An iPad is extremely versatile, it can work as a tablet, as a laptop of sorts, a media machine, and it can pretty much do everything you need. Plus, with the Apple Pencil, it becomes even better at doing a lot of things that you’d otherwise not be able to do (or do well, at least). So, if you’ve just bought yourself a new Apple Pencil 2, or an Apple Pencil Pro, and you’re looking for some ways to use it to the best of its advantage, here are the 7 best iPad apps for Apple Pencil that you should check out.
1. Procreate
One of the main use cases of the Apple Pencil is obviously for drawing and sketching, and Procreate is one of the best iPad apps for it. Procreate comes with a clean UI, and a lot of brushes and tools to help you bring your imagination to life.
You can create multiple layers, draw perfect shapes, and use the symmetry tools to make things easier. Plus, with Apple Pencil and Apple Pencil Pro support, Procreate takes full advantage of the pencil with your iPad. It allows you to quickly switch between a brush and the eraser tool, and more. Plus, it can let you create animations as well, if that’s something you want to do. Overall, if you’re looking to get the most out of your Apple Pencil, you should definitely check out Procreate.
2. Noteful
There are a lot of amazing note-taking apps for the iPad, and while most people swear by Goodnotes, I personally find Noteful to be a lot better for my use-case and for the fact that its free version is enough for most people. You get three tools to write with here, and each of them is perfect with the Apple Pencil. You can adjust the motion smoothing and other aspects of the tools to improve your writing as well.
Plus, Noteful supports multiple notebooks to organize your notes, and it brings support for an audio recording feature that syncs with your writing. This will allow you to play back audio and hear exactly what was being said when you noted something down.
Noteful is amazing for taking notes with the Apple Pencil, and if you’re a college student, you should definitely check it out.
3. Shapr3D
If you’re an architect, a product designer, or you just love creating models of objects and bringing them to life, Shapr3D is the app for you. It supports the Apple Pencil, obviously, and it lets you create pretty much anything you can imagine, in 3D. This means you can quickly and easily create 3D models of products or objects with your Apple Pencil.
Shapr3D also has a “Visualisation mode” where you can drag and drop materials onto your objects to visualise what they would look like in different types of materials. You get the basic ones like acryllic, but you also get things like carbon fiber (both matte and glossy), and it’s a really handy way to see what your creation would look like in real life.
The free version of Shapr3D will let you create objects, but you will have to subscribe to the premium version to unlock all of the features of the app.
4. Lake
Remembering coloring books? It was a fun way to spend time as kids, and now, as adults, we can get back to the joy of coloring books with Lake. With Lake, you can find illustrations within the app, and then fill them with color — duh.
You get drawings of animals, people, and even things like a cup of hot chocolate. The best part about Lake is that it helps you stay within the lines when you’re coloring. This makes it very easy to quickly color things within the app and see the final result. However, if you like a challenge, you can always change this setting so that the color can easily flow over the lines.
You can choose pretty much any color you want for things, and the premium version allows you full access to over 700 colors. Lake is a fun app to spend some time relaxing and coloring drawings.
5. Freeform
If you’re like me, you find yourself having lots of ideas that are easier to jot down in diagrams than in lists of to-dos. Or maybe you’re reading up on something and you want to note down the important information in a more visual way than a simple note. Well, Freeform is just the app for that.
It’s a free app from Apple that works across your Apple devices, so you can access your idea boards from your iPhone, Mac, as well as your iPad. In Freeform, you basically get a whiteboard of sorts to put your ideas onto. You can write with the Apple Pencil, you can draw shapes, and connect them together (for something like a Mind Map). Plus, you can create scenes to quickly jump between different sections of the board.
6. Xodo
Have you ever tried filling out or signing a PDF online? It’s an exercise in frustration and lots of open tabs with different PDF editors. Well, if you find yourself editing or signing PDFs frequently, you should try out Xodo.
This is a PDF editor that brings the most frequently needed PDF related tools straight to your iPad. You can use your Apple Pencil to quickly sign PDFs, and you can use it to redact sections of a PDF, add text, and more. Did I mention it’s free? You do get in-app purchases here to unlock a whole suite of features, but for the basic requirements, Xodo’s free version can serve your purpose easily.
7. forScore
For musicians, especially piano players and people who use sheet music, forScore is a must have app. This app is aimed solely at musicians, to make it easier to read and annotate sheet music.
The app brings support for the Apple Pencil, which means that you can just start annotating any piece of sheet music on your iPad and the app seamlessly integrates the annotations into the piece. You can also create setlists, bookmarks, and more.
Plus, you can use the built-in tools like Pitch Pipe to ensure you start off on the correct note. And you also get support for connecting MIDI devices — this will basically let you use the app handsfree, since it will use the MIDI signals to turn the pages of your sheet music. It’s an amazingly powerful app for musicians that you should definitely check out.
Well, those were the 7 best iPad apps with Apple Pencil support that you should definitely try. I have tried to include apps that span across a number of categories, be it writing, drawing, 3D modelling, or even for musicians. Hopefully, you were able to find some apps that fit your needs, and if there are any other apps that you think should be included in this list, do let us know about them in the comments.
Anshuman Jain
