iPad Handwriting on the iPad, 2016 edition, with Apple Pencil!

[FlorenceArt]

Hi all,

Rather than revive the old handwriting on the iPad thread, I thought I'd start a new one. I just bought an iPad Pro 9.7 with an Apple Pencil, and I do think this changes everything. Lately I had been using paper notebooks more and more often, but now I may go back to writing my journal mostly on the iPad.

But of course if you want to discuss writing with third party styluses (styli? I know both work but I don't like either), please go ahead.

I have been reinstalling most of the handwriting apps I tried and discarded over the years in order to test them with the Apple Pencil, and I made an Evernote page with a sample from each (about 25 so far). Here's the link. It's entirely in French, sorry, I will try to add a few comments in English later. If laziness doesn't get the better of me, as it often does.

So far my favorite is Notes Plus, which seems much more stable than it used to be. Noteshelf, which was my favorite for so long, is sadly unusable with the Apple Pencil, my handwriting looks all funny. The rest of the apps are all over the place, some have a good handwriting but bad interface or export options, some are bad all over. Metamoji Note deserves a mention, I liked it mostly, except that I tend to zoom in or out inadvertently quite often, and that they seem oriented toward a subscription model which I'm not too crazy about. GoodNote and UPAD 3 aren't bad either. Much will depend on what you use the app for.

That's not a lot of information, sorry, but if you want a more detailed opinion on one of the apps (in English!) let me know. And of course feel free to give your own opinion.

[ChristopherTD]

What a splendid collection. The encouraging thing about Notes Plus is that the recent release with Pro/Pencil compatibility shows it is still being actively developed.

[JTravers]

Very cool. Thanks for posting all those examples.

Have you tried ZoomNotes before? I find it interesting because of the unlimited zoom capability and the "notes within notes" feature. Not sure how it stacks up handwriting-wise compared to the others, though. Would love your opinion.

Wink is another I heard about recently, too.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by JTravers

Very cool. Thanks for posting all those examples.

Have you tried ZoomNotes before? I find it interesting because of the unlimited zoom capability and the "notes within notes" feature. Not sure how it stacks up handwriting-wise compared to the others, though. Would love your opinion.

Wink is another I heard about recently, too.

ZoomNotes: yes, I tried it, but it's the exact opposite of what I'm looking for I'm afraid. I just added a sample to the Evernote page. I want an app that allows me to start writing fast and keep writing without hindrance. ZoomNotes is clearly not designed to do that. I'm not sure what it is designed for though, because on the one hand the page formats it offers are paper sizes, not screen sizes, so that hints at print, but how can you print a note within a note? Frankly I don't have a very good opinion of that app. Sorry

I can't find a note app named Wink, only a smart home app. Are you sure about the name?

[FlorenceArt]

The 7 best handwriting apps for iPad and iPad Pro, according to MacWorld. I disagree with most of their choices

[kyteflyer]

Nice notes and writing, @ForenceArt. I surprised myself by being able to understand much of your writing, my French is poor but I still seem to be able to read some.

I'd like to know more about Pencil though. I bought an Adonit Jot Dash which has a lovely fine point. I bought it mostly because I needed a fine point for fine adjustment in Photoshop Fix on my iPad Air. When I write with it, it seems like the point sort of skates over the surface of the iPad and I have little control (my fine motor control seems to be deteriorating anyway, as I age). Its point seems to be a smooth plastic substance so there is no "grip" at all, as opposed to many of those rubber tipped ones which have too much grip. What does the Pencil behave like? I can see you have good control of it, but what does it *feel* like as it moves across the screen?

[JTravers]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

ZoomNotes: yes, I tried it, but it's the exact opposite of what I'm looking for I'm afraid. I just added a sample to the Evernote page. I want an app that allows me to start writing fast and keep writing without hindrance. ZoomNotes is clearly not designed to do that. I'm not sure what it is designed for though, because on the one hand the page formats it offers are paper sizes, not screen sizes, so that hints at print, but how can you print a note within a note? Frankly I don't have a very good opinion of that app. Sorry



I can't find a note app named Wink, only a smart home app. Are you sure about the name?

Sorry, I actually misspelled the name of the app. It's Whink not Wink.
https://appsto.re/us/beth8.i

[June]

Thank you for this comparision, I've also just got the smaller iPad Pro and pencil, and have been looking for a good notebook app

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

Nice notes and writing, @ForenceArt. I surprised myself by being able to understand much of your writing, my French is poor but I still seem to be able to read some.

I'd like to know more about Pencil though. I bought an Adonit Jot Dash which has a lovely fine point. I bought it mostly because I needed a fine point for fine adjustment in Photoshop Fix on my iPad Air. When I write with it, it seems like the point sort of skates over the surface of the iPad and I have little control (my fine motor control seems to be deteriorating anyway, as I age). Its point seems to be a smooth plastic substance so there is no "grip" at all, as opposed to many of those rubber tipped ones which have too much grip. What does the Pencil behave like? I can see you have good control of it, but what does it *feel* like as it moves across the screen?

What does it feel like... not bad, although plastic on glass is obviously not the same as pencil on paper. There is a tiny tick as the tip hits the glass but I quickly stopped noticing it. It remains to be seen how the tip will age. There is a spare one included in the package. I don't know if I'll have to use it. I never use the spare tips on my Wacom tablet stylus (not the rubber tips of the bamboo pen for iPad, those need to be replaced often).

I wouldn't say the tip feels slippery or hard to control though. Generally speaking, I would prefer a bit more elasticity but it's very pleasant to use. Especially compared to a rubber tip stylus.

Originally Posted by JTravers

Sorry, I actually misspelled the name of the app. It's Whink not Wink.
https://appsto.re/us/beth8.i

Ah, OK. I'll have a look but the app is not free, I have to investigate a little before I decide to make the huge financial commitment of 4€

[FlorenceArt]

I added a few more samples to the Evernote page.

Also I've been trying out different apps for annotating PDFs (so far I have been testing pure handwriting) and found out something really cool about Notability: it recognized the Apple Pencil automatically, and I can write with the pencil and navigate the page with my finger. This is so cool, it's exactly the way I would instinctively expect. Why don't other apps do that? I often write on the page with my finger while trying to scroll.

Notability is one of these apps I like but have never found a use for so far. It might become my preferred tool for annotating PDFs and web pages. I just tried the "send to Notability" button from Safari, and it imported this page perfectly, without the sidebars, as a PDF. This is not a feature I use often, but next time I need it I will almost certainly turn to Notability.

[JoeC]

Thank you for the great collection of examples. I too have tried many different versions of styluses. I ended up settling on a simple New Trent Arcadia stylus that could double as a pen before the iPad Pro came out. I first used a stylus with early TabletPCs using One Note so I have high expectations. The Pencil with the iPad Pro 9.7 is very impressive. I typically use Penultimate, or ink directly within Evernote. To modify PDFs I use Goodreader.

The ability to markup pictures is very useful to me. One thing you should try is to make a "photo" of lined paper (I took a screenshot of a Penultimate page) and then mark it up and send via e-mail. Your recipient will be amazed - it's like sending a "real" handwritten note.

I found a cheap clip that fits the Pencil so I can keep it in my pocket. When I carry it in my laptop bag I use a toothbrush case. It's not pretty but the Pencil is a little too long for easy transport. I bet version 2 will be a little shorter.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

What does it feel like... not bad, although plastic on glass is obviously not the same as pencil on paper. There is a tiny tick as the tip hits the glass but I quickly stopped noticing it. It remains to be seen how the tip will age. There is a spare one included in the package. I don't know if I'll have to use it. I never use the spare tips on my Wacom tablet stylus (not the rubber tips of the bamboo pen for iPad, those need to be replaced often).

I wouldn't say the tip feels slippery or hard to control though. Generally speaking, I would prefer a bit more elasticity but it's very pleasant to use. Especially compared to a rubber tip stylus.

OK, thanks for that. Sounds good, sounds like something I could get used to. Now to start saving for the 13" Pro + Pencil.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by JTravers

Sorry, I actually misspelled the name of the app. It's Whink not Wink.
https://appsto.re/us/beth8.i

For anybody interested, the price on Whink is down to 0.99€ on the French store, so I presume it must be down in other stores too.

I'm rather skeptical that it will answer my needs, but at that price I may try it anyway. I've been in a spending mood lately.

[FlorenceArt]

... And you can get the additional functions in in-app purchases for free too!

It's not as bad as I thought actually, that app may not be just a pretty face. The handwriting is very good with my old Wacom Bamboo pen, but not so good with the Apple Pencil. As with Noteshelf, it does a good job of compensating the weaknesses of a capacitive stylus (or finger), but that turns out to be a problem with Apple Pencil which is much more like a real pen.

I don't know if I will end up using this app, but I can understand the appeal. Plus, it looks really good.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

... And you can get the additional functions in in-app purchases for free too!

It's not as bad as I thought actually, that app may not be just a pretty face. The handwriting is very good with my old Wacom Bamboo pen, but not so good with the Apple Pencil. As with Noteshelf, it does a good job of compensating the weaknesses of a capacitive stylus (or finger), but that turns out to be a problem with Apple Pencil which is much more like a real pen.

I don't know if I will end up using this app, but I can understand the appeal. Plus, it looks really good.

Whink got an update May 14 to add 'full support for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil' (v2.8)