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Apple Pencil & preferences

CrowDraw reads Apple Pencil's pressure, tilt and hover, and on Apple Pencil Pro its squeeze and barrel roll. All of it is set in Actions › Prefs, along with how the app looks and which gestures it uses.

Pressure and tilt

How hard you press and how far you tilt the Pencil change each brush in its own way: a pencil gets darker, an ink pen gets thicker, and charcoal shades with its side when you tilt it. These responses are part of each brush. Change them in Brush Studio under Apple Pencil: pressure can change Size, Opacity, Flow and Bleed (softness); tilt can change Size, Opacity and Shading (flat side).

Your pressure curve

If strokes come out too heavy or too light for how you draw, adjust the pressure curve for every brush at once in Prefs › Pressure and smoothing:

  • Drag the points on the graph. Tap the curve to add a point (up to eight), and drag a point off the graph to remove it.
  • Or start from a preset: Linear, Soft (full strength with less pressure) or Firm (needs a firmer press).
  • Pressure threshold ignores the lightest pressure: anything below it counts as no pressure at all, so a light touch stays light.
  • Try your changes on the Try it pad on the same page.

Line smoothing belongs to each brush: set StreamLine and Stabilisation in Brush Studio under Stabilisation.

Ink that keeps up with the Pencil

Two switches in Prefs make the ink follow the Pencil tip more closely. Both are on by default.

  • Stroke prediction: while you draw, the end of the stroke is drawn ahead to where the Pencil is about to be, so the ink reaches the tip. The predicted part is only shown, never painted: the finished stroke is exactly the same with prediction on or off. It doesn't apply to smudging or wet paint. Brushes with strong StreamLine or any Stabilisation keep their smooth line a little behind the tip, as they are meant to.
  • Low-latency display: shows new ink one screen refresh sooner while the Pencil draws, and keeps the display at its full refresh rate during the stroke. iPadOS turns this off by itself when the iPad is busy or saving power.

If you see flicker or a wobbly end on your strokes, turn one or both off and tell us.

Hover

On an iPad and Apple Pencil that support hover, CrowDraw shows the outline of the brush where the Pencil tip will land before it touches the screen. Turn it off with Brush cursor in Prefs.

Double-tap and squeeze

Choose what happens when you double-tap the Pencil (Apple Pencil 2 and Apple Pencil Pro) and when you squeeze it (Apple Pencil Pro) in Prefs › Pencil double-tap and Pencil squeeze:

  • System setting
    Do what you chose for double-tap in iPadOS Settings (switching to the eraser if that's not available). The default for double-tap.
  • Switch to eraser
    Swap between your brush and the eraser.
  • Previous tool
    Go back to the tool you used before.
  • Show colours
    Open the Colours panel.
  • Show brushes
    Open the brush library.
  • Eyedropper
    Pick a colour from the canvas.
  • Undo
    Undo the last step.
  • Quick menu
    Open the quick menu where the Pencil is hovering. The default for squeeze.
  • Off
    Do nothing.

Barrel roll

With Apple Pencil Pro, rolling the Pencil between your fingers turns brushes whose Rotation is set to Pencil in Brush Studio (under Shape), like turning a real chisel nib or flat brush. Calligraphy and flat brushes are good ones to try it with.

Fingers and Apple Pencil together

Finger painting decides whether your finger paints. Automatic (the default) lets your finger paint until you first use Apple Pencil; from then on, fingers pan, zoom and use gestures, so your palm can't leave marks. Always lets both paint; Pencil only never lets fingers paint. See Gestures.

All preferences

Open Actions (the wrench) › Prefs. The settings are in three groups.

Interface

  • Light interface
    A light app interface instead of the default dark one.
  • Sidebar on the right
    Move the size and opacity sidebar to the right, for left-handed painting.
  • Sidebar position
    Move the sidebar up or down the edge of the screen: from Top through Middle to Bottom.
  • Brush cursor
    Show the brush outline where Apple Pencil hovers. On by default.
  • Zoom and rotation display
    Show the zoom and angle while you pinch. On by default.
  • Haptics
    Light haptic feedback, for example when zoom and rotation snap. On by default.

Painting

  • Dynamic brush scaling
    Scale the brush with the zoom, so it keeps the same size on screen. Off by default.
  • Finger painting
    Automatic, Always or Pencil only (see fingers and Apple Pencil).
  • Stroke prediction
    Draw the end of the stroke ahead, so the ink reaches the Pencil tip. On by default (see above).
  • Low-latency display
    Show new ink a frame sooner while the Pencil draws. On by default.
  • Pressure and smoothing
    The pressure curve and pressure threshold, with a pad to try them.

Apple Pencil and gestures

  • Pencil double-tap, Pencil squeeze
    What the Pencil's double-tap and squeeze do.
  • Gesture controls
    Switch each gesture on or off, the touch-and-hold and QuickShape delays, and what the modify button does.
  • Quick menu
    The six actions in the quick menu.

Gesture controls

Switches for Two-finger tap (undo), Three-finger tap (redo), Four-finger tap (full screen), Quick pinch (fit the canvas), Snap zoom and rotation (to 100%, fit and right angles), Touch and hold (eyedropper) and QuickShape; the Touch and hold delay and QuickShape delay sliders; and Modify button + touch (Eyedropper or Quick menu).

For AI tools: this page as Markdown, the page index and all pages in one file.

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