Surface Pro 3 apps?

April 13, 2015 1:42 PM

What are your favorite Windows 8 apps that the pen/tablet aspects of the Surface Pro 3 can take advantage of. Writing/Screenwriting-emphasis appreciated but not required. I recently gave up OS X an purchased a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. There's been a bit of a stiff learning curve and I'm finding few resources for guidance. Further, are there sites that are updated daily with news the way Android Police or Android Central are?
posted by You Should See the Other Guy to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Autodesk Sketchpad is probably my favorite app, the free version is pretty full featured. I'm also using Photoshop CS2, which works but is sluggish due to it being 32 bit. I've heard people really like Manga Studio but I haven't tried it yet.
posted by hellojed at 2:00 PM on April 13, 2015

This Staffpad demo blew my wife's mind. If it's half as capable as this review makes it out to be, it's going to be a game changer for composers and arrangers. Keep in mind, that piece was written by the devs of one of the competitors to staffpad, Sibelius.
posted by bonehead at 2:01 PM on April 13, 2015

Drawboard is a PDF viewer that has a nice interface for writing on the PDFs with the pen. I know the built-in PDF viewer lets you do this, but I liked Drawboard enough to buy it. There is a trial version to test it out.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:11 PM on April 13, 2015

Artrage is a pretty awesome painting program and cross-platform without having to repurchase. Also just recently on android as well.
posted by sexyrobot at 9:40 PM on April 13, 2015

Microsoft OneNote is the killer app that gets little to no press. It is a digital notebook, and can be synced to OneDrive for access across multiple devices. It is quite popular with students for note-taking. Shockingly, it is FREE.

I have a Win8 tablet with pen input, and use OneNote as a logbook. It's great for sketching out quick flowcharts and diagrams. My wife and I have a shared notebook too, which she most often uses for grocery lists.
posted by gox3r at 12:45 PM on April 14, 2015