Pencil Uses

[Fr. Guido Sarducci]

Aside from drawing and other artistic purposes, what can the pencil do that I am missing out on?

 

[Davidalan]

Hand writing in text fields, converts to text
Scribble, hand writing converting to trxt
Notes taking

 

[Beanoir]

bought one 4 years ago for my last iPadPro, still can’t figure out why…

 

[Fr. Guido Sarducci]

bought one 4 years ago for my last iPadPro, still can’t figure out why…

Ha! Great answer, and I would probably end up the same. Thanks!

 

[NastyMatt]

My primary use is note taking. I go to meetings where sitting on a laptop type device is a no no so being able to jot down notes quickly is a real benefit (yes.. I could take a notepad but I like having the digital evidence days later).

Second to that is screen shots. swiping diagonally up from bottom left is quick and simple.

I do draw / touch up photos too so my pencil does get used. I had a pencil on my 2020 iPad pro, when I bought an M4 IPP I decided I used it enough to buy another pencil.

 

[schnaps]

deleted

 

[Ifti]

I only ever use mine with a 3D modelling app I sometimes [try to] use at a basic level.
Otherwise its one of those things that discharges itself and I charge back up every so often. lol

 

[Fr. Guido Sarducci]

I actually purchase one to try out, and it turns out that I use the heck out of it. Everything from touching up photos to simply using it like a mouse has actually worked out well for me. I had the USB-C version but sent it back after a couple days in exchange for the Pro just because the charging method is so much easier.

 

[subjonas]

It can be good with the Freeform app. Also the math notes function is pretty useful, if you need that.

 

[sleepngbear]

I just ordered a Pencil Pro for my Mini A17. Due to arrive later today. Why, I don’t really know - just curious more than anything, I guess. I have a couple of spreadsheets I’m in regularly, so I figure it could come in handy there. I also mess around cleaning up photos pretty often, where a pencil might help with precision work. Beyond that I’m just looking forward to seeing what other fun stuff I can do with it. I started out down this whole PDA/smart phone road with a Palm Pilot many, many years ago, maybe this will bring back some fonder memories. But for now, any suggestions on what other users find particularly useful are more than welcome.

 

[MarkC426]

I have a Pencil and Smart KB with my 1st gen iPad Pro.
I used the pencil in ProCreate mainly, used the sKB about half a dozen times.

When I got my M2 iPad Pro (old pencil not compatible), after a while I picked up a 2nd Gen Pencil, which is still factory sealed (bought in April 2025)…..🤣
Thus I still haven’t installed ProCreate on my M2….🤪

Really just haven’t had the time.

 

[VanXava]

I feel the same way by and large. I rarely use it and it gives me pleasure. But most of the time it's just lying around. Well, the 100 doesn't make it fat anymore either 😃

 

[sleepngbear]

I’m messing with the pencil a bit today. It’s a very cool device, maybe for note taking and sketching, but it’s not as slick as I had hoped for a few of my use cases. For one, marking up a picture in the Photos app is really pretty horrible. Adding a text block just does not work cleanly. It inserts a block with the work ‘Text’ in it, which so far I’m finding difficult to move from the center of the image where it always goes, and impossible to edit the contents with just the pencil. It’s much easier finger-tap it and enter text with the keyboard. Same thing using the pencil in Numbers - I’m finding Scribble rather awkward and uncomfortable to use, where I thought its precision would be more helpful.

And now here’s another bizarre behavior - making this post, I started playing with the pencil, then trying to get the keyboard back, all I can get is the HD mini floating keyboard. Somehow here now I finally got the full keyboard back, but I have no idea how l dıd it. And now I just got it stick on the mini keyboard again. Ok … if I hide the mini keyboard and switch browser tabs, I can get the full keyboard back. This damn thing thinks it’s smarter than me. I can see this causing some disagreements down the road. 🤣

 

[Frosties]

Scrolling on the iPad instead of a mouse. Only minor irritation is that it always writes in the safari adress bar so you have to backspace before writing anything with the keyboard. But I like and use it anyway.