Adobe’s New Pen And Ruler Tease The Future Of Digital Creativity
Its not just a neat stylus and ruler. If Adobes new tools are a hit, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects change forever.
I draw a perfectly straight line on my iPad. Then I bisect it at a true 90 degrees. I draw triangles and circles and squares until the screen is cacophony of pristine shapes.
I’m using Adobe’s new hardware–a stylus called Ink and a ruler called Slide, which are available as a pair for $200 today. Born from an unfunded, skunkworks project within Adobe’s walls, the company teamed with Ammunition–the same design firm behind Beats–to craft this aluminum hardware that teases the future of the company and how all of us will create digital media tomorrow.
“Our interaction methods are pretty long in the tooth. The mouse and keyboard are growing ancient. A lot of things we did were innovations 20 years ago. Now they’re habituations,” admits Michael Gough, vice president of Experience Design, Adobe. “We’re used to using that control key. Was that the best way we could expose that experience? Probably not.”
