A Simple but Fun Trick to use: New iOS14 Markup feature: Drawing Perfect Shapes
iOS 14 is out and probably on your phone by now. If not, it likely will be soon. Sometimes with a big, new, update like this, feelings of excitement and joy can be mixed with the fog of navigating a virtual environment where many things have changed, even while some remain familiar.
Sometimes a great way to get some immediate satisfaction is to choose a simple new and improved feature and then master it, just to associate a feeling of confidence and accomplishment to the mix.
Apple picked the new markup features as one to introduce to new iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 users right away via the notification in the new widgets area. It’s simple and fun, and especially for people who are not great at drawing with fingers, can be very useful to emphasize areas in photos and screenshots. I use this daily as a way to communicate, rather than just text and email.
In this short 2 minute tutorial Wiley Simms, staff-writer and videographer on loan from our sister-site InforMinx.com, shows how it’s done. First getting easily into Markup Mode by clicking “edit” then the small circle with 3 dots – then from the drop down menu choosing “markup”.
Once in markup mode the markup pallet appears with various markers. There’s a new “selection pen” but the rest should be familiar, if you are a previous markup user. The simple trick is to draw a shape, say, for example, a star. Even if you draw a pretty rough version of the star, as long as you hold still and do not remove your finger from the screen at the end of the star – the software will figure out what you are trying to draw and “correct” or “perfect” your rough drawing into a perfect shape.
This works for stars, circles, ovals, squares, hearts and straight lines. With this group of common shapes you can do a lot of interesting compound drawings and illustrations. In particular, the straight line correction feature is very useful to build shapes that are not on the main list.
This limited 2 minute tutorial is meant to help to get a jump on learning the hundreds of new features in iOS 14 and thanks to Wiley for the video demonstration.
