Procreate Lags When Selecting Colors with Apple Pencil on iPad Pro M2
The M2 iPad Pro was announced in October 2022, bringing minor changes from the previous generation. Instead of the M1 from 2020, it houses the latest M2 SoC to enable even more power.
The tablet isn’t a tremendous leap; the screens are the same as the 2021 iPad Pro. No improvements were made to battery life, and there weren’t any monumental new features either. One unique feature exclusive to the M2 iPads is Hover with the Apple Pencil.
Hovering with the Apple Pencil is a beneficial feature for creative professionals who use an iPad as their primary photo or video editing device or their primary tool for digital art and graphic design.
Up to 12mm from the display, you can use it to navigate through iPadOS and utilise it in the Notes app and the Safari app. It’s handy for drawing and sketching since it shows you a preview of the line or pattern it’s about to draw.
It works via electromagnetic signals without being in contact with the display, and it’s unclear whether the feature is enabled by hardware or just the software.
Apple Pencil Hover is a crucial tool for designers of graphics, logos, sketches, and drawings since it allows them to see how a brush will land its stroke before the paint is applied.
Procreate is an award-winning intuitive app built primarily for digital calligraphy and digital art. It’s a top-rated app that ordinary people use for making wallpapers, drawing digital comics, making logos and avatars, etc. Apple worked with the developers of Procreate to integrate the Hover feature into their app, exclusive to the M2 iPads.
Unfortunately for people who use the M2 iPad Pro, several users have been experiencing lags and delays when using the Apple Pencil Hover feature in the Procreate app. They have reported it on Twitter and Reddit.
Artists say that Procreate stalls or crashes after only a few minutes of sketching. The most significant problem, which invariably results in a crash, is attempting to use the colour fill feature. These bugs and crashes undoubtedly are serious since their workflow is severely impacted.
Other bug reports say that when rapid lines are drawn, they don’t appear or are too thin. Impacted users complain that there is a lag between selecting a colour from the colour fill and applying it to their painting. It’s not an issue if you use your finger, though.
These issues might lead you to believe it’s an issue with iPadOS, but that’s not the case since other popular illustration tools like Adobe Fresco and Apple’s notes app function as they should with the Hover feature. So, we can put it down to an app optimisation issue.
Thankfully, this problem has officially been acknowledged by the Procreate team on Twitter, and they conveyed that it’s a known bug that will be fixed with the upcoming 5.3 update, so they’re currently working on it.
Until then, they suggested using fingers instead. An estimated time when the update will drop was not specified; developers will hopefully address it soon.
Until the update with fixes is rolled out, there is a potential solution. On the Settings app, navigate to the individual app settings of Procreate and disable the Palm Support feature. They also suggested basic methods such as restarting, clearing the cache, etc.
