While the Apple Pencil is one of the best pens you can buy for any device, it doesn’t work well with every app out there. We’ve rounded up some of the best Apple Pencil apps for iPad Pro so you don’t waste time searching.
Apple took long enough, but the company finally released an iPad with a stylus; their first attempt at the Apple Pencil, it is receiving praise from almost everyone who uses it. But if you’re not an artist, is the Apple Pencil really worth buying? We were wondering the same thing, so we spent some time looking for apps that work really well with the Apple Pencil – just be careful with games that don’t require you to be a skilled artist to get some use out of them (don’t worry, we’ve also searched for our favorite art-related apps).
You may be surprised to learn that the Pen’s performance is not the same in the App Store; There are some apps that work really well and some that have noticeably worse performance. In apps that have been explicitly updated to support the Pencil, you’ll find that the latency that is already pretty low for a digital stylus is further reduced, with better support for Pencil features like tilt sensors.
Best Apple Pencil Apps: Notes
Notes? The app that came with your iPad Pro? Yes same. Unsurprisingly, Apple knows its hardware best, and as a result, Notes is one of the best supported Pen apps available on the iPad Pro. A prime example of how realistic the Pen can feel, with almost imperceptible lag as you drag the Pen over the iPad’s screen.
That said, it’s worth more than just Pen support, as Apple has put a lot of effort into updating the Notes app. You can always use it to write a note, but you can also use it to draw with a Pencil or finger, add images, videos and web pages, and generally keep track of your life. It’s like a less powerful version of Evernote, but more attractive thanks to its easy-to-use iCloud integration.
Best Apple Pencil Apps: Astropad
It’s not Apple Pencil support that makes Astropad so incredible, but it’s definitely key to unlocking the app’s potential. If you have a Mac, you’ll need to install Astropad on both your MacBook and iPad Pro and pair the two over Wi-Fi or buy it by plugging in your Lightning cable. What do you get for your problems? Astropad takes your Mac’s desktop and displays it on your iPad Pro, allowing you to interact with OS X apps as if they were running natively.
What this means is that you can use your Pen to modify OS X applications like Photoshop or Illustrator without having to go through the complexity of moving files between computer and tablet. Thanks to some fancy proprietary software, Astropad promises to provide a smooth experience despite its remote nature and aims for a 60fps interface.
Best Apple Pencil Apps: Notability
Notability is one of our favorite note-taking apps. It offers a number of really powerful features like recording a presentation while taking notes and then replaying the lesson with your written notes. If you’re an educator, the app also supports submitting and turning in assignments. One of the things that makes Notability an easy recommendation is the way the developers keep updating it with more features.
This means that despite the novelty of the Apple Pencil and iPad Pros, Notability supports both and offers a great Pencil experience to boot. Palm detection allows you to keep your hand and arm on the iPad Pro without marking your notes while typing. With apps also available for iPhone and Mac, you can use iCloud, Dropbox, or Box to keep your content in sync.
Best Apple Pencil Apps: PDF Expert 5
Our favorite PDF app for iPhone and iPad is Readdle’s excellent PDF Expert 5 (all their software is pretty good actually, and there’s usually a bundle discount available in the App Store if you buy a collection) – so when they added Apple Pencil support, it was another easy recommendation. . PDF documents load quickly and easily with the stunning performance of iPad Pros that makes it easy to navigate even large, complex PDFs.
You can annotate a PDF in any color with a variety of tools, including pen and highlighter support. Pencil makes it easy to write on top of the PDF, just like you would with a pen and printout. It also makes signing PDFs easier than ever since your signature actually looks like your regular signature. As you can imagine, it integrates with all the cloud services you need and even lets you wirelessly send documents directly from your computer to your iPad.
Best Apple Pencil Apps: Pigment
Over the past few years, coloring books have resurfaced with a surprising new focus for the young adult and adult markets. The App Store is no exception; There are loads of coloring apps available for both iPhone and iPad. Most aren’t great, offering something like a touch-to-color functionality and more than just coloring on a page.
Pigment, on the other hand, works exactly as you would expect a coloring book to work; The Apple Pencil makes it extremely fun to use, as it feels like you’re using an old colored pencil. One plus of going for a digital coloring book is that you can use highlighters, ballpoint pens, pencils – whatever you want – to do your coloring. There are several designs included with your free download, all stunning and intricate, but there are many, many more available with in-app purchases or recurring subscriptions.
Best Apple Pencil Apps: uMake
uMake is one of those apps you never thought was actually possible on a mobile-first device like the iPad, and it turned out not only to be possible on the iPad, but actually an extremely compelling experience. In essence, uMake lets you create 3D models with just a few preliminary sketches. The implementation and associated process is probably better suited for prototyping designs than doing it all in uMake.
You can export designs as 2D representations / flat PNG files, but the app supports exporting various curves and shapes so you can refine your work in a more robust 3D editing program on the computer. If you’re worried about speeding things up with a new 3D app on the iPad, uMake comes with a set of tutorials that show you how various features work.
Best Apple Pencil Apps: Paper
Paper has been one of our favorite iPad apps since its launch on iOS, and their version for iPad Pro remains an excellent experience. While talented artists will be able to use Paper to produce some pretty impressive works, it’s good practice for the rest of us as well. Paper’s algorithms can allow anyone to make compelling sketches, and new versions of the app make it great for planning and flowcharting, too.
You can start from scratch with a blank workspace or import an image to overwrite or sketch. Fifty-three has created its own social network within Paper, where you can follow the work of friends and artists, or share your results on Facebook and Twitter (or export directly to PowerPoint presentations). create your slideshows.
Did we miss an app that pairs perfectly with the Apple Pencil? Let us know in the comments and we’ll have a look. Keep coming back for updates as we find a new and better experience with both the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro.
