Can You Practise Handwriting on an iPad? How It Differs from Paper

In a study published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2016, researchers in Germany asked 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders and 25 adults to do the same writing tasks both on a tablet screen and on paper (Gerth et al., 2016).

Every age group wrote faster on the tablet, in every task. The researchers put this down to the screen’s smoother, lower-friction surface. Adults also wrote larger on the tablet (1.47 cm on average, against 1.20 cm on paper), and in the task of writing a phrase, their tablet handwriting was rated less legible. At the same time, the authors note that adults seem to adapt to the smoother surface quickly.

Many people wonder whether it is worth practising handwriting on an iPad at all. You can practise on one, and some kinds of practice suit the screen. But a screen is not paper. This article covers the differences, the practice the screen is good for, and what you can only check on paper.

One caveat: the study used a 2016 laptop-style tablet and its own pen, not an iPad and Apple Pencil. Read the numbers as a tendency, not as figures that carry over directly.

How the screen differs from paper

It is slippery. Glass has less friction than paper, so the tip glides. It is harder to stop exactly where a stroke should end, and lines tend to run long. The faster, larger writing in the study is thought to come from this smoothness.

Letters get bigger. It is easy to write larger on a screen than on paper, all the more so because most practice apps show one character filling the screen. Learning a shape at a large size is useful, but it is not the size you normally write at.

Your hand rests differently. On paper, resting your palm on the page is normal. On a screen, some apps treat a palm touch as a line. Writing with your hand lifted changes how you use your arm.

There is a small gap between tip and line. The cover glass sits between the surface you touch and the display underneath. It looks slightly different from paper, where the line appears right under the tip.

What the iPad is good for

Seeing stroke order as movement. A paper workbook shows stroke order with numbers and arrows. On a screen, the model line actually moves, so you can see where a stroke starts and which way it leaves.

Tracing the model again and again. Once you trace on paper, that sheet is used up. On a screen you can clear and rewrite at once, five or ten times in a row.

Comparing with the model. You can see your line over the model, so you can see where it drifted. This can make a drift easier to spot than comparing a workbook with your own eyes.

Working only on the letters you struggle with. Workbooks are built to be done in order. On a screen you can pick just the characters that tend to go wrong. How to find them is in Why Adult Handwriting Gets Messy, and Where to Look When You Fix It.

What only paper can show

Real size. Address lines, name fields, a line in a diary. The writing you do every day is much smaller than what you practise on a screen. How a letter holds up at that size can only be checked on paper.

Pen resistance and pressure. A ballpoint or felt-tip catches on paper, and the ink changes with pressure. A screen cannot reproduce this.

Spacing and straight lines. An app that practises one character at a time cannot teach you how characters sit together in a line of writing.

Speed. A letter that comes out well when you trace slowly may fall apart at your usual pace. Writing fast feels more natural on paper.

Does practice on a screen carry over to paper?

One view is that shape and stroke order do carry over. Where to start, which line to make long, where each part of a character goes: these are the same on screen and on paper.

On the other hand, as the study shows, speed and size change between the two. A letter that looks good on the screen will not necessarily come out the same on paper. One order to try is to learn the shape on the screen, then match the size and speed on paper.

One way to combine them

In ten minutes a day, for example:

1. On the iPad, trace the characters you find hard, three to five times each (5 minutes).
2. Write the same characters three times on paper at your normal size (3 minutes).
3. Write a word or your name that contains them, once, on paper (2 minutes).

When a letter looks fine on the screen but goes wrong on paper, comparing the two is how you find your own habits. More on ten-minute practice is in Neater Japanese Handwriting in 10 Minutes a Day.

If the slippery screen bothers you, a film or a different tip can change how it feels. See How to Make Apple Pencil Feel More Like Paper.

Practising with StudyX Smartpaper Letters

StudyX Smartpaper Letters is a tracing app for iPhone and iPad. It works best with an iPad and Apple Pencil, but you can also write with a finger.

Type what you want to practise into the search bar. The first stroke of the model animates, and you trace it. When you lift after a stroke, the next one animates. You can toggle the dotted guide lines to check the centre of a character and where its parts sit. It covers the alphabet in print and, with a setting, in cursive, as well as numbers, Japanese kana and more than 10,000 characters in all.

You get a score after each character. It measures how closely your lines overlap the model. It does not check stroke order or the finer details of each stroke. The score is a guide to shape on the screen, not a judgement of your handwriting on paper.

One thing worth knowing: if your palm or another finger is touching the screen, the line may not draw properly. It may stop partway, or your palm may become the line. Lift your hand slightly, or take care not to touch the screen with it.

The app cannot do the paper part. As above, check the final result on paper.

It is a one-time purchase with no ads and no in-app purchases, and what you write is not sent anywhere.

For a first session, see Getting Started with StudyX Smartpaper Letters. For a comparison with paper workbooks and other options, see StudyX Smartpaper Letters vs Other Ways to Practice Handwriting.