Feature Suggestion - Write only with Stylus

[cmonbe]

Hello all,

I am a French student studying in Peking University now. I am studying Chinese now. As the increasing courses on my study, it is hard for me to write on paper as I have one inefficiency that I like missing my notebook. So I have to use stylus instead of paper to write on.

The stylus I am using is Asin: B00N1BRWLA

I love penultimate because it's the best handwritten note taking app for iOS. I used this stylus previously and it was horrible with handwritten notes and had constant issues. The one feature that it had that I was disappointed not to see in penultimate is the ability to write only with a stylus, as opposed to being able to make marks with your hand. When I write with my apple pencil, my hand is constantly making marks on the paper, which isn't a major issue but can get really annoying when I have to erase small dots made by my hand every few minutes. This stylus has a feature where you can enable/disable the ability to draw with touch and I would love to see this added to penultimate.

I am puzzled about this question.

Any help ?

 

[SpookDroid]

That would only be possible if the S8 had stylus capabilities like the Note line (in Note-like devices, apps like OneNote do offer this feature). In these phones, most the app can do is try its best at 'palm rejection', avoiding the issue you describe, but it's not perfect (and even more depending on each dev's implementations). Another option is if a BT-enabled stylus that had its own app would do it, but since there is no 'driver' in Android to use these styluses in other apps, that would be hard to accomplish.

 

[chanchan05]

Basically, get a Samsung Note or tablet with S Pen support.

 

[cmonbe]

Thanks for your advice. I wonder to know if my stylus can work on my surface pro. I need one capacitive stylus though with no high pressure sensitivity, it can work on almost all devices.

 

[cmonbe]

Thanks for your idea. As I don't use Samsung Note stylus before, I can not be sure if it can work on my tablet. Could you please tell me the maximum differences between my stylus and Samsung Note stylus ? We need to make a comparison between them.

 

[SpookDroid]

Not sure what your stylus is, to be honest. Active styluses (battery operated) are basically just glorified plastic-tip stylus that attempt to be more precise by forcing a magnetic field around the tip.

The Note stylus, however, just like the Apple Pencil and the Surface Pen, is also an active stylus BUT with a different induction mechanism, for it needs additional hardware on the phone or tablet to be supported (which the Note line has, and the S line doesn't). This added hardware allows the non-battery-operated stylus in the Note line to not only be accurate, but also to provide pressure feedback.

Now, for Bluetooth styluses, the idea is similar but the position encoding and pressure feedback (if any) is done inside the pen AND via software, translating the data sent by the pen into the device to translate as input. This isn't as accurate as the Note-type stylus (or the Apple Pen or the Surface Pen), but it does allow a bit better accuracy and touch rejection. But this needs the software counterpart, and that's not a 'generic' driver that any device has. Those would only work with apps that are specifically coded to support BT stylus input (i.e. getting their input data via Bluetooth from the pen's hardware rather than through the screen's touch digitizer).

If your tablet/phone does not have the right hardware for it, the Note stylus will not even be registered as touching the screen.

EDIT: I checked the link for your stylus... yeah, that's just a fancier plastic/mesh-tip stylus. Nothing more than trying to emulate a finer fingertip. No active feedback, so basically it's like just touching the screen with your finger but with a much tinier finger. It attempts to be more precise (and the disc stabilizes it on the screen while writing, but careful! I've used those before and the disc does scratch the screen!) but it's nothing compared to true active styluses like the Note's or the Apple Pencil.

 

[chanchan05]

Basically the stylus you use is crap. That's all there is to it why you're having problems. What you need is a proper active stylus like the Wacom Bamboo Fine Tip, Apple Pen, or S Pen. The S Pen will only work with Samsung Notes or the Tab S3 (or the Tab A with S Pen). It won't work with any other devices. The Apple Pen would only work I think with the iPad Pro. The Wacom Bamboo, you'd have to check specific models.

Active styli lets the device recognize them as styluses. There are Android apps like Xodo that has a setting where the app will recognize if it's a stylus touching the screen or a finger, so it will only write if it's a stylus, and it will move/scroll if you use a finger. But that's only possible using an active stylus. Active styli are "active" because they are powered. Wacom and Apple have batteries in their pens and ports to charge them with. The Apple pen can actually plug into the port of an iPad pro to charge IIRC. The S Pen gets it's power from the EMW emitter over the Note digitizer, so basically it gets power from the screen it's touching, like a wireless charger.

 

[cmonbe]

thanks for your ideas. That is impressive to me. But as far as I know from staffs one retailing shop of Apple Pencil, though with a high pressure sensitivity, it just can work on apple ipad pro exclusive of other devices like dell tablet, lenovo tablet or others. So it has its own limits.

 

[cmonbe]

thanks for your advice. As you mentioned, like Wacom, Adonit or Apple Pencil they are almost active pens with required battery inside. So it is not convenient for me to carry. Instead I would prefer passive pen in comparison with active pen.

 

[chanchan05]

thanks for your advice. As you mentioned, like Wacom, Adonit or Apple Pencil they are almost active pens with required battery inside. So it is not convenient for me to carry. Instead I would prefer passive pen in comparison with active pen.

It's impossible to do what you want with a passive pen. The only option therefore is a Samsung device with an S Pen. The S Pen doesn't have a battery, but it's active due to EMW emitter technology. Plus some options have a slot in the device to slide the Pen in.

 

[cmonbe]

Apart from SP, I heard from my friend who is using Meko stylus. As I never hear of it before, may I know if Meko stylus can work on Samsung devices ? I am not sure.

 

[chanchan05]

It will work but it will not be different from any other stylus that looks like that.

It won't be anywhere near as good as the Apple pen or S Pen.

 

[cmonbe]

Currently I can not afford Apple pen or S pen as I am just a college student. As we don't have enough money to afford apple pencil, other capacitive and passive pen may be good choices for us. And it is rather cheap.

 

[SpookDroid]

Just set your expectations accordingly. That is a 'plain' stylus... it will work, but it won't be precise or super neat. If you get the right stroke thickness in your note-taking app the handwriting might not look super bad, but again, it will NOT be perfect. Also, if you're gonna use the disc, make sure it's super clean before it touches your screen. I used that on my old Tab S and ended up with micro-scratches all over the writing area.

I also suggest you try to find an app that allows a 'zoomed in' area to write in (Samsung Notes used to have this, but for some reason, they removed it and OneNote doesn't have it either). This allows you to write in a blown up area at the bottom of the screen while translating that into a tighter, smaller 'print' on the actual note; this lets you write in big strokes (which that stylus can do), and still be able to retain a small, fine handwriting in the final note.

 

[cmonbe]

Thanks for your advice. I heard from others that Samsung pen can only be used on Samsung series of tablets or laptops rather than all devices. However I guess most people would prefer one stylus with no high pressure sensitivity while it can be compatible with all devices, so it has a large range in its practical use.

 

[cmonbe]

Any other different ideas ?

 

[chanchan05]

Your only option to do what you want is an active stylus. There's no ideas to speak of here. It's simply not possible for the device to know you are using a stylus without using a stylus that is able to talk to the device and tell it what it is. And there are only 3 styli that can do that: S Pen for compatible Samsung devices (Notes, Tab S3, and special edition Galaxy As), Apple Pen for iPad Pro, and active styluses (WACOM and other brands).

If you can't use any of those, you'll just have to make do with what you can use.

 

[SpookDroid]

Bear in mind that for those styluses you do need additional hardware IN the device. That's why they're so precise. The 'general purpose' stylus that you are using, while does work with most any device out there without additional hardware required, are nowhere near as precise and are basically just 'finger replacements', so no way for the phone to know you're using a stylus or have special 'stylus only' functions. Some apps can attempt to block accidental input (small touch VS large touch might be blocked as 'palm rejection'), but this is entirely done in software and is not perfect... with a device that has the right hardware to actually detect a stylus, the app can completely disable the touch digitizer on the screen and rely completely on the stylus digitizer, thus avoiding any palm or finger input.

 

[cmonbe]

Thanks for your advice. What you said makes sense.

On next Monday, I am planning to buy an active pen from Meko though now I am not sure which active stylus I should choose.

 

[cmonbe]

Thanks for your ideas. I will bear what you said in mind. That helps me choose one capacitive stylus. Thank you, guys.