Blender 3D app suite could touch down on tablets, starting with iPad
(2025/07/29)
- Reference: 1753803973
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/29/blender_3d_app_tablet/
- Source link:
The open source Blender 3D editing suite may be adapted to run on Apple's iPad and other tablets, despite concern from one contributor that the team is already stretched with "thousands of bugs languishing in the tracker."
Head of product Dalai Felinto [1]said that Blender needs to run on tablets. Reasons include that they are the primary computing device for some users, that pen input is important for some tasks, and that there is value in having the application on the go.
The initial focus will be "basic object manipulation and sculpting," Felinto said, followed by Grease Pencil objects, which place drawings in a 3D space, and storyboarding. The first platform to be supported would be the iPad, with others to follow including Android tablets and Microsoft Surface PCs (when used in tablet mode).
[2]
Felinto said that designing a UI for tablets is challenging because of the relatively small screen, making keyboard and mouse optional, working with limited processing power, fully supporting touch and pen input, and coping with constrained access to the file system.
[3]
[4]
A demo on an iPad Pro will be available at the SIGGRAPH 2025 event in Vancouver next month, followed by a workshop at Blender HQ in Amsterdam, and further demos at the Blender Conference in September, also in Amsterdam.
The technical approach will be to add new core features to Blender to support a tablet UI, as well as creating a custom application template. Application templates are a feature of Blender that configure themes, add-ons, keymaps, Python scripts, and more in order to replace the default configuration.
Blender running on a Mac. It is a busy and intricate user interface that would be challenging to port to a touch-only UI
The community response to the plan has been mixed. "Blender devs seem already stretched thin on currently supported platforms, both in funding and dev time. There are thousands of bugs languishing in the tracker, known issues and limitations that are awaiting dev time, etc. I have given up on reporting bugs as they tend to just sit there forever," [5]said one contributor.
The Blender issue tracker shows nearly [6]6,700 open issues at the time of writing, including more than 750 crash reports. That said, the number of issues is also a reflection of the popularity of the project.
[7]The tiny tech tribe who could change the world tomorrow but won't
[8]Meta eggheads demo Bluetooth wristband that decodes muscle twitches for UI control
[9]Apple goes glass whole as it pours new UI everywhere
[10]Murena kicks Google out of the Pixel Tablet
There is support, though, for Felinto's view that Blender needs to support tablets, and the iPad in particular. "I work around lot of graph designers, UI/UX artists, 2D animators, painters, etc. All of them get a ton of Blender content on social media … then they usually search for it on the App Store, ask me why it's not there and get disappointed," said [11]another comment .
The key issue, perhaps, is that while adapting Blender to run on tablets seems a good idea, doing it well is challenging, and doing it badly could harm rather than enhance the project's reputation.
[12]
Will Blender on iPad actually happen? "The current plan is to invest time on this project to get a clearer design, and gauge interest," said Felinto, explaining that it would require specific funding and that supporting a new platform "has a maintenance cost that goes way beyond development."
Blender is licensed under GPL (GNU General Public License) version 3 and free to use. It is supported by the Blender Foundation and has more than 50 full-time developers, making it a major and relatively well-resourced open source project. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://code.blender.org/2025/07/beyond-mouse-keyboard/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aIjwGiyOs7CxP-czG1GznwAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIjwGiyOs7CxP-czG1GznwAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[5] https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-and-tablets/41558/36
[6] https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/24/column_settings_standards/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/23/meta_wristband_ui_control/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/09/apple_wwdc_2025_keynote/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/26/murena_degoogled_android_tablet/
[11] https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-and-tablets/41558/38
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIjwGiyOs7CxP-czG1GznwAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Head of product Dalai Felinto [1]said that Blender needs to run on tablets. Reasons include that they are the primary computing device for some users, that pen input is important for some tasks, and that there is value in having the application on the go.
The initial focus will be "basic object manipulation and sculpting," Felinto said, followed by Grease Pencil objects, which place drawings in a 3D space, and storyboarding. The first platform to be supported would be the iPad, with others to follow including Android tablets and Microsoft Surface PCs (when used in tablet mode).
[2]
Felinto said that designing a UI for tablets is challenging because of the relatively small screen, making keyboard and mouse optional, working with limited processing power, fully supporting touch and pen input, and coping with constrained access to the file system.
[3]
[4]
A demo on an iPad Pro will be available at the SIGGRAPH 2025 event in Vancouver next month, followed by a workshop at Blender HQ in Amsterdam, and further demos at the Blender Conference in September, also in Amsterdam.
The technical approach will be to add new core features to Blender to support a tablet UI, as well as creating a custom application template. Application templates are a feature of Blender that configure themes, add-ons, keymaps, Python scripts, and more in order to replace the default configuration.
Blender running on a Mac. It is a busy and intricate user interface that would be challenging to port to a touch-only UI
The community response to the plan has been mixed. "Blender devs seem already stretched thin on currently supported platforms, both in funding and dev time. There are thousands of bugs languishing in the tracker, known issues and limitations that are awaiting dev time, etc. I have given up on reporting bugs as they tend to just sit there forever," [5]said one contributor.
The Blender issue tracker shows nearly [6]6,700 open issues at the time of writing, including more than 750 crash reports. That said, the number of issues is also a reflection of the popularity of the project.
[7]The tiny tech tribe who could change the world tomorrow but won't
[8]Meta eggheads demo Bluetooth wristband that decodes muscle twitches for UI control
[9]Apple goes glass whole as it pours new UI everywhere
[10]Murena kicks Google out of the Pixel Tablet
There is support, though, for Felinto's view that Blender needs to support tablets, and the iPad in particular. "I work around lot of graph designers, UI/UX artists, 2D animators, painters, etc. All of them get a ton of Blender content on social media … then they usually search for it on the App Store, ask me why it's not there and get disappointed," said [11]another comment .
The key issue, perhaps, is that while adapting Blender to run on tablets seems a good idea, doing it well is challenging, and doing it badly could harm rather than enhance the project's reputation.
[12]
Will Blender on iPad actually happen? "The current plan is to invest time on this project to get a clearer design, and gauge interest," said Felinto, explaining that it would require specific funding and that supporting a new platform "has a maintenance cost that goes way beyond development."
Blender is licensed under GPL (GNU General Public License) version 3 and free to use. It is supported by the Blender Foundation and has more than 50 full-time developers, making it a major and relatively well-resourced open source project. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://code.blender.org/2025/07/beyond-mouse-keyboard/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aIjwGiyOs7CxP-czG1GznwAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIjwGiyOs7CxP-czG1GznwAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIjwGiyOs7CxP-czG1GznwAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-and-tablets/41558/36
[6] https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/24/column_settings_standards/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/23/meta_wristband_ui_control/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/09/apple_wwdc_2025_keynote/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/26/murena_degoogled_android_tablet/
[11] https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-and-tablets/41558/38
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIjwGiyOs7CxP-czG1GznwAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/