How to test an Apple Pencil here
Open this page on the iPad the Pencil is paired with and draw on the canvas. The badge should say Pen. If it says Finger, the iPad is reading your hand instead: lift your palm, check that the Pencil is paired and charged in Settings, and try again.
- Draw light and heavy strokes. With Apple Pencil Pro the line swells with pressure and the gauge follows. With Apple Pencil (USB-C) the stroke keeps one width, because Apple lists no pressure sensitivity for that model.
- Lean the Pencil as if shading. Tilt X and Y, and altitude and azimuth, change in the Readings panel. Apple lists tilt sensitivity for both current models.
- Bring the Pencil close to the screen without landing. On iPads that support hover, the Hover chip lights before contact.
- Run Pressure ramp (Apple Pencil Pro): draw slowly from left to right, pressing harder as you go. The curve should rise smoothly and reach 100%.
Reading the result on an iPad
Pressure, tilt and hover come through Safari’s engine, which every iPad browser uses, so a result here is the same in any of them. The report rate shows how many samples per second reach the page while the Pencil moves. If the notes under the canvas say your browser doesn’t pass on the samples between screen frames, that number can’t go above the display’s refresh rate.
If a stroke breaks up or skips, check that the tip is screwed on firmly, then test again. Fingers draw too, but the badge then says Finger and the gauge stays empty: only the Pencil’s readings count as pressure here.
Any other pen works on the base pen pressure test. To check the iPad screen itself for stuck pixels, use the dead pixel test.