New PaperLike 2 utilizing "Nanodots Technology" for rougher surface and less refractions

With the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil becoming more and more powerful, freehand drawing experiences it’s second coming as pen and paper found their legitimacy in the digital world. As much as we like drawing on our iPad, its slippery glass surface has always been a major disadvantage, especially in comparison with Wacom’s etched glass Cintiq drawing displays. The simplest and least cost-effective solution to create a similar drawing surface on the iPad is to apply a matte screen protector that adds a certain grip to Apple’s stylus, while protecting the tablet from the micro-granular dust that’s in the air. Naturally, we have our favorite pick when it comes to imitating the feel of drawing on paper: PaperLike, a successful Kickstarter campaign we have already included in our Tools section.

For the last 2 years, Jan Sapper PaperLike’s creator has been working on an updated version, trying to improve a few areas of his original design. Sapper says that he has so far sold over 10000 iPad screen protectors and his customers are happy with it for the most part, with two exceptions: the surface could be a bit rougher and the display noise it generates should be toned back. We would add one more complaint to the pile, namely the ease of application. As we pointed out in our installation guide, applying the screen protector over such a large screen surface as the one on the iPad Pro 12.9 Inch can be very challenging. On the other hand, once installed, we never really had any complaints about the roughness of PaperLike. Thanks to the extra layer, penciling at the temple has become a lot more natural, adding more bite to the Pencil while significantly improving on precision. Nonetheless, Sapper and his team went back to the drawing board and tinkered and experimented with the material. As a result, they just launched a new Kickstarter campaign for their new and improved PaperLike version 2.

The new screen protector uses a completely different know-how, called “Nanodots Surface Technology” that sprinkles tiny dots across PaperLike’s foil. These dots provide a rougher screen without altering light as much as its predecessor, and causing less of a refraction. This well-known consequence notorious for such protectors is called “rainbow-effect”, primarily due to the adhesive between the applied layer and the glass screen. Although the adhesive used on the original PaperLike already had this problem treated in a more successful manner than others, causing minimal patterning and no noticeable parallax whatsoever, improvement is always welcome in this department. 

According to the professionals who have already spent some time with the upgraded PaperLike, the installation process is unfortunately still the most disappointing part of dealing with the screen protector. On the other hand, the surface roughness was found distinctively more prominent by early adopters as reads in the promotion: “The sensation of writing and drawing feels very much like paper, with increased resistance compared to the version one – and almost no display noise. This is as close to a perfect screen protector for my treasured iPad as I can imagine.” PaperLike 2 has just started its month-long Kickstarter campaign and it is already fully funded with 22 days to go. You can still reserve yours for €29, a slight discount from its intended retail price. Naturally, digitalEPIGRAPHY is eagerly awaiting to test out the new PaperLike and we will share our hands-on experience as soon as possible.