Codonic
← Pad

Setup guide

Setting up Pad

Pad is two apps: a host on the computer you draw into, and a client on the tablet you draw with. Install the host below, open the client on the same network, and they find each other on their own.

Mac host — PadMac

  1. Download the PadMac disk image and open it. Drag PadMac into Applications.
  2. Launch it from Applications. The app is notarized by Apple, so macOS lets it run — if you see a “downloaded from the internet” prompt on the very first launch, choose Open.
  3. PadMac lives in the menu bar (an iPad-shaped icon, top right), not the Dock. Click it.
  4. Grant the two permissions the popover asks for — both are required:
    • Screen Recording — so it can stream the display you choose.
    • Accessibility — so pen strokes become real tablet input. Without this, drawing does nothing.
  5. Quit PadMac and open it again after granting both.

If you ever reinstall the app and the permissions look granted but strokes do nothing, remove the PadMac entries in System Settings → Privacy & Security and add them again — macOS ties them to the app’s signature.

Windows host — PadWin beta

  1. Download the PadWin beta and extract the zip anywhere you like.
  2. Install the free .NET 9 Desktop Runtime from Microsoft (pick the x64 “Desktop Runtime” installer) if you don’t already have it.
  3. Get an ffmpeg.exe — PadWin uses it to encode the video stream. Download a Windows build from gyan.dev (the “essentials” build is fine), and place ffmpeg.exe next to PadWin.exe, or in an ffmpeg subfolder.
  4. Run PadWin.exe. Because the beta isn’t code-signed yet, Windows SmartScreen may object: click More info → Run anyway.
  5. When the Windows Firewall prompt appears, allow PadWin on private networks — that’s how the tablet finds it.

The beta streams with software H.264 and injects real pen pressure and tilt through Windows’ synthetic pointer API. Rough edges are expected — telling us about them at support@codonic.dev is what moves it out of beta.

The tablet client

PadPad for iPad and PadDroid for Android are on their way to the App Store and Google Play — the buttons on the Pad page go live the moment they are approved. The clients connect to either host unchanged.

Connecting

  • Wi-Fi — put both devices on the same network. The client discovers the host automatically and reconnects after drops.
  • USB-C — plug the tablet into the computer and choose Trust. The cable is used automatically: lowest latency, and it charges the tablet.
  • No router at all — the Apple platforms can also link device-to-device (the same radio AirDrop uses).
  • Pairing — by default any device on your own network may connect, which is right for home. Enable Require pairing code in the host’s menu for a six-digit code flow with a remembered, revocable trust token.

If something misbehaves

  • Strokes do nothing (Mac) — Accessibility permission is missing or stale. Re-grant it and relaunch.
  • No picture (Windows) — ffmpeg.exe isn’t where PadWin can find it. It looks next to its own exe, then in an ffmpeg subfolder.
  • Client can’t find the host — same network? Some guest or office Wi-Fi blocks device-to-device traffic; a USB cable sidesteps all of it.
  • Anything else: support reaches the people who wrote it.