A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly useful and fun apps that can really drive your creativity.
Below we’ll look at 30 different apps spanning several categories that can help designers and creatives out with everything from jotting down notes and wireframing to staying on task.
Sketching
You never know where you’ll be when inspiration will strike, so never leave home without your trusty sketchpad, or in the case, sketchpad app. Some of these are more for fun than professional work, but others really push the bar for the precision and finesse possible from drawing with your finger.
Penultimate
“The ultimate app for iPad. Stylish, powerful, and easy to use, Penultimate encourages you to take notes, keep sketches, or work through your next breakthrough idea– whether you’re in the office, on the go, or home on the couch. ”
Penultimate
Developer: Cocoa Box Design
Price: $2.99
iDesign
“Precision 2D vector drawing & design in an intuitive and user friendly interface for the iPad and iPhone / iPod Touch.”
iDesign
Developer: Samson Lopez
Price: $4.99
SketchBook Pro
“Autodesk SketchBook Pro for iPad is a professional-grade paint and drawing application. Using the same paint engine as its desktop counterpart, SketchBook Pro delivers a complete set of sketching & painting tools through a streamlined and intuitive user interface designed exclusively for the iPad experience. ”
SketchBook Pro
Developer: Autodesk Inc.
Price: $7.99
Adobe Ideas 1.0 for iPad
“Adobe Ideas is your digital sketchbook, letting you capture and explore ideas anywhere you go. Adobe Ideas is an ideal companion for the professional design applications from Adobe, including Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop software.”
Adobe Ideas
Developer: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Price: Free
Qvik Sketch Pro
“Qvik Sketch Pro is one those cool things that you just plain need on your iPhone and iPad. Draw sweet looking sketches quickly regardless of your drawing skills. Qvik Sketch Pro makes bad looking pictures look good, and great looking drawings look awesome. Try it, draw it, share it.”
Qvik Sketch Pro
Developer: Qvik
Price: $0.99
iDraw
“iDraw is the most feature-packed vector illustration and drawing app available on the iPad. With support for Layers, Text, Images, Multi-color Gradients, Brushes, a powerful Bezier Pen Tool, fully customizable Canvas Styles, Clipping, PDF export, and much more!”
iDraw
Developer: Indeeo, Inc.
Price: $8.99
SketchPad – Vector Drawing
“Sketchpad is vector drawing with your fingers. You can just draw with your fingers, it’s that simple. Sketchpad is designed to look as a sketchbook and can be treated as such; draw with your fingers and swipe left and right to flip pages. Sketchpad is a pure vector drawing application and this gives you a lot flexibility.”
SketchPad - Vector Drawing
Developer: Bohemian Coding
Price: $5.99
SketchPad HD
“SketchPad is a fun, easy to use drawing and note taking application for the iPad. SketchPad allows you to draw in a variety of colors, collect and browse through notes and share notes that you create on the iPad over email.”
SketchPad HD
Developer: SketchPad HD
Price: $0.99
Wondershare iDraft
“iDraft is a simple, easy to use notebook for iPad. You can draw a picture, make a record for a conference, or just write down what you have in your mind with iDraft.”
Wondershare iDraft
Developer: Wondershare
Price: Free
Freeform – The Vector Drawing App
“Freeform is a vector drawing tool for your iPad. Create quick sketches, mockups, or diagrams with this powerful tool. Export your drawings via email in JPG, PNG, or PDF formats, or save to your photo library. Create new designs whenever or wherever inspiration strikes!”
NAME
Developer: Stunt Software
Price: $9.99
Typography
Typographiles will love seeing and interacting with fonts in a whole new way with these clever apps. Also be sure to check out the Helvetica notes app in the “Notes and Productivity” section below.
iFontMaker
“iFontMaker is the first font editor exclusive for iPad. With the touch interface, your 100% original hand typeface can be done in 5 minutes. You can email the typography or convert it into a TTF file available in all applications such as Adobe CreativeSuite, Microsoft Office for Mac and Windows, and also in your web site as a web font!”
iFontMaker
Developer: The 2TTF
Price: $6.99
Typefaces
“Typefaces is a font viewer for iPhone and iPad. This application shows you all the fonts in your device and all the glyphs included those fonts”
Typefaces
Developer: kanotomo
Price: Free
TypeDrawing for iPad
“TypeDrawing is a really easy app to use, but it’s perfect for creating typography art and unique watermarks over your photos. If you love typography, this poetic visual art app is absolutely yours.”
TypeDrawing for iPad
Developer: Hansol Huh
Price: $2.99
Font Book for iPad
“Font Book for iPad is a nice and simple way to preview fonts on your new toy. Install fonts in app (not system) via iTunes File Sharing”
Font Book for iPad
Developer: realazy
Price: $4.99
Mockups and Wireframing
The iPad is the perfect device for getting hands on with wireframing. The apps below make it easy to quickly rearrange elements and create new ideas.
iMockups for iPad
“Mockups provides designers and developers with the ability to quickly draft wireframes for their websites and iPhone/iPad apps. Created exclusively for the iPad, iMockups combines a beautiful interface with intuitive functionality, taking full advantage of the breakthrough touchscreen device.”
iMockups for iPad
Developer: Endloop Systems Inc.
Price: $9.99
SketchyPad
“We are proud to offer you a new app for website sketching and apps interface making, including iPhone and iPad apps. This app will make designers, programmers, interface designers life much easier. Easy-to-use interface and a lot of various stencils will help you to mockup any web sites and apps interfaces.”
SketchyPad
Developer: Nick Golovin
Price: $4.99
App Designer for iPad
“Design interfaces for iPhone applications, on your iPad! Wireframe a screen on the go, and e-mail it to a friend or business partner with a single tap.”
App Designer for iPad
Developer: Mutual Mobile, Inc
Price: $9.99
Notes & Productivity
Deadlines, conference calls, client meetings, and all kinds of other distractions are among the necessary evils of being a designer. Help keep track and manage it all with these great utilities.
Things for iPad
“Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager. Other todo applications either oversimplify or are too difficult to use. Things instead offers the perfect balance between ease of use and powerful features.”
Things for iPad
Developer: Cultured Code
Price: $19.99
Sorted
“Sorted is an intuitive To-do app, designed to help you sort your everyday tasks. Unlike many other task oriented apps out there, Sorted gets out of your way and lets you focus on what you need to do. ”
Sorted
Developer: Si
Price: $0.99
HelvetiNote
“We all take notes – somewhere. The iPad is the perfect device to collect our thoughts and organize our notes, but the apps available all leave something to be desired. HelvetiNote is here to simplify and improve your note taking experience. HelvetiNote was designed and built specifically to fill a void in the iPad app market, and offer us all a purist and more enjoyable means of collecting our thoughts.”
HelvetiNote
Developer: Rage Digital Inc.
Price: $2.99
Daily Notes
“Daily Notes converts your iPad into a beautiful and elegant journal, cased inside a leather jacket. Whether you want to take notes in meetings, record key points while reading a book or would like to just jot down your passing thoughts – this app is for you.”
Daily Notes
Developer: Ramki
Price: $4.99
Notes Plus
“A practical handwriting note-taking tool with palm detection, magnifier glass for writing fine text with big finger, stroke smoothening for faster writing, keyboard for typed text, PDF exporting, and Google Docs uploading.”
Notes Plus
Developer: Viet Tran
Price: $4.99
BugMe! Ink Notes & Alarms for iPad
“Jot notes with your finger, set alarms and save Stickies to your Home Screen.”
BugMe! Ink Notes & Alarms for iPad
Developer: Electric Pocket
Price: $1.99
Notebooks for iPad
“Notebooks, the one and only notebook that you’ll ever need, is now available for the iPad. It has been optimized for and takes advantage of the iPad’s new capabilities, and thus delivers even more value and better experience than the original Notebooks for iPhone.”
Notebooks for iPad
Developer: Alfons Schmid
Price: $8.99
Notably
“Lovingly handcrafted for Apple’s revolutionary device, Notably is a simple and beautiful way to write on your iPad.”
Notably
Developer: Notably
Price: $2.99
Notorium Notes
“The best notes taking app on the iPad! Stunning user interface. Customize your notes with a choice of different paper textures and fonts. Organize your notes by Category & Subject”
Notorium Notes
Developer: App Apps, LLC
Price: $3.99
Moodboard Pro
“Moodboard Pro is an amazing app for organizing all the things that inspire you. Our customers have used Moodboard Pro to design websites, plan weddings, visualize films, organize art projects, plan perfect vacations, achieve goals, create collages, and much more. Our beautiful, intuitive interface will help you create custom mood and inspiration boards right on your iPad. ”
Moodboard Pro
Developer: A Tiny Tribe llc.
Price: $4.99
Reading
iPads and other e-readers are quickly replacing bookshelves and becoming the personal library of the future. Add to yours with these magazines tailored specifically for knowledge-hungry designers like you.
Web Designer Magazine
“Web Designer is the premier magazine for aspiring online creatives and industry professionals. The monthly title offers cutting-edge practical projects spanning XHTML, CSS, Flash and WordPress as well as hosting features and interviews with the web community’s most influential people.”
Web Designer Magazine
Developer: Pixel Mags
Price: $1.99 (Each Issue is $4.99)
Computer Arts
“Computer Arts, the Italian magazine dedicated to digital design and computer graphics, is now available as an iPad App. Read our tutorials on Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Illustrator and many more, discover our features about the world of design you love and how you can make money with your skills, and learn how the professionals create their masterpieces.”
Computer Arts
Developer: Sprea Editori spa
Price: Free
Development
The iPad may not be the optimal device for web development, but this app will come in handy when you’re out and about and need to make a quick change to a live site.
Markup for iPad
“Markup for iPad lets you connect to your websites and edit the text files within them.”
Markup for iPad
Developer: Soroush Khanlou
Price: $9.99
What Did We Miss?
The thirty apps above should go a long way towards filling your iPad with apps close enough to being work related that you can probably count them as tax deductions.
What great apps have you found that are fun and useful for creative types? Tell us about your favorites and leave a link below.
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A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
A fancy new iPad is the perfect travel companion for any designer. The richness of the large multi-touch screen makes for some incredibly ...
Great list…some that I didn’t even know existed.
One you may have forgotten about is FTP on the Go Pro.
And you may even want to mention WordPress?
I love WordPress, the best blogging platform I’ve used!
Taska is by far my favorite ToDo list for the iPad. And don’t forget about the code editor Gusto (better than Markup, in my opinion). Great list!
Oh, and GoodReader is also pretty useful for some many reasons!
Great list – I’d add Omnigraffle for wireframes.
you missed gusto ! a brilliant app for editing website on the go !
I love Computer Arts and Computer Arts Projects. Why aren’t they available digitally in the US!?! I’ve been reading Digital Artist on my iPhone for months!
Excellent roundup…a couple new ones I will be checking out. I’d also put a vote in for GoodReader. The Zinio app has also come a long way since it originally launched and I enjoy a couple design mags via that app. LogMeIn Ignition has been indispensable for me a couple times when I really needed to get a couple things done on my primary desktop machine while on the road.
You may want to add Draft for iPad from 37signals – http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2420-launch-draft-for-ipad
There are some useful apps in this roundup, but I just cant get rid of the feeling that the whole “design on an ipad” fashion is just a gimmick.
Are these apps really “Essential”? I don’t think so.
Just ask yourself how many times are you going to design something on the iPad? I don’t see any use for those apps apart from the situation where I’d have to do something really fast when I’m outside the office, and this happens once or twice a year…
Are you going to design or code websites on your iPad?? Lay out website wireframes? Draw on the iPad? I will definitely not use my iPad for those things. It’s just uncomfortable… Mac/Pc with a mouse or touchpad is much more suited to do this kind of jobs.
So tu sum up I think that these apps have their very limited uses, but designing on the iPad is just too uncomfortable for me…
I want to design and build anywhere, anytime. I’m not passing judgment, but you seem to be thinking of working in the traditional sense of being at your desk. Many tools are not powerful enough to finish the design, but if I can capture my ideas quickly while fresh, then that works for me.
Often I break away from the office and just head to a good coffee house where I can relax and brainstorm. I get a lot of concepts going, even outline a plan, and do a little research. Save it all to a cloud so I can complete it when I am at my desk. In some cases, I can finish everything on the iPad. But you’ve got to change the “way” you work to be able to make it work. imho
I agree – I love doing notes and making design sketches on the iPad. Because it is less ‘computer-like’ it feels much less intimidating to me than opening up the Adobe CS suite on my Macbook Pro, and its much more useful than scribbling things on paper – I can instantly email sketches and ideas to anyone.
Awesome collection, also a thumb-up for Reginald’s adds.
Great list, but I can’t believe that you have left out Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/). It is a great note-taking app with a beautiful interface on the iPad – and it syncs my notes between my iPad, iPhone and all my macs and pc’s.
Essential: Brushes.
Thanks for this great list. You give me some reason to buy an ipad.
What about music? there so many great apps for dj’s and producers. TouchOSC is one of my favorites apps, yo can use your iPad as a wireless midi controller.
Definitely you miss apps for music creation and performance.
really useful ipad apps. you sharing creative ideas.
Nice list of apps. Also check out iDraw n Paint. It’s only $0.99 and has most of the features offered by these apps like multi-touch and sharing.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idraw-n-paint/id376110891
The best note taking app is Note Taker HD.
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/note-taker-hd/id366572045?mt=8
My new app Annamika for the iPad.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/annamika/id382103285?mt=8
check this out:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/07/ipad-owner-are-selfish-elites-critics-are-independent-geeks-says-study/
I’m sorry but has the author even tried these apps? Because some of the apps in the list are absolutely terrible! How you can tag most of these with the word “essential” is beyond me. Buyer beware!
Thanks for this great collection. Very useful.
these are of immense help to me…presently i am using just a couple of these…thanks a lot.
Great list. I used Things on my iPhone and synced it with my MacBook, but have gotten away from it as I’ve found many of those productivity apps need some serious commitment on the part of the user to make the most out of it. Great list of notebook and graphic apps though.
Taking notes on iPad is wonderful, I make notes on iPad daily. As I know, there are some iPad note taking apps can meet what you need, go to try the best note taking iPad app – Wondershare iDraft.
This is a great list. Penultimate is absolutely amazing, if some of these people who bad talk the ipad could see it they’d change their minds… but I suppose the people who bad talk it are those that really don’t have a use for it anyways.
Love the DoInk Vector Animator…like having a mobile animation studio. Enables me to create Flash like animations that can be posted to YouTube, Facebook, embedded in blogs & websites.
Uhm, since when exactly is Computer Arts an Italian magazine? Duh.
Hi Nils, I think Computer Arts is an Italian Magazine that later opened up in the UK. Or are you being sarcastic
The forum is a brighter place tnakhs to your posts. Thanks!
Where is Omnigraffle ?! This is a great iPad app and desktop application for wireframing. Very intuitive on the iPad. And there are thrid-party stencils for the webdesigners.
Thanks,, very nice,,,,cool collection
here’s another app for the list
Graphic Design Quiz.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/graphics-design-quiz-for-iphone/id387240098?mt=8
The app keeps track of the users score. The hi-score is “guru design”. The user can post the score on facebook as well.
i use most of the apps on the list and they are great.
here’s another I can recommend another. check this out
Graphic Design Quiz.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/graphics-design-quiz-for-iphone/id387240098?mt=8
The app keeps track of the users score. The hi-score is “guru design”. The user can post the score on facebook as well.
Oh Wow there’s some really really nice apps out, i wish I had an iPad right now >< I've seen em in comet and all but they are kinda weird, with the big pad and the really small white charger that looks like it'll snap
I use Evernote with the Evernote web clipper & special email address to collect materials and keep them organized and safe.
Whiteboard HD & Whitenote together do the job quite wel of sketching concepts and documenting them well, often assisted by PhotoPad to quickly crop or rotate pictures used, sometimes by Whiteboard Pro (for drawing/sketching together on the same board). WhiteNote can save to dropbox and googledocs and import pictures and pdf’s from dropbox and the picture library. I find the connectedness essential to kep your creative efforts save…
Great collection. Amazing job. Want to know more about it. ….
If u want to know more, just send me mail..
Joshua Johnson,
Fantastic Ipad apps.
I wish ,I’ve visited your site earlier .
Thanks for sharing 30 Essential iPad Apps.
Pad Folio is another great one.
Thanks for creating a list of essential apps for the iPad! Please add the ARTMakerapp as it is one of the newest and most user friendly apps for making notes, doing sketches, creating visual images that can be stored and reviewed as live action of the process, to then select the image to print or store. The final images are easy to email and their is also an option to email at 300 dpi for printing of more quality images.
Artmakerapp is an incredible addition to digital visual image making. To see more details about this terrific and easy to use app, visit: http://www.artmakapp.com
You will be amazed!
http://www.artmakerapp.com is the correct address for the above. Check out the video on this site while you are there.
Excellent post guys. The iMockups for iPad is a definite must for any serious ipad owning web designer!
This is exactly the knowledge I desired. Thanks for writing this write-up.
A quick note to let you know I’ve just released Brief Buddy, the world’s first creative brief cracking app.
Available right now for iOS and Android here: http://www.briefbuddy.com
In short the app is something that you keep handy for thought starters and inspiration when you’re trying to crack a brief, hence the name ‘Brief Buddy’. Think of it as a creative partner in your pocket.
The app consists of a number of creative brief cracking techniques, these techniques are unique approaches in which you can solve a brief, and accompanying each of these techniques are also examples of creative executions that use the techniques.
Also featured in the app is a ‘Tips from the pros’ section; this section consists of short brief cracking tips written by top industry creatives. These tips, insightful and often humorous came from my colleagues in the industry, some of which you may know.
We also shot a fun viral spot to promote the app, check it out on YouTube here:
http://youtu.be/7d5fn3ZgFEo
publish. It is usually outstanding
Guys, is there any applcation that lets me extend my iPhone screen to my PC so that I can draw in the iphone and it appears in the screen?
I mean, when i write in my iPhone screens it reflects in my PC screen, as if my iPhone were a drawing board.
Very well written. Very unique, impressive, and helpful information. Thank you for sparing your time to write all this in detail
jarago developernya euy! means that UI or UX designers has meaning full this applications worldwide even steve job was passed away..awesome! keep in touch!
did you know that apple brand has remarks to pineapple … hahaha… lol
so many apps ?!? – i think i`ve to buy a half dozen of ipads.
beside – i got one for free, and i think, its one of the most useless toys ever,
like nuclear-energy-dedector in your livingroom*s electric socket.
but this thing is so perfect in design, the brilliance of the display – wonder of the world number #? – which one?
@thiago
likethis?
http://www.thetechnobuzz.com/?p=408
Great collected works!
Really…..nice collection…
It’s a really great list. Idraw and Sketchpad are great.
Thanks!
Definately some apps for our iPad shopping list, thanks. What we’d really like is a MAMP/WAMP type app for iPad. That would be great for demoing websites to clients when we’re away from a connection.