iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Smudges

[PBz]

Has anyone else noticed that when the iPad Pro screen is clean the Apple Pencil writes silky smooth but with some smudges it turns all scratchy and tacky? Can this be fixed via software?

Not a huge deal and the 9.7 had the issue as well (just tested). I literally thought my 10.5 screen was defective but upon testing I can tie it to fingerprints or smudges on the screen. It still writes, it is just that with the smudges the tactile response from the screen/pencil is very different.

 

[RadioGaGa1984]

Can this be fixed via software?

Really? How on earth do you think software can clean your screen?

Get a microfiber cloth and wipe.

 

[LibbyLA]

Why would you think that a software fix would be appropriate when the problem is a physical one that can be fixed by cleaning the screen?

 

[PBz]

Really? How on earth do really think software can clean your screen?

Get a microfiber cloth and wipe.

I don't think software can clean the screen.. but the screen literally feels defective (humps, scratchy, tacky/draggy) feedback when you write. My question is if this can be altered. My screen is usually flawless, better than most I would bet.. I am just asking as I have experienced this and seen posts elsewhere thinking the screen was defective. I actually worked and tested to help them realize it wasn't.

 

[sdz]

I use microfiber cloth and organic window cleanser. Works perfectly.

 

[PBz]

Why would you think that a software fix would be appropriate when the problem is a physical one that can be fixed by cleaning the screen?

When you write on the screen, part of your hand touches the area below where you are writing. You cannot constantly clean under the area yo are writing. Try it. You will see the difference. It literally feels like a different screen. You cannot avoid placing part of your hand on the screen and so the screen will never be 'clean'. My question is if this 'feedback' from the screen can be 'dead' to smudges. I don't see how this is a hard question.

Everyone gets a clean screen isn't issue.
[doublepost=1502727296][/doublepost]This isn't a deal-breaker. It is a question to a group. I have read comments from people wanting to return iPads for this.. and if they didn't know it was smudges they might return them as it can even feel like writing on hard wood or even 'bump's in the screen.

 

[CrystalQuest76]

smudges on the writing surface. Welcome to a left-hander's world.

 

[PBz]

I am not returning my IPP 10.5. I love it. But when you get a chance.. clean your screen and write lines top to bottom and side to side in Notes or Notability. Then place your hand on the screen a few times.. open a new note and try it.. You will see the 'response' I am referring to. I am not convinced software cannot help.

 

[BeefCake 15]

My question is if this 'feedback' from the screen can be 'dead' to smudges. I don't see how this is a hard question.

Everyone gets a clean screen isn't issue.

That's a limitation of touch screens, it was a big issue for Coke's touch screen drink machine too.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Maybe a software update to make the pencil avoid these areas.

 

[PBz]

Maybe a software update to make the pencil avoid these areas.

Yeah. Something like that.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Touch displays don't yet include tactile feedback. To my knowledge, the Pencil doesn't have a Taptic Engine.

Even if these things existed, this is good old-fashioned friction - if the point of the Pencil floated over the surface on a jet of compressed air, it might not be an issue.

Everyone's mentioned cleaning the screen, but the Pencil point may also be a factor - although it feels Teflon-slick, if it picks up some gunk (or simply pushes it around for a while), that may also affect the feel.

 

[PBz]

Touch displays don't yet include tactile feedback. To my knowledge, the Pencil doesn't have a Taptic Engine.

Even if these things existed, this is good old-fashioned friction - if the point of the Pencil floated over the surface on a jet of compressed air, it might not be an issue.

Everyone's mentioned cleaning the screen, but the Pencil point may also be a factor - although it feels Teflon-slick, if it picks up some gunk (or simply pushes it around for a while), that may also affect the feel.

Very good points. Have you tried it. If you haven't I would welcome your thoughts.. only because the 'response' is so weird and different. One 'response' is that of a bump and the bump doesn't move. You feel the pencil go 'over' it. Another 'response' is the writing on wood feeling.. it's like a big section of the screen turns really hard and scratchy.
I was curious about software because it insn't ONLY on the smudges but in the general area of them as wel as on them. Your comments account the pen could explain the general area as the pencil moves something from the actual smudge to a broader area.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Very good points. Have you tried it. If you haven't I would welcome your thoughts.. only because the 'response' is so weird and different. One 'response' is that of a bump and the bump doesn't move. You feel the pencil go 'over' it. Another 'response' is the writing on wood feeling.. it's like a big section of the screen turns really hard and scratchy.
I was curious about software because it insn't ONLY on the smudges but in the general area of them as wel as on them. Your comments account the pen could explain the general area as the pencil moves something from the actual smudge to a broader area.

Yes, I have the same general issues with my Pencil. Sometimes wiping the Pencil point seems to help, sometimes not. I don't encounter "bumps" as such, but broader areas where the response changes. Cleaning the display doesn't always change this - I suspect this may have something to do with wear of the oleophobic coating, or some such.

 

[Newtons Apple]

but the screen literally feels defective (humps, scratchy, tacky/draggy) feedback when you write. .

What would worry me more is that if it does feel like this is will wear the pencil tip pretty rapidly, worst if it picks up some grit it could actually start scratching the screen.

 

[PBz]

I occasionally wipe the tip of pencil with same microfiber cloth.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I occasionally wipe the tip of pencil with same microfiber cloth.

Just saying that if it feels bumpy or scratchy, you need to be cleaning that screen before you use the pencil.

Enjoy

 

[PBz]

Just saying that if it feels bumpy or scratchy, you need to be cleaning that screen before you use the pencil.

Enjoy

We are both in Jax.

 

[Newtons Apple]

We are both in Jax.

If you do not tell, I won't either.

 

[mcpryon2]

You could always enter the hardcore world of drawing gloves.

 

[zhenya]

I have written hundreds if not thousands of pages long-hand on my iPad Pro with the Pencil and I have never felt like this is any kind of issue. Are you in an area where there is an excessive amount of dust in the air? Desert? Ocean? Near some of the many wildfires this summer?

 

[PBz]

I have written hundreds if not thousands of pages long-hand on my iPad Pro with the Pencil and I have never felt like this is any kind of issue. Are you in an area where there is an excessive amount of dust in the air? Desert? Ocean? Near some of the many wildfires this summer?

I've tested devices for a living. It's easily repeatable. I said not a deal breaker. It's weird. The different tactile.. bumpy vs scratchy.

 

[zhenya]

What you are describing is some sort of material collecting either on the screen and/or on the pencil tip. There is nothing bumpy or scratchy about any of the extensive writing I do with the iPP - or if there is for a micro-second I immediately clean the area - just as I would do with pen and paper.

 

[PBz]

What you are describing is some sort of material collecting either on the screen and/or on the pencil tip. There is nothing bumpy or scratchy about any of the extensive writing I do with the iPP - or if there is for a micro-second I immediately clean the area - just as I would do with pen and paper.

Exactly. I never said it was hardware. I stated/asked about software/Touch/read interaction with the smudges. Yes, clean resolves but there are some people with light smudges considering returning a device. If you don't know it feels janky. My point here was to discuss and open up to thought of software 'read' to smudges. Opinion here is that isn't possible. Clean screen for writing it is for now.

 

[zhenya]

Exactly. I never said it was hardware. I stated/asked about software/Touch/read interaction with the smudges. Yes, clean resolves but there are some people with light smudges considering returning a device. If you don't know it feels janky. My point here was to discuss and open up to thought of software 'read' to smudges. Opinion here is that isn't possible. Clean screen for writing it is for now.

I clean my screen less than once per month so that isn't what I meant - simply that if I feel actual debris on the tip or screen (which is very rare) I clean that particular debris - not that I scrub the screen.