# Apple Pencil and Scribble

Source: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/apple-pencil-and-scribble
Skill: hig-inputs
Snapshot: 2025-02-02

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<!-- hig-doctor:attribution -->
> **Source**: Apple Inc. Canonical content at https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/apple-pencil-and-scribble.
> This file is a structured index of that content, snapshot 2025-02-02.
> Apple HIG text and imagery are © Apple Inc.; this repository provides organization and cross-referencing for AI agent consumption only.

# Apple Pencil and Scribble

## Best practices

**Support behaviors people intuitively expect when using a marking instrument.**

**Let people choose when to switch between Apple Pencil and finger input.**

**Help people express themselves by responding to the way they use Apple Pencil.**

**Provide visual feedback to indicate a direct connection with content.**

**Design a great left- and right-handed experience.**

## Hover

**Use hover to help people predict what will happen when Apple Pencil touches the screen.**

**Avoid using hover to initiate an action.**

**Prefer showing a preview value that’s near the middle in a range of dynamic values.**

**Consider using hover to support relevant interactions close to where people are marking.**

**Prefer showing hover previews for Apple Pencil, not for a pointing device.**

## Double tap

**Respect people’s settings for the double-tap gesture when they make sense in your app.**

**Give people a way to specify custom double-tap behavior if necessary.**

**Avoid using the double-tap gesture to perform an action that modifies content.**

## Squeeze

**Treat squeeze as a single, quick gesture that performs a discrete — not continuous — action.**

**If you use squeeze to reveal app UI, like a contextual menu, display it close to Apple Pencil Pro.**

**Define squeeze actions that are nondestructive and easy to undo.**

## Barrel roll

**Use barrel roll only to modify marking behavior, not to enable navigation or display other controls.**

## Scribble

**Make text entry feel fluid and effortless.**

**Make Scribble available everywhere people might want to enter text.**

**Avoid distracting people while they write.**

**While people are writing in a text field, make sure it remains stationary.**

**Prevent autoscrolling text while people are writing and editing in a text field.**

**Give people enough space to write.**

## Custom drawing

**Help people draw on top of existing content.**

**Consider displaying custom undo and redo buttons when your app runs in a compact environment.**

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For the complete guidance, including worked examples and illustrations, see the canonical page: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/apple-pencil-and-scribble