Connected stylus and digital ruler mark Adobe's ventures into hardware

What will you draw?
Tactile sketching in the touch-based age

While we live in a digitally-driven world, many revert to pen and paper when they need to jot down a few brainstorm droplets or, in the case of creatives, doodle up a quick sketch.

Adobe is working on a few bits of hardware to bring the tactile experience of drawing with pen and pad to the mobile tech age, devices it outlined as part of its MAX 2013 conference today.

Going straight to the heart of old school sketching, Adobe talked up Project Might, a "cloud pen" that's pressure sensitive and by Adobe's account can draw a natural and expressive line.

It's connected in the truest sense as it's hooked up the Creative Cloud via software and a local Bluetooth LE connection. Through the connection Mighty can access Kuler themes and enable a "cloud clipboard" that lets users access assets that have been saved to the cloud for later use.

Gosh

Adobe second hardware exploration is a digital ruler named Napoleon, called so after Bonapart, not Dynamite.

Napoleon brings the feel of tools like the t-square and triangle to touch and gesture-based devices. While you can physically maneuver it, Napoleon creates a digitally projected edge for accurate etchings and can even outline arcs.

Last but not least, Adobe delved into Project Context, what it's calling its answer to "big content" and a continuation of the theme of bringing the analog creative tools of yore into the cloud-storage age.

Essentially Context seeks to replicate the process of printing out hundreds of sheets of paper, each representing a square of a larger picture, that are eventually tacked together to make a single large image.

Though the details are still vague, Adobe envisions using large screens with touch and gesture interaction paired with custom software to help individuals and organizations like news outlets see the big picture in a digital setting and share various assets.

Adobe is collaborating with Wired to build out the first version of Context.

Michael Gough, vice president of product experience at Adobe, gave a little demo of Mighty and Napoleon, which you can catch below:

Michelle Fitzsimmons

Michelle was previously a news editor at TechRadar, leading consumer tech news and reviews. Michelle is now a Content Strategist at Facebook.  A versatile, highly effective content writer and skilled editor with a keen eye for detail, Michelle is a collaborative problem solver and covered everything from smartwatches and microprocessors to VR and self-driving cars.