iPad Pro Pencil “scribble” is an iOS feature providing handwriting recognition. It’s supposed to work in any text input field, allowing you to write text with the pencil instead of using a keyboard, but it doesn’t work at all in current Dorico iPad.
Note that this is very different than any discussion of using the Pencil for Dorico GUI things, e.g., note input. This is just using the Pencil in lieu of a Querty keyboard.
At the present time, the Qt application framework upon which Dorico is built across all platforms does not support the iOS 14+ Scribble features, which means that it is difficult for Dorico to support it at the moment. It’s definitely something we would like to enable in future.
Ah. Presumably Qt will address this at some point…?
BTW, congrats on this amazingly impressive Dorico iPad - and Dorico, in general! It’s got to be the most full-featured iPad app ever - and, because you used Qt, one of the iPad app that most closely matches its desktop version feature-for-feature. The iPad pricing model must cause some heartburn, compared to what even Dorico Elements costs, let alone Dorico Pro, but I’ll be that it actually causes people to buy both…
I’m a (very) long-time Cubase Pro and Wavelab Pro user and classical pianist, and just got Dorico. It looks like The Missing Link for me for songwriting. If there are angels, they will sing when Dorico replaces the Cubase Score Editor and we have a soup-to-nuts solution: Dorico has the notation abilities, but Cubase has powerful, (relatively) new composition tools, e.g., Chord Track, chord suggestions, etc.
Final suggestion: while I totally agree that using the Querty and MIDI keyboards are the key to high-output Dorico capability, Dorico also has a gorgeous and, despite the missing Scribble support, highly usable mousing GUI, especially for people just dipping a toe in the water. The “First Steps” and “Getting Started with Note Input” tutorials made Dorico go A-ha! for me, and it no longer feels (quite as) daunting. BUT, IMHO, a mouse-friendly version of those tutorials would go a long way in getting noobs started. For example, “type 7 C T 5 C” is a lot more abstract than doing those same operations with the mouse. Once they understand the lay of the land and how Dorico “thinks” the keystrokes will make them overjoyed with productivity. But they have to get that understanding first.
Again, bravo Dorico!
– jdm
Thanks for your further feedback, John. There is indeed an entry in the Qt developers’ backlog to support Scribble, but as yet there’s no indication of when they might tackle it. In the meantime, I’m really glad that you’re finding Dorico a helpful partner in your musical activities. We are certainly planning to bring Dorico and Cubase closer together, but I can’t say much more about it for the time being.
We are certainly planning to bring Dorico and Cubase closer together,
To quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “…and there was much rejoicing!"
but I can’t say much more about it for the time being.
And from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more…”
cheers,
— jdm
Don’t forget to
“Always look on the bright side of life.”