How to use the ruler to measure

I have looked through many of the dedicated screen ruler apps in the Apple iOS App Store and while I find some to look very good, it appears many of these apps collect data from behind the scenes. Even those that you need to pay a small in-app purchase to get rid of ads.

Something that has prevented me from wanting to download one of dedicated onscreen ruler apps,, which for me, as a technical illustrator would come in very handy in some generic drawing apps that have NO such ruler feature coded into their app/s.

I have no idea why the developers/makers of these myriad of onscreen ruler apps need to collect personal/device info, but I feel for these types of onscreen device measuring app, there is absolutely no justifiable reason to collect a person's personal and/or device information to be able to use these types of apps.

I do not really believe Apple's iOS App Store overseers let these types of apps through and allowed then into the iOS App Store.

It is a shame as I found two or three of these onscreen ruler apps that I would probably end up using everyday when I am doing any kind of technical sketching or drawing on my iPad.

I get around this now by just drawing using an actual clear plastic “see-thru” ruler on top of my iPad Pro when I draw or sketch on my iPad, but I always have to make sure the ruler is clean and free from any grit for fear of scratching my iPad Pro screen all of the time.

Something that I always have to be vigilant and diligent about all the time.

It would just be better to have an actual onscreen ruler app in more sketching/drawing/painting apps or an an accurate, transparent screen ruler app that I can use with any image, screenshot or imported drawing file to be able to easily check measurements and modify the image accordingly.

Not many sketching/drawing apps have coded in measuring rulers, hence thr reason to still use a actual, physical measuring ruler atop my iPads when I am sketching/drawing/painting on my iPad.

This can be problematic when zoomed up into an image, always having to zoom back measure things at a 1:1 scale ratio to make sure the measurements are close or dead accurate.

One of the drawbacks, I feel, of being able to draw something that needs measured accuracy on a touch tablet device.

Hi there, Abanman.

It appears that you'd like to learn how to use your Apple Pencil to measure lengths, and we're glad to provide assistance.

Models that support Measure - Apple Support -- These are the models of iPad you support this.

Measure dimensions with iPad - Apple Support -- And, this page of the iPad User Guide provides the steps on how to measure.

Feel free to get back to us with any questions or problems you may have.

All the best.

The Notes/Markup ”ruler” tool isn’t designed to measure relative lengths of a line - but is intended to facilitate drawing of a straight line at any angle.

You may find that other graphics/drawing Apps provide features and functionality better suited to more complex drawing needs. There are many to choose from in the Apple App Store, but here a few to get you started:

• Affinity Designer
• Vectornator
• Concepts