Our Current Favorite App & Stylus: Zen Brush & Nomad Brush

This is one damn cool stylus, this Nomad Brush Mini with its conductive bristles. We've been using it on Leo's iPad with a variety of drawing and writing apps for a couple of months now: Eazel, GlowColoring (Free), Procreate, Penultimate, and -- our favorite -- Zen Brush.

Every time we break this stylus out in public, folks first get perky over using a brush on an iPad, then ooh and aah when they actually use it -- it's fun and, well, soothing. Especially when used with a really excellent product like the spare, elegant ink brush drawing/painting/writing app Zen Brush.

Leo enjoys goofing around with his Nomad Brush in Zen Brush (above), and the combo makes practicing writing a little bit easier. He can practice his stylus/pen/pencil grip without having to hold a piece of paper in position, and while the stylus glides freely over the iPad's glass surface without any literal drag (video below).

The Zen Brush interface is simple: three ink colors (black, gray, light gray), two eraser colors (white, gray), and a slider for brush size. I've yet to come across a person who didn't get a kick out of using the Nomad Brush/Zen Brush combo -- and I've brought them to several iPad workshops and conferences. Plus, all drawings in Zen Brush look good!

My "is this thing on" experiment

Leo copying me writing "bread"

My eldest's Sugar Glider.
She's a bit obsessed with exotic pets.

Mali's Twin Houses. The girl does have
a keen sense of balance and composition.

LOVE character calligraphy, by an iPad workshop attendee

Self-portrait by Steve Silberman. Love it!

One caveat for each item:

• The Nomad Brush Mini is tiny. Very tiny. If I don't track it and put it back exactly where it belongs, it vanishes (and in fact I'm in a bit of a panic as I type these words). 
• Zen Brush has positioned their no-undo, page-clearing trash can icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen. This northpaw has accidentally tapped & deleted several masterpieces.

Other than that, have fun.

----

Disclosure: I was given our Nomad Brush by a company rep, with no strings attached -- we really do like it that much. I purchased all cited apps.

Leo's Penultimate Stylus for iPad Writing Practice

Leo traces dot-to-dot letters,
then writes his name his own damn way

Leo got a stylus for his iPad. It's a Pogo. It's very cool.* We're using it with the writing/sketching app Penultimate ($1.99) to practice handwriting and drawing -- when we're not goofing around.

The core functionality of Penultimate is no different than line-based drawing apps like DrawFree, and you could certainly use a stylus to practice handwriting with those apps. But I think Penultimate is worth two smackers for its additional features: notebook-like organization and storage of "pages;" paper types (plain, lines, graph); and a clean, professional, well-designed interface.

I'm guessing the next, final iteration of Penultimate will be even better. Until then, it's a good way for us to provide anywhere/any time writing exercises for Leo, and for him to practice his writing grip in a motivating environment.


I find that using a stylus gives me more dexterity control. It's not quite equivalent to a good pen on paper -- there's often a tiny tactile lag. Not quite like a crappy pen on paper -- there's no drag/tactile input (or interference, depending on how you process it) -- and perhaps the issue is my adjustment to a stylus interface. But the lack-of-drag is good for Leo, as it makes stylus practice more fluid, and anything that makes fine motor tasks easier for our boy is welcome.

The stylus does seem to make a difference in Leo's letter formation, and overall precision. This first "happy" page shows me writing with the stylus, and then Leo copying my writing. Notice how well-formed his letters are -- he ran out of space and put his Y on top of the Ps, but the writing is very clean, for Leo. (Handwriting is HARD for him!)

The second "happy" page shows me, then Leo writing "happy" again, but without a stylus. Not nearly as clean as the stylus version, in both cases.

I like using the stylus, too.

When I moved in a predominantly ink-and-paper environment, it was doodle time all the time. Now that I mostly type, drawing rarely happens, and I miss it. I haven't liked drawing on the iPad before, but with a stylus, it's really damn fun!


It's also therapeutic, as when I got booted from the Stanford blood donation center yesterday because my hemoglobin was too low. They ordered me to go get a hamburger, and come back in two weeks for a re-check. I was frustrated -- errands take time, there's a real need for my blood type, and I have no idea why my body was being uncooperative -- but instead of venting verbally to the usual patient victims, I processed my irritation via the iPad. And it helped.

So yeah. Stylus. Penultimate. Recommended.

*If, like me, you think the stylus looks like something you could make yourself, check out the mixed reviews on the DIY tutorials. Meh. I spent the $10.

Disclosure: None, for once. I chose and bought Penultimate after researching the handwriting app category.