Apple could be planning a real-world equivalent of the familiar eye-dropper tool in image apps, where a color could be set by an Apple Pencil tapping against it in an existing image.
Back in 2019, Apple applied for a patent concerning an Apple Pencil that could include “an on-board display” that showed different colors. In that case, the idea was that a user would see what color pen or brush stroke was about to be applied.
Back in 2019, Apple applied for a patent concerning an Apple Pencil that could include “an on-board display” that showed different colors. In that case, the idea was that a user would see what color pen or brush stroke was about to be applied.
Then in 2023, Apple applied for a patent that in hindsight seems like an obvious extension of this. According to the proposals in “Electronic Device With Optical Sensor For Sampling Surfaces,” the Pencil tip could sense colors.
Now that patent has been granted. Much of it does effectively repeat some of the earlier patent about changing or selecting colors, but now it’s more specific.