Top 10: Creative tasks with an iPad

10 Best Creative Tasks with an iPad

When the iPad arrived in 2010, it was quickly embraced as the perfect device for surfing the internet from your sofa. Its low weight, solid construction and the touchscreen interface made the web feel like an interactive magazine. But while the iPad was great for consuming content, its aptitude for creating it seemed far more limited.

The past 12 months have proved this theory wrong. It turns out that a big touchscreen interface is just as adept at pushing paint around a canvas or twiddling knobs on a recording studio as it is at browsing the web. However, the iPad’s success is less about its hardware and more about the App Store – where the device’s popularity has helped create a huge variety of content.

The blooming app market has turned the iPad into a creative portable powerhouse

The trend is for simple apps at low prices, but with indie developers bursting with enthusiasm and fresh ideas, many of the apps recommended here put PC software costing 10 times as much to shame. With inspiring – and hugely successful – apps coming not just from the likes of Apple and Adobe but also from cottage industry developers comprising one or two people, this is surely a golden age of software development.

So if you’ve had enough of Angry Birds and are ready to rekindle your creative muse, here’s the place to start. We can’t tell you exactly what to paint, draw, retouch, shoot, record or play, you’ll have to find your own subjects, but we can recommend the best tools for the task. So whether you want to get the dance floor heaving, upload images shot live at an event, or make a last-minute change to your orchestral symphony, read on to discover how much fun the iPad can really be – and what a powerful tool the right apps can make it.

Use this index, and the page buttons below, to jump to the section that appeals to you:

Page 1: Intro and Index
Page 2: Painting
Page 3: Illustration and Design
Page 4: On-location photo shoot
Page 5: Fun Photo Editing
Page 6: DJing
Page 7: Virtual Sculpting
Page 8: Quick Video Editing
Page 9: Digital Sheet Music
Page 10: Music Production
Page 11: Guitar Amp and Effects

To buy any of the apps covered here, search for them at the App Store. Prices can change – often rapidly and dramatically – so our apologies if anything has changed since this article was finished.