![]() ![]() This will allow you to take full advantage of the graphics card for optimal performance. Inside Illustrator and Photoshop, it’s important to go into Preferences and enable GPU acceleration as well. On the software side, downloading the Nvidia control panel lets you set the system up to maximize the discrete graphics card performance with your favorite graphics programs. I’m still fine-tuning the brush in touch mode, however, because out-of-the-box it doesn’t taper to as fine a point as I’d like.Īs with all new gadgets, there is both a learning curve and some tune-ups that can help optimize performance between the hardware and software. Its super-fast and snappy, I have lots of fun quickly filling up the artboard. I’ve also found wonderful new uses for the pencil tool in touch mode. Having to exit the touch workspace and select the next layer I want every time I brainstorm ideas is a pain, but I’m working on changing my flow to minimize this. The layers are especially missed since I like separating my colors. I miss my blob brush tool and layers panel to death, however, and wish there was a way to integrate these. This new view for Illustrator takes some getting used to, but once you start getting the hang of it drawing becomes a lot of fun. The touch workspace offers a more stripped down toolset, larger buttons, and an emphasis on making an uncluttered space for drawing. For tablets like this, Adobe introduced a new workspace specifically geared towards these devices.ĭrawing in tablet mode using the Adobe Illustrator Touch Workspace. A program like Adobe Illustrator is laid out for desktop use, and when the Book is in tablet mode it can be challenging to accurately select and use some of the tools. ![]() ![]() There is something to be said about apps designed specifically for the touch environment. Now I can gather reference images, photograph sketches, and render everything on one tablet-sized device. No jumping from Adobe’s Sketch to Mix to Draw, then sending a piece of a final drawing to Illustrator on my desktop to combine, layout, and finish. The great thing about the Book is, instead of relying on a nicely built but feature sparse app that frequently runs into memory issues (Adobe Illustrator Draw), I can just use full-on Adobe Illustrator with plenty of headroom. And as I’ve discovered over the past couple years it takes great hardware AND finely tuned software to compete with Wacom, the powerhouse of the drawing tablet industry. Earlier models of the Surface Pro were fine for taking notes, but for doing fine illustration work the precision just wasn’t there. My only hesitation was the touch capabilities. This, along with the larger 13.5-inch screen, means all the hardware is there for a lightweight and powerful graphics machine. The Surface Book, however, boasts a dedicated Nvidia graphics card housed in the keyboard casing (plus an additional battery, woohoo!). But for doing graphics work, even moderate Photoshop and Illustrator use, they tend to run in the red due to the lack of a dedicated graphics card. The Pro series boasts some fairly impressive hardware, like brand new i7 processors, terabyte solid state drives, and up to 16 GB of RAM, which is enough raw power to outperform many laptops, let alone tablets. The Surface Book is like the Surface Pro: Professional Edition. Turns out the Surface Book is just this sort of beast. But as it came time to replace my old work computer, I decided to look into this newer crop of 2-in-1 computers to try and find a unicorn, something with the power to handle complex designs with a touchscreen sensitive enough to accurately render drawings with a stylus. As such, I am always skeptical of new gadgets.Įarlier this year I came out of my cave and showed how I had wrangled one of my favorite, well-made gadgets (my iPad Air 2) into my illustration workflow, successfully simplifying things a bit and giving some much-needed flexibility as to where and when I could create digital illustrations. I like to think I’m a person who strives for simplicity, and I have no issue spending good money on something that works well until it falls apart (or, ideally, gets repaired and keeps working for a handful of years). ![]()
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