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I'm going to have to spring for one or more tablets (iPad, Tab, whatever) for testing ePubs, digital magazine ads, site rendering, etc. Because I don't have the consumer nature and also because I'd like to get the best return on investment, I'm interested if any of these devices is also productively usable in a design workflow.

One could throw a portfolio onto a tablet for client presentations, of course, and Adobe has published an app that allows touch control of Photoshop, which might have potential.

It may be a year or two early to ask this question, but does anyone here have personal experience incorporating a tablet device into their web or general graphic work, whether in the studio or on the road? If so, did it prove useful?

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Alan- I emphasized & reworded the key sentence slightly so it would stand out more. Please rollback if not to your liking. – Farray Sep 16 '11 at 20:05
Good idea. Thanks! – Alan Gilbertson♦ Sep 16 '11 at 20:21

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The ipad has several sketching apps that I find useful for wireframing. It's a decent tool for notetaking as well in meetings. You'll want to get a stylus likely.

As for art, it has some fun art apps. But I mainly use them for fun rather than any sort of production work.

IMHO, the iPad is just a really fun device. Just enjoy it for what it is. Read some books, watch some netflix, play some games.

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That was pretty much my take in the beginning. I'm not much into consumer stuff (I got an iPod classic as a gift, almost never use it), so the iPad wasn't interesting. The way things are going, though, I'll need that, an Android tablet and likely the new Kindle. Looking hard at the Thinkpad tablet, which has a pressure-sensitive pen. – Alan Gilbertson♦ Sep 17 '11 at 23:14
No one needs an iPad. ;) But they are truly a lot of fun. A Kindle is great, too. If it's all for testing, then it's a tax write off, right? – DA01 Sep 18 '11 at 2:16
For sure, it's an expense to the business. My inner Scrooge just wants to get the best return on investment. :-) – Alan Gilbertson♦ Sep 18 '11 at 4:37
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You might be interested in a recent Android tablet with an active digitiser, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet.

It uses an N-trig pen to provide pressure-sensitive input.

Here is a YouTube video showing the stylus in action, drawing in the Autodesk SketchBook app.

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Not too jealous about the lag he seems to get when zooming but pressure sensitivity is a nice thing to have and the fact that the pen tip is quite small is great... – Joonas Sep 16 '11 at 6:36
Thanks for the input. But as I said in the question, I'm looking for actual experience with a device in a graphics workflow. You can assume I've done quite a bit of research regarding what devices are out there. – Alan Gilbertson♦ Sep 16 '11 at 7:16
Ah, I understand now. What I had meant to convey, and perhaps did a poor job of expressing, is that with certain tablets it may be possible to substitute the tablet for a tablet PC, which I expect is much more commonplace in a graphics workflow. For what it's worth, that youtube video is by a woman who uses tablets regularly in her work as a costume/mascot designer, as a sort of mobile digital sketchpad. But yeah, all I can give you is secondhand experience ;) – Sean Sep 16 '11 at 23:11
Gotcha. Nonetheless, thanks for the response. – Alan Gilbertson♦ Sep 17 '11 at 23:09
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I used the app minimal folio for showing my own design work around. The layout mimics how the adobe platform publishes to the ipad (left/right swipe to see different items, up/down to see more in depth of that item). It also has support for video.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/minimal-folio/id385429744

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Also if you want something more presentation friendly, keynote is available on the ipad. – jenni leder Sep 19 '11 at 23:29
Thanks, Jenni. I'd not seen that one. – Alan Gilbertson♦ Sep 19 '11 at 23:58

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