Transcription
What's up everybody and welcome back to the flourish planner YouTube channel. I'm Christine, and today I'm going to show you how to write neatly on your iPad.
When I first got my iPad, I was so excited to start using it as a notebook and planner so that I could have a more minimalist and less cluttered lifestyle. I was so excited to get rid of all of my notebooks and journals and planners and just use my iPad. But whenever I actually started writing on my iPad, I greatly underestimated how, you know, difficult and weird it would feel to write on the glass screen that is the iPad. And I got kind of discouraged because I really hated the way my handwriting looked on the iPad. And here are some examples of what my handwriting used to look like on the iPad. And these are by no means bad or ugly. I think I just had my expectations set so high because I saw all of these aesthetically pleasing notes all over Instagram and Pinterest and I thought it was going to be super easy to recreate that type of note-taking style. But I found with practice, a couple tips, and some help from some iPad accessories, I was able to greatly improve my handwriting on the iPad. And I by no means have the best handwriting on the iPad. There are people who it literally looks like a font or like they've typed it. But I've definitely cultivated a couple tips that have made my handwriting look a lot neater so that I feel a little bit more organized and put together whenever I'm writing my notes and planning out my days.
So first, I want to talk about some iPad accessories that have greatly improved not only my handwriting but just my overall experience using the iPad. And these are great even if you're just a drawer on Procreate or anything like that. But first is the Paperlike screen protector. This is my favorite preferred screen protector for the iPad. It is just a matte screen and it literally feels like a piece of paper and it just creates that extra friction so that you're not just drawing or writing on a glass screen and it's not slipping and sliding all over the place. You have a lot more grip and I found that this is one of the biggest things that has helped improve my handwriting on the iPad and just my overall experience using the iPad. I have an affiliate link with Paperlike so I will have that linked below if you are interested, but I genuinely just adore this product and I've bought so many.
So next are pencil grips for your Apple Pencil. So my favorite brand is by Uppercase Designs. I have a couple different ones. This one is the Nimble Sleeve, which goes all the way around your pencil. And then I also have the Nimble Grip, which is a bit more of a classic pencil grip holder. And these just help you to better grip your pencil because the Apple Pencil is so thin and sometimes you just need a little bit more circumference around your pencil to better grip it. The Apple Pencil can also be a little bit slippery and you will find your fingers slipping down, so this really helps keep your fingers in place.
My next tip is to adjust your pen settings. Now, in this video, I will be talking through some of the GoodNotes pen settings, but you can do this on any note-taking app or any app that you will be using a pencil in. There are sure to be some different pens. As you can see here, you have the fountain pen, the ball pen, and the brush pen. Within GoodNotes, I highly recommend testing out each of the different pens to find out which one feels the most natural to you. I used to solely use the fountain pen, but since I have absolutely fallen in love with the ballpoint pen within GoodNotes, I just think that it makes my handwriting look so neat and so crisp. And you're going to also want to play around with the pressure sensitivity settings and the tip sharpness settings that you can find within each of the pens. You can see the difference here between the two different hairlines. One has a very rounded edge, whereas one is a bit more sharp, and that's kind of the different settings that you're going to get whenever you mess around with the sharpness and sensitivity. I also recommend adjusting your writing posture setting so that GoodNotes knows where your hand will be so that it can better detect your handwriting.
So tip number three is to write small and write uniform. So I find that it's really hard to have a lot of control over your handwriting whenever you're writing your letters really large. So I find that writing smaller really helps, and then you can always go in with the lasso tool and make it bigger later. But I find you have a lot more control whenever you're writing a lot smaller. Something to also keep in mind is keeping your size uniform, whatever it may be, just keep it as uniform as possible because you can see here, I don't necessarily have the most neat handwriting, but because I keep it within this kind of width, it all looks pretty uniform and therefore my handwriting looks a lot neater. While even though the individual letters might not be the most neat letters you've ever seen, the overall appearance of the page looks to be very neat.
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The next tip is to use the zoom tool within GoodNotes. So I'm not 100% sure what the science is behind this tool. It literally just zooms in your page, but for whatever reason, most people find that whenever they write within the zoom-in tool, their handwriting tends to look better because you're so zoomed in, you have a lot more control over your handwriting and you're able to really focus on each letter at a time. I also really like how you're able to be zoomed in while still seeing the full page because of course, you can just zoom in your screen, but something about having that upper screen available to you as well really helps. So if you're struggling with your handwriting and you haven't tried this tool yet, I highly recommend trying it out and giving it a go because for whatever reason, it greatly helped improve my handwriting and also just help me get a better feel for how to write on the iPad.
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The next tip I have is to write on graph or lined paper. So graph paper is really great because like we talked about before, whenever you keep your width of your letters uniform, it helps the overall appearance of your handwriting look a lot better. So GoodNotes has all kinds of different templates you can choose from, from dotted to line to graph paper. You can choose all different colors. So I recommend just going through them and testing out some different kinds of paper and finding which one comes the most naturally to you and helps your handwriting look the best. I definitely recommend at least practicing on graph paper because it really shows you how to master the width of your letters. But just in general, writing on a line is much easier than just writing into the abyss because you have a place to keep it consistent.
Tip number six is to add in decorative elements. And this is just a way to spice up your spreads, spice up your notes. I find that whenever you add in things like the highlighter tool or add in little doodles, it kind of helps distract from maybe some different letters that don't look the best or some handwriting that isn't the most neat. I find that just by adding some nice decorative, artsy elements in there, it can really help make your notes overall look a lot more aesthetically pleasing. I love using a ton of different colors. I love adding in squares and circles and stars and all that kind of stuff. You guys see me on TikTok, I post tons of plan with me where I show you guys different ways that I spice up my spreads and make them look really fun. I also recommend adding in pictures in there that maybe go with your color scheme and just have fun with it because it really helps the overall appearance of your handwriting look a lot better. So some of my favorite ways to add a little bit of spice to your spreads are: one, to use the highlighter tool. So all you're going to do is write out your letter and then hit a highlighter tool and pick a color a little bit lighter than your text. Add little lines around it and it looks really cute. Next is doing a little overlay. So make your pen a little bit thicker and write out a letter. As you can see, I'm writing it on the line and then bringing it down. You'll just hit copy paste and recolor it. I have a tutorial for this on my TikTok as well. And finally, we have just the classic square. So all you're going to do is just write out your little message, use the shape tool to make a little square, and then highlight the inside so that you have a nice perfectly colored-in rectangle with your little message.
So the last two tips I have are just to practice and have fun. Practice is so, so important. I know it's a very boring tip, but it is the most important tip in this video. You have to practice if you really want to make the switch and you want to get rid of a bunch of clutter and you just want to go digital and have this minimalist, zero-waste option, but you don't like your handwriting, keep doing it every single day. Just keep writing in your planner and your notebook every day, and I guarantee you, you will get better. I know a lot of people see these beautiful notes and planner spreads on Pinterest and Instagram, and people get really hard on themselves. You guys message me about it, but just have fun. It's just notes, it's just writing, it's not that serious. Have fun with it. Try it out every day. I promise you'll get better. I know it can be frustrating to have not the handwriting that you want to have, but I promise you'll get there.
But if you have made it to this portion of the video, congratulations! You have made it to the giveaway portion of the video. So I will be giving away one Paperlike screen protector to a subscriber. So all you have to do is like this video, be subscribed to my YouTube channel, and comment below introducing yourself and also what iPad you have. I will announce the giveaway winner on Instagram one week from today. So if you're not following me there, definitely check it out. I'll have it linked below. But if you have enjoyed this video, thank you so much for watching, and I will see you guys in the next one.