Linea, the best drawing app on iOS, goes one better, using a draw-and-hold shortcut. You’ll now see the ruler along with the other drawing tools. Then choose Add Sketch from the pop-up menu. To find it, tap the + button at the bottom right of any note. The built-in Notes app has a ruler that can be moved around with two fingers and used to draw straight lines. Procreate, for example, will do some pretty wild tricks with its custom brushes. And if you tilt the Apple Pencil, it’s as if you’re using the side of a pencil lead. You can quickly fill in large sections of your drawing.ĭon’t forget to check how your favorite drawing app handles this Apple Pencil functionality. Just like a regular pen or pencil, you can press harder to get a darker, thicker line. That’s one of its main selling points, after all. Press harder, draw fat linesĭon’t forget that the Apple Pencil is pressure-sensitive. To remove the old tip, just unscrew it (counterclockwise like all regular screws). However, if you have some old spare tips from your first-generation Apple Pencil, you can use those. You can buy packs of replacement tips from Apple for an exorbitant price. If you do a lot of tracing on paper, your Apple Pencil tip may eventually wear out. In fact, it is better than regular tracing because you can see the original paper perfectly, since it’s not obscured under a sheet of tracking paper. That means you can easily trace something from paper into a drawing app. Like your finger, the Apple Pencil works through paper and plastic. If the widget isn’t there, you can add it by scrolling to the bottom of the screen, tapping edit, and then adding it from the list. Swipe right on the home screen to reveal the Today View, then just look at the widget. But if you want to check the battery status without doing this, you can use the iOS Battery Widget on the Today View screen. The easiest way to check the Apple Pencil battery level is to snap it into its charging spot on the side of the iPad Pro, then wait for the battery level graphic to appear. Check the Apple Pencil’s battery level The battery widget. Make sure you check out the preferences of any app that works with the new Apple Pencil. Many apps - like podcast-creation app Ferrite - offer their own settings section to let you customize the gesture. Good apps will respect this choice, but they will also offer other options. Ferrite lets you assign pretty much anything to the double-tap gesture. You can choose from several tool-switching options, or have the double-tap activate the eraser. This is the first thing you should do when you get a new Apple Pencil: Customize the double-tap settings in the Settings app.

Customize the Apple Pencil 2 double-tap Choose your double-tap shortcut here. But this first one is unique to the Apple Pencil 2, which you charge by magnetically attaching it to the new iPad Pro. Most of these Apple Pencil tips work with the first version of the stylus (the one that you charge using the Lightning port).

Apple watch shortcuts tap twice