TroytlePower

I’ve been using an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil for digital art for about the past two years, first a 9.7″ one and then the slightly bigger and slightly newer 10.5″. Combined with the right app, the iPad+Pencil feels great for drawing and is a wonderfully mobile option for being able to create digital art.

Up until this week, I’ve been using the iPad screen as it is, with no protector on it. My wife had suggested I get a screen protector back when I first started using the iPad, but I felt like it’d make it not “feel” right, so I didn’t. About a week and a half ago, though, I started to get an anxiety out of nowhere about how much it would suck if my screen got damaged, and started thinking about getting some sort of protector for it.

Just after that, I started hearing people talk about using a matte screen protector to make the iPad feel more like drawing on paper. I ended up asking a streamer named PrincessMilkshake about it, and it turned out she was using one of those and I loved it.

I ended up ordering and installing my new screen protector yesterday, and it really does feel nice. Drawing on it feels less smooth than drawing on the screen, but that little bit of friction makes it feel more like drawing with a pencil than with a stylus. Additionally, the matte quality actually makes lights hitting the thing way less harsh than the super glossy screen. There is a little bit of film discoloration on bright whites (like speckles of red blue and green), but it’s not too noticeable, especially once you’ve been using it for a while.

On the negative side of things, I’m awful at installing screen protectors, so now there are bubbles. Oh lawd, the bubbles.

It’s not actually as bad as this drawing shows… but there are like three specks of dust and a dog hair that are forever trapped under this screen protector. The package did actually come with two, but I’m afraid if I try again I’ll end up even worse off.

I should have just let my wife do it.

If you want to try out the screen protector I got, and have magical Amazonian Imps deliver a few cents to me, click this link: iCarez Anti-Glare Matte Screen Protector for Apple 10.5-inch iPad Pro (2017) Premium Easy Install with Lifetime Replacement Warranty Pack of 2