apple pen question

Lee

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I jumped on board and bought the pro and pen. Now how do i get the pen to write? I paired it with the pad, bluetooth is on, when i tap the tools with the pen they respond but when I try to draw nothing happens. I have also plugged the pen into the lightening port for a while. Computers tend to be a big mystery to me.You are allowed a few laughs.
 

Lee

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Procreate has been downloaded and a tap of the pen brings up different apps from the desktop and tools in procreate but no drawing. I'm obviously missing something simple. I read through all of the imore suggestions and they seem ok. HrumphI want to play
 

Andrew Biggs

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Hi Lee

It was great visiting with you in Vegas. Always a real pleasure.

There are two reasons that you should always check

1. You are using the eraser.

2. The colour wheel has turned to white (the colour wheel will be the colour you have selected, red, white, black etc)........this is the circle on the top right hand corner of the screen next to the square layers icon. It should be black and yours is probably white.......so tap the circle, then tap on the black part of the colour wheel. The very bottom part is true black I think.

When you rest your hand on the iPad it puts pressure on the "white paper" and the colour wheel thinks you are selecting it all the time.........so it can be a real pain in the you know what.

To minimise this do the following

1. Tap the Actions Icon (the small spanner next to Gallery)
2. Tap Prefs (short for preferences)
3. tap Advanced Gesture Controls (down the bottom of the box)
4. On the top panel (there are 3 panels) tap "Selected tool" on the left and "gesture only" on the right.........these should be highlighted in blue and the others should not be (top panel only)

You will still get the pen turning to white every now and then but the above steps minimise that happening.

Cheers
Andrew
 

Lee

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I don't know guys. I've gone through all of the suggested steps and the only time it make a mark is when i trap on the upper left icon that looks like an "s". It leaves a mark that looks like a bunch of marching ants. I'm going to spend the next four days with my son and wanted to use this to fill some of my time.
 

Sandy

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Howdy Lee
All though the pen will work with 15 sec of charge I have found that it works much better when it has been plugged in for a while. Also make sure that the tip is completely screwed in. If it is turned out a turn or two it will not work properly. Once you get it running you will love it.
Sandy
 
Last edited:

Sam

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Be certain you're drawing with black and not white.
Follow Andrew's fix above so you don't accidentally toggle black/white when you touch your palm to the screen.
Be sure to download the Procreate User Guide and keep it handy in iBooks. It's a great source of information.
I charge the pencil via the charging cable like Sandy mentioned.

At the iPad's home screen/desktop, swipe from outside the edge of the screen to reveal battery info for your iPad and Pencil. If it's not there, you can add the Batteries widget to show the Pencil's charge percentage. Click the edit button and then you'll get a screen with more widgets you can add.
 

Lee

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Everything that has been suggested seems to be in order. I'm starting to feel like the guy who bought a new toaster and couldn't make it work until someone told him to plug it in. I'm headed for the big city and maybe I'll take a minute to find an apple store.

Thank you for the help and suggestions.
 

Jerry K

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If you can change the background to black you can easily determine if you are drawing with a white pen.
Good luck.
Jerry K
 

Sandy

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:tiphat: Thanks Sam I was wondering how you could tell battery level for the pen. Cool.
Sandy
 

Sam

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Lee: the Apple Store might not be able to help you with Procreate as they don't support third party apps. If you're getting a response from the pencil then it's working properly and the issue is In Procreate. I'm certain it's any easy fix.
 

John B.

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Hi Lee,
You, me and computers !!!!!
I haven't bought an I-Pad pro yet because I'm sure I would be in the same boat as you.
But with your skill and persistence in the future we will enjoy good things from you with some help from good folks on the Cafe.
 

Sam

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I certainly understand that not everyone is computer savvy. And if you're not, and you told me you wanted to learn Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, I would tell you that the learning curve is quite steep. Procreate, however, is very intuitive and easy to use. It doesn't have a bewildering amount of tools and features like Illustrator or Photoshop. I don't think anyone was anything to fear if they're willing to spend a small amount of time learning their way around Procreate. Sandy Popovich showed up at FEGA with his new iPad Pro and was showing ME things he'd learned watching a tutorial video! He was already off and running with it.
 

Lee

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I've been watching tutorials trying to figure out the simple thing I've done or not done in setting this up. The tutorials have a dark screen surrounding the canvas. Mine is lighter. Is this a problem? Also I have the impression that one can draw using a finger. I can't. Have i unknowingly locked something up?

You guys are really patient with an illiterate. Thanks
 

Lee

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Wahooooooooo I don't know what happened but it started to work. Back to the tutorials. I should have something to show in a year or two. Where do I find the manual and how so I download it? I told you I was illiterate.
 

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