A coloring app for the S Pen: what PencilDrop does with your Galaxy’s pen
PencilDrop works with the S Pen on Galaxy tablets and phones. It reads the pen’s pressure, tilt and hover, so you can shade as you would with a real pencil, and it ignores your resting hand.
If you color on a Galaxy Tab or a Galaxy Ultra phone, the S Pen is most of the reason to. PencilDrop treats it as a pen rather than a finger: it reads how hard you press, the angle you hold it at and where the tip hovers, and lets your hand rest on the glass without leaving a mark. Here's what each of those does on the page, how to make the most of them, and the few things the S Pen doesn't do here.
Will it work on my Galaxy?
Yes. PencilDrop runs on Android tablets and phones, and an S Pen gets the same brushes, the same pages and the same daily contest as an Apple Pencil on an iPad. Everyone colors the same page each day, so a Galaxy and an iPad end up side by side on the same leaderboard, and the judges never see what anyone colored with.
Pressure: press lighter than you think
PencilDrop reads the pressure the S Pen reports and puts it through the same brush settings an Apple Pencil uses. Touch lightly with the pencil and you get a thin, see-through line; press harder and it widens and fills in. The crayon does the same with more grain. The airbrush sprays more color as you press, the chisel gets thicker, and the marker keeps its width and only deepens a little. The eraser follows pressure too, so a light touch takes back a little color and a firmer one takes more. (The pencil, marker, crayon and airbrush are free; the chisel and watercolor are PencilDrop Plus brushes.)
Most of the good coloring happens at the light end. Lay a patch in at about a quarter of the pressure you'd sign your name with, then go over it again at the same pressure. Two light passes give a smoother tone than one heavy one and leave you room for the darks. Our guide to shading with a pencil is written for the Apple Pencil, and its advice on pressure and layering works the same with an S Pen.
Tilt: shading with the side of the lead
Lay the S Pen over, as you would to shade with the side of a real pencil, and the pencil and crayon broaden into a soft band with more of the paper grain showing, set in the direction the pen points. The airbrush, chisel and watercolor broaden as you tilt too, and the marker stays even however you hold it.
That gives you two marks from one brush without opening a menu. Fill the body of a shape with broad, tilted strokes that overlap by about a third, then bring the pen upright for the edges and the small shapes.
Hover: see the brush before it lands
The S Pen hovers. Bring the tip close to the glass without touching it and PencilDrop shows an outline of the mark you're about to make, in its size, shape and color. The outline disappears the moment the tip touches down, so it never sits over your stroke, and comes back when you lift.
Use it at the start of a stroke. Put the outline on the tip of a petal or the corner of a window before you touch down and the line starts exactly there, and over a small shape you can see whether the brush will fit before it marks anything.
Your hand can rest on the glass
As soon as your S Pen touches the page or hovers over it, PencilDrop switches to the mode it calls "Pencil draws only", which means any pen, unless you've already picked a mode. The pen colors, one finger pans the page and a resting hand leaves no mark. Two fingers pinch to zoom in as far as eight times, and the page redraws sharp at every zoom rather than blowing up its pixels. If you'd like to color with a finger as well, choose "Touch draws" from Mode on the tool strip.
Color that stays inside the lines
We map every shape of every page before it goes out, so a stroke stays inside the shape it starts in, even when the pen runs over the line. That's what lets you shade quickly right up to an edge and keep it clean. Turn on Fill and a tap of the S Pen fills a whole shape, a quick way to lay a base color before you shade over it. The eraser keeps to the shape you start in as well, so tidying one side of a line never touches the other.
Does the ink keep up with the S Pen?
PencilDrop asks Android for every sample the S Pen reports, the moment it arrives, rather than one bundle per refresh of the screen, so a quick curve keeps its shape. On Android 14 and later it also uses Android's own motion prediction, where your device offers it, to draw a little ahead of the tip.
On a Galaxy Ultra phone
The S Pen works the same way on a phone. The page is smaller there, so pinch in for the detail and color the small shapes zoomed; the page stays sharp as you go in.
What the S Pen doesn't do in PencilDrop
Not everything carries over:
- The side button and Air actions have no job in PencilDrop. The eraser is on the tool strip.
- There's no double tap, squeeze, barrel roll or haptic feedback from the pen on Android. Those are the Apple Pencil's here.
None of that touches the marks themselves, which go through the same brushes on both.
Using a different pen with your Android tablet? Here's which Android styluses get pressure, tilt and hover. And if you also color on an iPad, what each Apple Pencil does in PencilDrop.
These are our own examples of what a page can become, each colored to a written color plan. They aren’t competition entries.
Quick answers
Does PencilDrop work with the S Pen?
Yes. PencilDrop runs on Galaxy tablets and phones and treats the S Pen as a pen: it reads its pressure, tilt and hover, and lets your hand rest on the glass without leaving a mark.
Does PencilDrop support S Pen pressure?
Yes. PencilDrop reads the pressure the S Pen reports and runs it through the same brush settings as an Apple Pencil, so pressing harder makes the pencil and crayon wider and denser.
Does PencilDrop support S Pen tilt?
Yes. Lay the S Pen over and the pencil and crayon broaden into a soft, grainy band in the direction the pen points, the way the side of a real pencil shades, and narrow again when you hold it upright.
Does the S Pen button do anything in PencilDrop?
No. The side button and Air actions have no job in PencilDrop, so pick the eraser from the tool strip.
Is an S Pen as good as an Apple Pencil in PencilDrop?
For the marks themselves, yes: both go through the same brushes, with pressure, tilt and hover, and a resting hand leaves no mark with either. The Apple Pencil adds gestures the S Pen doesn’t have here: double tap for the eraser, and the Pencil Pro’s squeeze, barrel roll and haptics.
Can I use PencilDrop with the S Pen on a Galaxy phone?
Yes. The S Pen works the same way on a Galaxy Ultra phone; pinch to zoom in for the detail a smaller screen needs.
Apple Pencil and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., Galaxy and S Pen of Samsung Electronics, and Android of Google LLC; other names are their owners’ trademarks. PencilDrop isn’t made or endorsed by any of them.
