Blender comes to iPad – with Pencil support
The open-source 3D creative tool Blender is getting a multitouch upgrade: A dedicated version for the iPad Pro is coming in the foreseeable future.
Blender on the iPad: 3D at your fingertips.
(Image: Blender-Foundation)
It actually seems logical that you would want to “touch” digital materials when using Blender. There are actually various accessories for this on PC or Mac. But now the use of the open source 3D package is becoming even more natural: the Blender Foundation has announced that it will be implementing an iPad version of the software that is specifically adapted to Apple tablets.
Multitouch you can touch
As the foundation announced in its blog this week, the aim is to go “beyond the mouse and keyboard”. As the iPad Pro has now become fast enough thanks to M-SoCs, this is now also technically possible. “The idea is to bring the full power of Blender to these devices.” The iPad Pro with Apple Pencil is just the first step: further multi-touch versions are also planned for Android and “other graphics tablets” in the future.
The target audience is “all Blender users," but especially those who want to perform specialized tasks with a pen, such as painting, sculpting, or 2D animations. There are also artists who use tablets as their main device – “and those who need Blender on the go”. Initially, the Blender Foundation wants to implement the basic handling of objects and sculpting on the tablet. Storyboarding and the so-called Grease Pencil will follow later. According to the Blender Foundation, the implementation is about dealing with the relatively small screen of the tablet. Blender for iPad will use a full-screen view, although this could change with iPadOS 26 and the new window functions.
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Step by step with user feedback
Initially, the Blender Foundation did not announce an exact date for the implementation of the iPad version. Information on specific system requirements has also not yet been provided, so it remains unclear from which iPad SoC the software will actually run.
Blender plans to show a technical prototype for testing at Siggraph 2025 in Vancouver in August, followed by workshops and discussions at Blender headquarters and further details at the next Blender Conference, which will take place in September. Apple users have of course been able to test Blender for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs for a long time.
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