

#USE APPLE PENCIL EVERNOTE IPAD PRO#
As it is now, the Pro notes are just too small for me to change in a meaningful way on my 6S’ screen. Zoom functionality would help me add finer detail to notes, but also make it possible to edit iPad Pro notes on my iPhone. The only thing missing for this workflow is zoom functionality and buttons to quickly jump between drawings inside of the same note. It has been really useful for writing out article outlines and then shifting text around using the cutting tool. I was never a huge fan of Penultimate’s inking engine, but it works very well with the Pencil. The drawing tools within Evernote are limited to a pen, highlighter, cutting tool, and eraser, but that’s really all you need for quick sketches and meeting notes. This is interesting because Evernote has some fantastic optical character recognition capabilities built into the service.
#USE APPLE PENCIL EVERNOTE IPAD UPDATE#
EvernoteĮvernote’s most recent update has begun to add the drawing and writing features from its Penultimate app. Instead of feeling like an anxious user waiting on more powerful features, Procreate gives me the distinct feeling it’s simply waiting on input.

This is a class leader in terms of iPad apps. Procreate is probably one of the best drawing apps I’ve ever used, and even though my focus in this article is on note-taking, this app is so good that it still deserves a quick mention. In preparation for this article, I’ve spent a lot of time on the iPad Pro in a particular set of apps that have fine-tuned their experience with the Pencil. This is something that no other iOS or OS X device can do as well, and it’s a a very powerful selling point for the iPad platform. You can rest your hand anywhere on the screen when you want to write, and drawing feels very natural, especially when you can physically rotate or tilt the entire canvas. We’ve been able to use iPads as little writing laptops for a few years now, but the Pencil is what allows you to use an iPad like a blank sheet. I don’t think it’s overdramatic to say that it sets the form factor free. It has the power to turn metal and glass into something similar enough to paper. Prior to the Pencil, writing and drawing on iPads always took a considerable degree of contortion to succeed in.Īpple’s Pencil is noteworthy because it breaks all of the rules that other stylii had to abide by…and it just works. All of the third-party stylii with palm rejection only worked about 50% of the time because they were at odds with multitasking gestures built right into iOS. Keeping the palm off of the screen has always been of paramount importance, lest you accidentally activate a multitasking gesture, or leave weird marks on the page from where your palm was resting. However, creating these diagrams with any degree of accuracy has always taken extra effort on the iPad. There are many instances where text notes don’t fully capture an idea, where a quick diagram would do far more to preserve a memory or train of thought. With the introduction of this accessory, Apple has suddenly given Evernote, Paper, and their own Notes app far greater appeal. This is where the Pencil comes in for me. There’s a lot to delight in when you’re writing with quality tools. The scratchiness of a fountain pen on good paper, the sensation of posting a cap before you write, and the way the ink flows over the page - all of these sensations are satisfying in a similar way to typing on a great keyboard. I also type far faster than I can write.īut there is no denying there’s a romantic aspect to writing with a real pen, even to a zero-and-one digital loyalist like myself. Digital notes can be tagged, duplicated, and synced to any of my devices. I acknowledge how silly that sounds, but digital has always been a more comfortable medium for note-taking than a paper notebook, at least as far as I’m concerned.

There are lots of pen-and-paper users out there, and I’ve actually spent a fair amount of time and money over the past year in an effort to become one. The pinpoint accuracy and the incredible palm rejection make for the very best drawing device I’ve ever used on iOS, but I think the Pencil has a wider appeal than that. There’s no question in my mind that the Apple Pencil is a boon to digital artists. On the whole, I think most reviewers have been too dismissive of the Apple Pencil.
