ios app which allows free web graphic selection via Apple Pencil

[Nayyar Raza]

I am looking for an App which allows to selectively select an image or block of text by drawing a selection using Apple Pencil. I am using IPad Pro 2018 12.9 with Apple Pencil 2. I was able to do that on my android galaxy note pro 12.2 but I have not been able to find any iOS app so far which allows me to do that. I mean like if I am browsing a webpage and I like a graph, image or a block of text, and that app simple lets me draw a free lasso or selection against the needed graphic or text and it copies that into its program.
Can the fellows here help with such an app

 

[twerppoet]

I don’t know of anything that will work exactly the way you describe. The lasso loop slection tool is almost excluseive to drawing apps, and perhaps a few PDF apps. I don’t now of anything that will direclty extract content from web pages using this kind of tool.

That’s not to say it does not exist, just that I’ve never run accross it. If it exists, it will proably be a specialized thrid party browser. I’d start my research there.

That said, I have a couple things you can look at.

One is using a shelf app like Gladys alongside your favorite webbrowser. You are limited to the selectiont tools of the browser (pencile or finger) but it’s fairly easy to collect content. It’s stong point is that you can collect content from several apps, and then paste it back into whatever other app you want. I like Gladys. It’s flexible, and allows you to specify the kind of content you want to paste (copied content often has more than one type: html, image, text)

The weakness of whatever method is that you are limited to methods the source app lets you use to select content. The strength is that it works with almost all apps, acting as a kind of super clipboard.

The other app I suggset you look at is Liquid Text. It’s primarily used with PDF files, but it has a web browser that lets you convert webpages to PDF. While you can not lasso stuff, it does allow you to select text, images, or just chunks of the document. It takes alittle practice to get the selection type youwant (image, text, bock of page), but works fairly well with the pencil. Non text selections are always retangles. Text is text.

The strength is that it works will pretty much every part of the document. It’s weakness is that using the collected content outside the app si limited. You can export PDF’s, note style pages, and other stuff. What you can’t do is directly paste the collected content into other apps.

Which of these would be the most useful to you would depend on what youa re trying to accomplish. If you are pulling thigs out of documents to study or research, the Liquid Text should be better. That’s what it is designed to do. If you are collecting content for a project, then a shelf app like Gladys will be better.

Good luck.

 

[Nayyar Raza]

Dear Twerppoet
First of all millions of thanks for such a detailed response. Very much appreciated. To be honest i have read reviews for both of them. In fact tried Gladys for 5-10 minutes before uninstalling it. You are very right. Liquidtext doesn't serve my purpose because working with PDF files is not my main purpose. I have to teach a lot and use presentations and to make them interesting i have to use a lot of content in them, like images, hand drawn illustrations, emojis etc. So most of the time i have to find some content on the web and clip it in some form and import them to my WPS suite for making presentations. While it is so simple on microsoft and Android platforms, it has been daunting take in iOS which makes me believe that it is very productivity unfriendly and perhaps just a big browser, book reader or movie player. I am severely limited by the choice of apps, though i was under the impression that iOS appstore is better than Android playstore. In fact it's the opposite.
The problem with Gladys is that if the web page has an article or link masterquaded as image Gladys would not clip the image but the whole article with it. I am not sure however how to ex export the stuff from Gladys into other apps. Do you know of any instructions regarding Gladys.
Thabks again and kind regards for such an explained answer

 

[twerppoet]

If you tap a clip in Gladys it will show you all the components of the clip, which you can then select/drag into your documen as needed.

This should work for most selections. Beyond that it is sometimes the method you use to select an imgage that determins whether it saves as an image or URL. Choosing to copy (then pasting in Gladys) almost always saves the URL. Dragging the image should save both, but the image data will be what Gladys shows and exports by default. Using the method above should let you choose whicy to paste into another app.

There are other shelf apps with different features and organizing methods. Look at those as well. Gladys was one of the fist full featured ones, and has exceeded my needs, but shelf apps are a new catagory, and still changing and adding features rapidly. Poke around and you may find one you like better than Gladys.

 

[Nayyar Raza]

Thanks. Much appreciated

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.

 

[twerppoet]

Also, sometimes the easiest way to grab an image is to simply zoom and take a screen shot. When the Thumbnail shows up in the bottom left corner, tap it, crop, and save wherever you want it saved.

 

[Nayyar Raza]

Point noted. At the moment playing around with Gladys. It seems to work as intended

 

[twerppoet]

Good to hear.