easy access to the filesystem, and a file manager. The iPad Pro will at least have a suitable digitiser, but I don't get why people would use an iPad with the limitations it creates.
I've been surprised by the quality, low price, and useability of of iOS and OSX creative apps. Hype, Pixelmator, Sketch, and Over. Are really good tools, and they are cheap.
The Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) are still the best tools from a feature perspective, but they are expensive, and they are now on a subscription plan. I don't make art for a living ... I do it for fun ... so I can't justify spending that much money every month, for something I might or might not use.
I have rented Creative Suite to use for a month on occasion (to edit a Wedding video and to design some invitations), but day to day, I'm usually messing around in Pixelmator these days.
The only thing I miss from Adobe is Lightroom. There's nothing like Lightroom. I'm stuck using the last non-subscription version of Lightroom, and will probably never upgrade. Pretty sad about that.
I wish there were products like Pixelmator and Sketch for PC.