Apple’s Notes app in iPadOS 18 includes a new feature called Smart Script that allows users to handwrite text and then have it smoothed and straightened in real time. It promises to make text scrawled on the tablet with an Apple Pencil more readable and aesthetically pleasing.
I tested Smart Script on my iPad Pro with Apple Pencil. It’s not doing exactly what you might think — let me explain.
Standardizing handwriting with Smart Script in Notes in iPadOS 18
Typically, as you take handwritten notes, your writing tends to get messier as your hand gets tired. Notes that looked completely legible at the beginning of the meeting or class degenerate into a messy scrawl by the end.
That’s where Smart Script in the Apple Notes app can save you. With this feature, available now in the first iPadOS 18 developer beta (and coming later this year to everyone), your handwriting becomes more standardized. Words you write at the end of a long meeting look much the same as the ones written way back at the start (within limits).
That’s important because it’s easy to misunderstand Smart Script. The new feature does not remake the letters and words you write to match some arbitrary standard. It makes everything you write look similar to everything else you write. As Apple puts it, the system is “maintaining the look and feel of a user’s personal handwriting.”
Going hands on with with Smart Script
My handwriting is atrocious. That made me very curious how Smart Script would react to my writing. When I tried it on my M4 iPad Pro with Apple Pencil Pro, it functioned as advertised: My chicken scratch became a bit neater, while staying clearly in my handwriting. Words lined up nicely in a row, too.
Photo: Apple
I like that the process happens as soon as I finish writing each word. When I write carefully, the writing is cleaned up a bit. But if I quickly scrawl a bunch of words, the result remains quite messy.
I appreciate that iPadOS’ new Smart Script feature does not make everything I write look like it came from a stranger who writes more clearly than I do. But as a person whose handwriting looks terrible unless I really work at it, I’d like the system to be a bit more proactive.
When my handwriting gets bad, I want that text really cleaned up. I can copy the words in the scrawled example I used above and convert them to text, so the Notes app knows what the words say. I want them to be redrawn so they are much neater, but still in my handwriting. As it is, the feature is nice for people who already have good penmanship. It’ll make what you write look a bit better.
If you don’t want your writing cleaned up, you can easily turn off Smart Script. To do so, just tap the Options button on the stylus toolbar (a circle with three dots). This opens a pop-up window, and one of the options is Auto-refine Handwriting. Toggle it off.
Rearranging, pasting and correcting handwritten text
Just cleaning up your text is only the start, though. Once you’ve handwritten something, Smart Script can help you format it.
Press hard with an Apple Pencil and an orange cursor will appear. Move this to the right, and the words to the right will move, too, creating extra space. The rest of the paragraph will reflow to accommodate the additional space. In my very early testing, moving text around doesn’t always go perfectly. Sometimes the words from one paragraph end up on top of the next one.
Smart Script also will let you paste typed text into your notes in your own handwriting. It’s a cool effect. Suppose you’re taking notes during a meeting, and you get a text from a co-worker saying “Mention that Bob is in charge of Project Blue.” You can copy “Bob is in charge of Project Blue” and paste those words into your notes, and the iPad will enter them in a simulation of your handwriting so they don’t stick out.
To do so, Copy the text, then go to the spot in your note where you want to insert it. Press and hold the Apple Pencil down hard, and a cursor will appear. Lift the Pencil to have a pop-up window simply saying Paste appear. Tap on it.
If you misspell a handwritten word while using Smart Script, a line will appear under it. Tap the Pencil on the word for a suggested replacement. Choose it and the correctly spelled version will appear … again, in your handwriting.
Smart Script: Coming this fall in iPadOS 18
To be clear, it’s early days for Smart Script — I’m testing it in the Notes app built into the first beta of iPadOS 18 that’s intended for developer testing only. The non-beta version won’t reach regular users until this fall. That gives Apple plenty of time to make improvements.
If you simply cannot wait, you can download the iPadOS 18 developer beta now. The process is essentially the same as getting the iOS 18 beta.
