# Jot Touch pressure sensitive iPad stylus



## Cid (Jan 12, 2013)

Just got one of these and have been using it a lot... Basically connects via bluetooth to iPad 2 or later. Latest iPad and iPad mini have bluetooth 4.0 which apparently makes better use of the battery (although they say 12 hours is standard anyway). I'm using the latest iPad, so it may not work as well with older models, probably some videos on youtube.

It's plastic-disc-at-end type stylus as opposed to a foamy round tip thing type (Pogo Connect).













The basic idea being that having a plastic disc as the capacitive surface allows you to see where the line is going... This gives it more of a technical pen feel (or possibly more rollerball actually) than the Pogo (second image) which is apparently more brush like. The construction is excellent, anodised alu with a firm rubber grip. There's a cap that screws onto either end, charges from the back via a magnetic USB dongle. Like many such things this is designed for a horizontal laptop port, but I've checked it on the vertical port on my PC and it's fine (er... i.e despite the pen being parallel to the ground and unsupported along its length, the magnet holds it). The body construction is basically the same as the much cheaper non-pressure Jot Pro (£25 rather than £70 iirc), so it comes down to whether the pressure sensing and buttons are worth the extra.

I've mainly been using it with an app called 'procreate'. Two other apps I've tried are Autodesk Sketchbook pro and Artrage. Won't talk about Artrage as it's no really my thing; good for brushes apparently. Sketchbook pro is good, but not as well realised as it should be (especially given that it's by Autodesk). The brushes are the right colours, but don't really have any texture - i.e a pencil line looks like a pencil coloured line with a bit of fade along the edges. There are a couple that look a bit more pencil like, but don't really work well with the pressure function (come out blotchy). Changing brush width and opacity is also a bit slow. What it does have is convenient access to a line tool and basic shapes (oval, rectangle) - line tool is of limited use without snap to function though. It supports layers, but at retina resolution (2048x1536) is limited to 6.

Procreate works far better with the pressure sensing imo... But aside from that it does just feel like a much nicer app for drawing. Their brush creation is really good; I think they're basically layering up textures... I'm going to look into it further because it's also fully customisable - you can use their texture library or import your own from images or drawings. There seem to be a fair number of users sharing stuff as well. The default brushes are good anyway though, the selection isn't enormous, but there's a very convenient right hand menu for quick adjustment of size and opacity... Quick access tools are limited to flicking between brush, smudge and eraser though whereas sketchbook you can bring up a side menu of favourite colours and brushes. I may be being unfair here, yet to do any colouring so haven't fully investigated options. Much better layer support on Procreate, think 27 on retina resolution, 10 on 'cinema' (4096x1714).

Procreate varies both width and darkness with pressure, although it's a little hard to tell how because the two seem to be sort of related. e.g if I use a thick paint style there'll be little variation in darkness, mostly just width, but with a 'wet brush' a light touch will give you a much lighter stroke. This is all fine really, just stuff to play with... Mostly using pencil and various inking tools at the moment, and it works well enough. The blotching problem you get with Sketchbook isn't nearly as obvious, but it does seem to crop up occasionally on the more sensitive pencil settings. Both apps have a free transform, can import images etc etc. Oh yeah, the buttons - not supported on sketchbook, on procreate they are set to undo and redo... These are quite easy to access anyway if you have the sidebar up, so a little pointless - would prefer to be able to set them to brushes, that may happen though.

Pressure sensitivity worth £50? Yeah, I think so... Just. Depends how much you use it and what for - you can certainly do a decent job without it, but it does work and quite well.

Last, and most important thing. Very little lag. Procreate I basically don't notice it with my normal brushes. Whether this will hold true for older iPads I have no idea.

Overall I have to say I've been thoroughly impressed; up until this point the iPad has basically been an expensive toy primarily used as auxiliary video watching device and for occasional portfolio presentation, but these are seriously good drawing tools. Hopefully I won't get bored and stop playing with their capabilities, but unfortunately cannot guarantee this. I will post some pics if I keep it up.


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## Cid (Jan 12, 2013)

Here's a er... quick sketch.





Alright, took ages but mostly because I'm rubbish at drawing and it's massive over-edited and I was pissing about with various options. 

Also, can export to PSD.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 12, 2013)

That's pretty impressive, tbh I've never seen the point in stylus' for the iPad...but that image is pretty cool! What's the lag like on using it?


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## Cid (Jan 12, 2013)

Basically don't notice it.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 12, 2013)

That's impressive, every stylus I've used on the iPad I've noticed the lag and it annoys...


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## Cid (Jan 12, 2013)

Well, to qualify that I've been using it a lot and not noticing and it's the sort of thing that winds me up. There are a few video reviews on YouTube.


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