Astropad and FiftyThree’s Pencil pair up to take digital art creation to the next level

By Malarie Gokey April 16, 2015

Astropad & Pencil are best friends

Astropad’s professional drawing app for iPad and Mac has already taken digital art creation to a new level of precision and quality. For those who aren’t familiar with the app, Astropad links creations made on your iPad to an app on your Mac, so you can edit them on the big screen once you’re done drawing them by hand on your tablet. Now, the app is adding support for one of the most popular styli around: FiftyThree’s Pencil.

Although FiftyThree has its own stellar drawing app, Paper, its stylus is also quite popular on its own. FiftyThree already supports other popular drawing and note-taking apps, so adding Astropad to the mix is a logical step. When Astropad first launched, it had to pull support for Pencil because it was buggy. Since then, the company’s been working closely with FiftyThree to get support for Pencil’s full powers on Astropad. Pencil support was in fact the number one request of Astropad users.

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The new app update will allow Astropad to support Pencil’s special features including surface pressure and the eraser that’s at the other end of the stylus. The app can now detect just how much of the Pencil tip is touching the screen and interpret that as pressure, and it can extend that capability to a variety of other apps outside of Astropad, including Adobe Photoshop, Sketchbook, Manga Studio, Corel Painter, and more. Improved Autodesk and Adobe support are also in progress, and full Adobe Ink support has already been added.

Astropad took this opportunity to tout the impressive number of artists who have shelled out $25 for the Astropad app linking the drawings you make on your iPad to the company’s Mac app on your computer. More than 50,000 artists have used Astropad since its launch in February. If you’re interested, you can go download the app in the iOS App Store for $25, and the Mac companion app for free. FiftyThree’s Pencil is also available on its website for $50-$60, depending on which model you choose.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…

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