iPad Pro: Apple Pencil functionality for pdf files

[Bolgars]

Hi there! I’m contemplating buying an iPad Pro but I do need to know one thing about its functionality. I require a pdf reading app that recognizes Apple Pencil input as separate to touch input. Specifically, I would like to have “page-scrolling” selected for touch input and, at the same time, have “highlight tool” selected for Apple Pencil, so that my finger scrolls the page, all the while Apple Pencil highlights the text in pdf file. Do you know if there are any apps which fulfill my requirements? I have heard rumors that LiquidText does the job but I need to be completely sure before shelling out a few hundred dollars for the device. I’ve searched the Net but found no clear answer to my question, so I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions.

 

[johanndn]

I use documents and pdf expert. You edit in documents itself. With the new update, one finger for scrolling and pencil for annotating. I use this app every day, and read through hundreds of pages in any given time. To me, this is the best solution.

It unfortunately means that in documents you have to pay for pdf expert editing functionality, but IT WORKS

 

[twerppoet]

PDF Expert requires two fingers to scroll when a pen or highlight tool is selected.

Apple demonstrated this kind of finger vs Pencil use in the iOS 9.3 keynote; but I suspect developers will have to support it before it works in each app. And that's as it should be. If Apple enforced a strict Pencil does this, finger does that policy across all iOS then people would soon be upset. For a short time during the betas the Pencil would not work for normal taps, and those that did not want the Pencil to work that way were, ahem, very vocal about it.

So, I suspect that, for the moment, you won't find an app to do what you want. Only Apple's own apps are likely to support this mode at the moment, and since none of Apple's app are for PDF editing. . .

On the other hand, I would expect PDF annotation and drawing apps to start adding it as an option fairly soon.

 

[twerppoet]

Has little to do with the OP's question, but:

After typing the above replay, I realized jhanndn mentioned a recent update. I don't see one, but I went to check PDF Expert's settings anyway. What I didcovered is a strange glitch. If I turn on wrist protection the Pencil no longer works with the drawing tools, but can still be used to tap buttons. With wrist protection off, it still seems to ignore wrists, but the Pencil works. So does my finger, in both modes.

I wonder if the new Pencil detection modes for iOS 9.3 have glitched the app, or whether it was doing this before and I hadbn't noticed (because I did not have wrist protection turned on).

 

[Bolgars]

Thank you for the in-depth and very informative response. I've just done a little bit of research on PDF Expert and it turns out that Readdle (developer of PDF Expert) officially recommends turning off wrist protection alas Apple Pencil works improperly in the app. I suppose it may be, as you noticed, some kind of glitch, which even developers can't fix. Anyway, I'm very grateful for all the help.

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.

 

[Timothy2016]

Hi there! I’m contemplating buying an iPad Pro but I do need to know one thing about its functionality. I require a pdf reading app that recognizes Apple Pencil input as separate to touch input. Specifically, I would like to have “page-scrolling” selected for touch input and, at the same time, have “highlight tool” selected for Apple Pencil, so that my finger scrolls the page, all the while Apple Pencil highlights the text in pdf file. Do you know if there are any apps which fulfill my requirements? I have heard rumors that LiquidText does the job but I need to be completely sure before shelling out a few hundred dollars for the device. I’ve searched the Net but found no clear answer to my question, so I will be very grateful for any help or suggestions.

i want this function too~!

 

[Andy847]

I'm not crazy about the Adobe Fill and Sign, but I did try the Iannotate app. That works for what I needed. Some things I just couldn't do with Adobe's app. Had to pay $9.99 for the Iannotate app, but I didn't mind since it did what I needed.

 

[abetancort]

I think we will see in the near term a resurgence of PDF (an other common formats) annotating apps, many in the enterprise (subscription realm) with dedicated cloud storage, with much more powerful annotating, signature tools, more robust local synchronization,team collaboration options, differential comparison and versioning.

I guess now it's the moment to wait and see what developers have in mind.

 

[Diane B]

Not quite what you want I don't think but I use Noteability app for PDFs, annotate there with the Pencil. You can use a highlighter or pen and hit the hand icon and scroll with touch. Closest I know and it has lots of other possibilities. It also syncs automatically with Dropbox.

 

[twerppoet]

Bolgars , PDF Expert updated their app with Pencil support, and according to the update notes it looks like it will do what you want now; though I'd do a little more research if before purchasing, if you haven't already paid for the app.

 

[Timothy2016]

Bolgars , PDF Expert updated their app with Pencil support, and according to the update notes it looks like it will do what you want now; though I'd do a little more research if before purchasing, if you haven't already paid for the app.

View attachment 71698

It works like a wonder in PDF expert 5 although there is a little bug:

When a tool, e.g. highlight/pen tool, is first selected, the finger swiping doesn't work. Only after some highlight/writing with iPencil, the figure-swiping-while-writing function start to work.

I guess this is because they programmed the app to distinguish a iPAD user is using hand or pen as input. If it is hand, the figure swiping function is disabled. If it is pen, the function is enabled.

 

[twerppoet]

It works like a wonder in PDF expert 5 although there is a little bug:

When a tool, e.g. highlight/pen tool, is first selected, the finger swiping doesn't work. Only after some highlight/writing with iPencil, the figure-swiping-while-writing function start to work.

I guess this is because they programmed the app to distinguish a iPAD user is using hand or pen as input. If it is hand, the figure swiping function is disabled. If it is pen, the function is enabled.

Thanks for the report. I've been too distracted to ckeck out the update myself.