This article was published on September 2, 2010

Righting your writing on the iPad. That’s Tactilis.


Righting your writing on the iPad.  That’s Tactilis.

TNW Quick Hit

Tactilis is an innovative drawing tool that lets you use your iPad for drawing in the same way you would use pencil and paper.

Love It: Perfect for quick hand-written notes, diagrams, figures, hand-drawn maps or doodling.

Hate It: If you say so.

Overall: 5/5

The Details:

Increasingly I have moved away from using paper and pen/pencil to taking notes on my iPad, laptop or smartphone.  Reasons for this vary depending on who I am talking to regarding the subject.  If I happen to be speaking to a fellow tech geek, my reasoning for shunning paper is obvious; the iPad is the new paper.  If I happen to be shouting a conversation to someone perched in a Redwood Tree, my reasoning is again obvious; I’m going green and reducing my carbon footprint.

Irrespective of the reason, for me, paper and pencil are going the way of cars using leaded fuel.  That’s why I love Tactilis (free).

Tactilis allows one to use an iPad to draw in the same way you would use pencil and paper.  Using one of your digits, meaty or no, Tactilis offers an interface where the user can focus on smaller details of any entry made on the app. Moreover, the app lets one write using smaller print without having to blow-up the entire page.

Features :

  • Innovative Interface: Frequently used tools are initiated with finger gestures with less frequently used tools arranged on a tool-clip that appears with a swipe of the finger. The size and opacity of the tools can be changed by scrolling over them. The page style (plain, ruled or squared) can be quickly changed by scrolling over the page style box in top right hand corner.
  • Drawing details: Tactilis has innovative detailing popover to let you draw the smaller details while viewing the entire drawing. Use the pinch to zoom to magnify the area you wish to draw in detail. Tap outside the drawing area to dismiss it.
  • Writing popover: Tap with two fingers on the iPad where you want to write with smaller text. You could adjust the writing area horizontally by scrolling on the scroll strip at the bottom. Dismiss the panel by tapping in the area above the panel.

  • Virtual ruler : Press and hold two fingers to create a line-guide similar to a ruler. Then just draw over the guide with your finger. Tactilis adjusts your finger movement to draw in a straight line and features commonly used angles (0, 30, 45, 60, & 90 degrees).
  • Virtual compass :Rotate two fingers on the iPad to create the circular-guide. Draw over the guide to draw arcs or complete circles.

Tactilis is an app of the highest order.  For anyone that writes, draws, diagrams, or anything else that I cannot think of at this moment right now, Tactilis is for you, and you and you.

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