It’s been a big week for the iPad. The M4 iPad Pro and iPad Air 6 will make their way into users’ hands in a matter of days. That makes now the perfect time to start making a list of all the best iPadOS apps to enjoy while using the latest and greatest iPad hardware.
The question of getting things done on the iPad is evergreen. So we’ve assembled a collection of some of the best iPad apps specifically for creative professionals, spanning a variety of fields.
Want to create great things using Apple’s tablet? Here are some of the top tools to get started. Many of them will push the power of the new M4 iPad Pro, but even those that don’t will still run smoother than ever on the new hardware.
Video
- FiLMiC Pro is a video capture app that gives you full manual control of your footage. It supports shooting in ProRes and was even touted by Apple for that feature when the iPhone 13 Pro debuted. As an alternative, be sure to check out Apple’s new Final Cut Camera app when it debuts later this spring.
- LumaFusion is the gold standard third-party app for video editing on the iPad. Our own Fernando Silva even uses LumaFusion for his video work at 9to5Mac.
- Final Cut Pro is Apple’s own solution for iPad video editing. Years in the making, the app finally debuted last spring and is getting a big upgrade to version 2 soon.
Podcasting
- Spotify for Podcasters is the new name for what was once known as Anchor until Spotify acquired it. Anchor built a strong reputation for making podcasting easy and accessible to the masses, with a streamlined set of tools that take the complexity out of recording and publishing a podcast.
- Ferrite Recording Studio is the app I used to edit the now-retired Adapt podcast on my iPad Pro. It’s a versatile audio editing tool that works equally well when just using touch, or with an Apple Pencil, or a connected Magic Keyboard.
Photography
- Affinity Photo was the Photoshop-equivalent on the iPad long before Photoshop debuted on iPadOS. A powerful, touch-native design, Afffinity proves that iPad apps don’t have to be second-class citizens to their Mac counterparts.
- Photomator provides user-friendly but dynamic tools to users of all skill levels and has been especially on the front lines with utilizing AI and ML.
- Adobe Photoshop may not be the exact replica of its Mac sibling, but Adobe has done significant work to bring some of the most important editing tools to the iPad.
- Darkroom is a far more approachable app than tools like Photoshop, providing valuable tools for those who don’t need a full-fledged editing suite. Darkroom’s secret weapon is that it’s built for editing not just photos, but video too.
Writing
- Ulysses is my app of choice for writing on the iPad Pro. It features an elegant, exceedingly native feeling design, while also providing powerful tools that scale from smaller works like writing 9to5Mac articles to drafting entire books.
- Scrivener is a fan favorite among novelists especially, with an array of tools built specifically for managing and keeping track of various author notes, character details, and other world-building information.
Illustration
- Procreate has a long history on the iPad and continues to receive noteworthy updates all the time. It’s the most popular app for sketching, painting, and illustrating and has truly earned its success.
- Linea Sketch is a lighter weight illustration tool for anyone intimidated by Procreate. The app does a great job of curating a core set of tools and providing a distraction-free interface for creating.
Music
- BandLab provides a one-stop shop for music creation on the iPad, with tools that span the whole process from recording to editing and even sharing your music online.
- Logic Pro is Apple’s iPad version of the well-known Mac tool that musicians and producers have relied on for decades. Logic’s upcoming stem splitting feature seems set to take full advantage of the iPad Pro’s M4 chip.
Wrap-up
The above apps are just scratching the surface of the powerful tools available to creative professionals on iPad. While it’s undeniable that iPadOS comes with a variety of restrictions and limitations that don’t plague the Mac, the platform can still be a fantastic place for creative work if you find the right tools for the job.
What are your thoughts? Do you have any go-to apps for getting creative work done on the iPad? Let us know in the comments.
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