Adobe Projects Mighty & Napoleon touch-sensitive pen and ruler for the iPad

Adobe & Touch

In conjunction with a drawing app custom-designed and developed for the tablet interface, Adobe has kicked around additional hardware technology to permit more precise drawing abilities - can it compete with all of the other precise, pressure-sensitive pen solutions out there, including tablets with dedicated Wacom Feel technology?



It sure has taken awhile, but Adobe is dipping their toes into the touch-sensitive tablet market, which is a good thing as I'd pretty much given up on them at this point. Presented as an engineering concept at the Adobe Max conference early in 2013, the Mighty Pen and the Nero Ruler (apparently, these are not concept names, Adobe, have you and Toshiba been exchanging notes?) are now real products that you will be able to purchase... somewhere. Probably online.

An iPad, the Mighty and the Nero. "Mighty and the Nero"
sounds like that movie we all heard we had to go see but didn't.
Too bad, it won some award at Cannes.

 So it's a more precise 1mm-wide stylus nib with (undeclared) levels of pressure sensitivity, the big thing creatives are missing on an iPad, but in addition, it has some ergonomic improvements, unique drawing features, and some cloud-enabled integration to note. And by "note" I mean competitors in the space, please borrow liberally from them because some of them are really quite good.

In order to compete, the Mighty Pen has decided to be different
The Mighty competes directly with Wacom Feel technology for the iPad so it has to be an improvement or different in order to get the right kind of buzz. The pen itself has a twisted, triangular cross-section in an effort to fit the hand better. I've used triangular pencils and pens before and it's true that the right triangular pen does slip less and can be more comfortable to hold. It's twisted 90 degrees at its top to allow the triangular form to flatten against the opening between the thumb and forefinger, which is small, but welcome modification. The Wacom Intuos Creative stylus for the iPad boasts many features including 2048 levels of pressure, but it still has that fat rubber nib that throws precision right out the window. The Mighty apparently uses a 1mm plastic nib, so that's a notable improvement, however the only indication that it might have pressure sensitivity is from some reference here and there on the web that this new pen uses Adonit Jot Touch 4 tech, which has 2048 levels. If it is based on the Jot Touch 4, the nib should be advertised as closer to 2mm than any other number, unless Adobe has pulled some magic out of the hat. Adobe has also placed the barrel button in such a way that it won't accidentally be depressed while drawing (I can vouch for that) but that does mean pressing the button on purpose will be more difficult. I prefer a larger, more obvious button with more resistance that can be depressed without moving the hand too much but can't be accidentally triggered. Difficult to do in such a small object, I guess.

One really unique and notable feature of this pen is if you tilt it, the line thickens, as it would with real media

The Nero is... well, it's completely different, it's basically a digital ruler/compass that can draw...


The Pen is mightier on the Cloud
The Adobe's Creative Cloud in mind. This gives the pen access to various tools and settings synced across various Adobe software, such as colors from Kuler or brushes from Photoshop. It also features a clipboard that allows grabbing and dropping content from one supported device to another.

Word is that eventually an Android version will be soold, but Adobe apparently wants to focus on the apple platform because a) they like being abused by them, b) apparently Adobe users prefer iPads, and c) hey, Wacom already seems to have that market covered.

There's some examples of Mighty and Nero in use in this video from Adobe:

 

Feel free to sign up for the latest information on the Nero and Mighty here.