Apple Freeform User Guide (iPad)

Creating a new board

To create a new board in Apple Freeform, tap the new board icon (top toolbar) > go to Untitled to Rename your board > tap Done or return key on the keyboard to save.

Tap the board name again to change the template to either Hide Grid (if the board is dotted) or Show Grid if it is plain. 

Writing and eraser tools

The pen icon brings up a mobile toolbar with writing, fill, eraser, lasso, and scribble tools to use on your board.  You can move it to any of the four sides of the screen. You can also minimise it (swipe it into a corner) to get it out of the way. It has the undo and redo icon on the far left and a three-dots icon (on the right) that lets you:

• turn on Auto-minimise to automatically minimise the toolbar when you start writing the board.
• Draw with Finger to allow you to use your finger or a passive stylus. When turned on you can only scroll your board with two fingers. If you have an Apple Pencil, it’s best to keep this option turned off.
• go to Pencil Settings in your iPad settings.

Apple Freeform has the following writing tools (from left to right): pen tool, pencil and crayon. For all three, you can customise the following:

• thickness from five fixed sizes. To change the thickness, tap (if it’s selected) or double-tap (if it’s not selected) to bring up the thickness options > choose the thickness you want.
• opacity from 0 -100%. To change it, tap or double-tap > adjust the opacity. 

The toolbar also has a colour palette with five default colours that you can use for your writing tools. To use a custom colour tap the sixth motley colour on the palette. On the popup menu, you can pick a colour from the Grid, Spectrum, Sliders, Hex code, or use the colour picker (top left corner). You can also adjust the opacity of the colour. To save the colour, tap the plus icon on the secondary colour palette (bottom of the popup menu). You can save a lot of custom colours on this toolbar.