As a digital artist from China who creates concept art for large gaming companies, I absolutely love using the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. I rely on them for long hours each day to complete my work. Apple Pencil's design is truly innovative, and I am eager to praise its developers. They are undoubtedly geniuses, and I have always appreciated Apple's intuitive design that feels natural and instinctual to use.
However, there are two missing features that are crucial to artists and users alike. I find it surprising that these features have not yet been implemented by Apple or any third-party tools. Therefore, I am reaching out to the developers themselves for help in bringing these essential features to Apple Pencil users.
The first feature is the inability to customize the location of the pencil's point of contact. I hope that a system-level setting can be added to allow for micro-adjustments of the stylus's nose position. Technically, this is not a difficult feature to implement, as third-party software such as Artstudio Pro already offers it. The reason why this feature is so necessary is that many artists, including myself, use third-party stylus tips that are longer and thinner than the default tip. While they provide greater precision and tactile feedback, the point of contact is often shifted to the lower right of the physical point of contact with the screen. This inconsistency can make drawing and writing feel strange and uncomfortable, and it remains a significant pain point for many artists.
The solution is simple: add a new setting called "Drawing Offset" to the Apple Pencil interface, which allows for adjustment of the stylus's point of contact by modifying the x and y axis values. This will ensure that no matter what type of stylus tip an artist uses, they can always achieve pinpoint accuracy. I am confident that the implementation of this feature will be greatly appreciated by artists all over the world.
The second pressing feature is the ability to map keys on game controllers. As an artist, I have always dreamed of using my iPad to create professional artwork from any location, such as lounging on the couch or sitting in any outdoor setting. I imagined using the Switch's Joy-Con controller in my left hand as a shortcut for drawing tools.
In reality, I often have to endure back pain while sitting at my desk to work. This is because I can only use the keyboard as a shortcut when drawing at my desk. I can't walk around with my keyboard and iPad to draw because Joy-Con cannot map various keyboard shortcuts to the iPad to assist with drawing. You might say, why not use gesture control? Gesture control is great and works well when I'm just doodling, but for professional-level precise drawing needs, a physical keyboard with shortcuts is a must.
If, after connecting Joy-Con, I can customize the keyboard shortcuts mapped to each Joy-Con button in the settings, such as mapping Ctrl-Z to the trigger button, then I only need to draw with my right hand on the iPad, and my left hand can easily control the undo function by pressing the Joy-Con button. Even when lying on the couch, using Joy-Con as a shortcut keyboard is very intuitive.
I think these two functions are very intuitive designs, and I originally thought that Apple should have had these functions already. Or, considering the shortcut key needs of artists for drawing after connecting Joy-Con, it would have allowed custom mapping of Joy-Con button positions to any keyboard shortcut. But unfortunately, it cannot be done, and it is also impossible to implement through third-party software.
I hope you can consider adding these two functions to improve the drawing experience for artists, and I believe artists from all over the world will cheer for it. To be honest, this could be a revolution in experience and efficiency, and just these two functions will change everything about art creation, and people will love Apple for it.
I will also continue to write to third-party drawing software companies and hope that they can develop similar feature support. Of course, the best situation would be if you saw what I said and it was just a matter of raising your hand to include these two features in the next update. I am truly grateful!