Some suggestions for iPad pro

dlezcano

秀才
Hello, I bought an iPad pro with an apple pencil a few weeks ago and would make some suggestions since I feel the usage of pleco in this device could be much better. Excuse me if some of my suggestions are already implemented.

First I think it could be convenient for some people being able to zoom in the part with the definitions on the right side with a gesture, just like when you use safari for browsing websites. The characters are not tiny but sometimes I would like to see some complex characters with more detail quickly. On the other hand I use to use the mirror function on my TV and the sentences are hard to read there.
Everyday I make tests on my phone with the setting "conceal handwriting until done" turned on, I was very happy for being able to keep on testing on my IPad with my pencil, but I feel the experience is much worse than on the phone since after writing each character I have to release the pen in order to tap the screen with my fingers. I think adding a "recognize" button could be enough to solve this problem...or maybe using the double tap function on the pen?
Talking about the pen, I think implementing the pressure function would be a great idea too since pressure is quite important for writing beautiful characters. My characters always look much better on the apps which support pressure detection. You even could make some function for learning to write beautiful characters by comparing your writing with some 硬笔书法 font.
Also, being able to mark or underline some parts in the definition area would be great for some users like teachers.
The following advice is not only for iPad versions but also mobile phone versions: it would be nice being able to compare your handwriting and the recognized character. For instance, sometimes when I take flashcard test sessions I write down a character with a mistake in some part of it but pleco does recognize it as written correctly, so I would like being able to compare what I wrote with the right character. The opposite situation is valid too, sometimes I write a character which I think was right, but pleco doesn't recognize it as correct, If I was able to compare with my handwriting I would be able to confirm if I was wrong or not.

I hope that at least some of these advices are doable, thank you for making the best tool ever made for learning Chinese.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Thanks!

First I think it could be convenient for some people being able to zoom in the part with the definitions on the right side with a gesture, just like when you use safari for browsing websites. The characters are not tiny but sometimes I would like to see some complex characters with more detail quickly. On the other hand I use to use the mirror function on my TV and the sentences are hard to read there.

This is dicey because making scroll views pinch-zoomable poses other problems (for example it interferes with our plans to let people swipe between tabs - already how that screen behaves on Android). We might be able to do it in an optional toolbar button menu though.

I think adding a "recognize" button could be enough to solve this problem...or maybe using the double tap function on the pen?

Probably makes more sense to do that with a tap gesture since that way we don't have to add an extra UI customization option.

Talking about the pen, I think implementing the pressure function would be a great idea too since pressure is quite important for writing beautiful characters.

As it happens Apple has a lovely new drop-in component called PencilKit to make beautiful drawings with Pencil (or a finger) and in iOS 14 they added the ability to capture those drawings as stroke vectors (= something we can use for handwriting recognition) rather than just images, so this should be supported on iOS 14.

Also, being able to mark or underline some parts in the definition area would be great for some users like teachers.

This is dicey because if a dictionary entry was updated the ranges would point to the wrong characters (and mapping all of those changes across dictionary revisions would be rather hairy/impractical). Might be possible to add the ability to quickly restyle bits of custom flashcard definitions this way, but for fixed dictionaries it would be more of a challenge.

The following advice is not only for iPad versions but also mobile phone versions: it would be nice being able to compare your handwriting and the recognized character.

Makes sense, though not something we've had many requests for to be honest.
 
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