Use your iPad as a pen display for your Mac

Which Apple Pencil works

• Apple Pencil Pro, Apple Pencil (2nd generation) and Apple Pencil (1st generation) sense pressure. Kite sends pressure and tilt to the Mac.
• Apple Pencil (USB-C) has no pressure sensor, so every stroke arrives at full pressure. Tilt still works.

Use the Pencil that your iPad supports; Apple lists them on its compatibility page.

Set it up

1. Connect the iPad to the Mac

   Install Kite for Mac and Kite for iPad, then connect with a USB-C cable. The cable gives the steadiest delay for drawing.

2. Move the canvas onto the iPad

   Drag your drawing app's window onto the iPad. To draw on the Mac's own screen instead, choose Mirror in the three-finger menu: the Mac's screen is shown on the iPad at the iPad's size.

3. Turn on pressure in your app

   Kite's strokes arrive as tablet input. Most drawing apps read pressure from tablets; if lines stay the same width, look for a pressure or tablet setting on the brush.

4. Pick a pressure curve

   In the three-finger menu, under Apple Pencil pressure, choose soft, standard or firm. Soft gives thicker lines for a light hand; firm needs a harder press.

While you draw

• Eraser: double-tap the Apple Pencil (2nd generation or Pro) to switch between pen and eraser.
• Palm: while the Pencil is drawing, Kite ignores your fingers, so a resting hand doesn't click.
• Shortcuts: the sidebar has undo and redo, and ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ for ⌘-click or ⇧-click with a finger. Squeeze Apple Pencil Pro to show or hide the sidebar.
• Detail: pinch with two fingers to zoom in on the iPad without changing the Mac.

What to expect

• The picture arrives about 25 ms after the Mac draws it on home Wi-Fi (measured on a Mac mini and a 10th-generation iPad). A cable is steadier.
• Up to 60 fps. macOS draws added displays at 60 Hz, so a 120 Hz iPad still gets 60.
• Hovering the Pencil above the screen doesn't move the Mac's cursor yet.