Writing, drawing and painting on smartphones and tablets

WRITING
on a tablet or smartphone

As you may have discovered, trying to jot down a note on a smartphone or tablet can be a less than happy experience. To scribble something down, it may be easier to find your finger than a pencil, but the ease of use ends there.

How about using a stylus instead of your finger to write on your tablet? There are any number of styli on the market for touch screen devices. A stylus can certainly make for firmer, more definite lettering than a finger. I have two, (styli, not fingers,) a Pogo and a Boxwave.

Truth to tell, I tried both styli out and have not used either since.

Drawback 1. You have to press quite hard with a stylus. The electrical charge in your finger elicits an instant response from a capacitive screen. A stylus is less responsive.

Drawback 2. Rest down the heel of your hand to write and the display starts to shift about. The screen interprets the double contact as a two-finger signal to move.

Drawback 3. The tip of the stylus of today is soft and spongy. Gone are the precision pointed styli of yesteryear for screens that were known as resistive. You could really write on a Palm or a Pocket PC.

I am telling half a lie, because I am now trying out an HTC Flyer tablet, which does come with a stylus hard-tipped like those of yore. However, this stylus will only work with the HTC Touch and its own rather limited little drawing app.

Drawing and painting
on tablets and smartphones

iphone painting style of klimt

This early effusion in the style of Gustav Klimt was finger painted on my iPhone.

Multi-touch allows for pinch zooming, which enables you to magnify an area you are painting or drawing on with two fingers in a pincer movement. This means you can draw or paint with quite a bit of detail, even on a tiny screen.

Because your finger covers the point on which you are drawing, many apps allow you to set up an offset distance. This places your brush point a little way ahead of your finger tip.

Is an offset a good thing? Not necessarily. Varying offsets can upset the way you are training your finger. You want it to move with pinpoint accuracy. Not all apps offer an offset, and it may not be possible to set exactly the same position in all apps that do.

Practice is the secret. A good painting app to get is Art Studio, which not only offers a good range of tools for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, but has a section of drawing exercises to train your eye and finger.

FINGER PAINTING
on tablets and smartphones

Drawing and painting
on tablets and smartphones

Writing, drawing and painting
on tablets and smartphones

FINGER PAINTING on tablets and smartphones

Drawing and painting on tablets and smartphones

Writing, drawing and painting on tablets and smartphones

FINGER PAINTING
on tablets and smartphones

Drawing and painting
on tablets and smartphones

Writing, drawing and painting
on tablets and smartphones