The Apple Pencil is a great invention, but there are many ways to get more out of it. Many people don’t know how versatile the Apple Pencil is and what it really can do.
Here are 6 Apple Pencil tips you can try right now to turbocharged your Apple Pencil.
Create different shades, textures and darker lines
When you draw or write with a regular pencil, you can obviously press harder to create darker shades, different textures, and so on. Apple Pencil is no different.
When drawing or writing on iPad, tilt the tip of the Apple Pencil slightly or press down on the screen slightly, and you’ll notice darker lines and different shades appear. However, the mileage will vary depending on which iPad app you use for your artwork or writing. The Paper app, for example, is much better at this than Notes.
Click to start a new note
If your iPad is protected by a lock screen (and it should be), then if it dawns on you, you can go directly to Apple Notes by double-tapping the lock screen with your Apple Pencil. A new note will open and you can start drawing and writing.
But don’t worry, you’ll still have to enter your PIN or use Touch or Face ID to access the rest of your notes.
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If you want to disable this feature, you can do so by going to Settings Notes Access Notes from Lock Screen and turning it off.
Draw a straight line in the notes
You may not have noticed that Apple Notes has a ruler. If you tap on it, a ruler appears on the screen and you can move it with two fingers.
When you have your ruler exactly where you want it, slide your Apple Pencil along the edge of the ruler to draw a straight line! Then use two fingers to move the ruler to a new location and use a pencil to draw a new straight line.
As you can see from the YouTube video above, you can overlay an existing image onto the iPad screen and trace its outlines using the Apple Pencil. The iPad recognizes the movements of your pencil, so what you draw is instantly displayed on the iPad screen.
Find Handwritten Text in Apple Notes
IPad has a search engine feature that can be accessed by swiping right on the home screen and then swiping down. This search engine can also search your notes for specific text, including handwriting using the Apple Pencil, also known as optical character recognition (OCR).
So if you’ve written a note in Notes on iPad with a pencil and can’t find it anymore, search for it by keywords. If there is a note, Notes will scan the handwriting and find it. Just make sure the handwriting is legible.
Scan documents in Apple notes and sign with your pencil
Do you have a document to sign? You don’t need to take out the scanner, you have it right on your iPad.
Just take this Apple Pencil tip: Apple Notes has a built-in scanner that you can access by tapping the camera icon and selecting Scan Document.
Now take a photo of the document. Then sign it with your Apple Pencil.
Do you know more advice?
These are the 6 best Apple Pencil tips. If you know anything else, let us know about them in the comments.
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