Tablet screen protectors
Paperlike Screen Protector
2 Piece, iPad Pro 12.9 2021 (5th Gen), iPad Pro 12.9 2018 (3. Gen), iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4. Gen)
Paperlike: The iPad becomes a writing pad
28.4.2020
A screen protector promises to make your iPad feel like a piece of paper. Does it pass the test with a tattoo artist? And: You can win a free tattoo.
Maurizio Feraco aka Mau Dit is a tattoo artist. In the Zurich studio Hautrock, he stitches his art under people's skin. Before this happens, the man with the tattoo on his shaved skull has to put his designs on paper. Maurizio has been doing this on an iPad for a few years now. He only has one problem with the device, which he takes with him everywhere:
"I miss the paper feeling. Certain motifs simply draw better with a pencil."
Help comes from the digitec Community. Both artist Fabio Simeoli and an anonymous user advise Maurizio to use a screen protector called Paperlike. The German manufacturer claims that its screen protector brings the feel of a piece of paper to the iPad.
Maurizio gets to work. In exchange for a Paperlike film, he draws a tattoo exclusively for digitec, which you can have engraved for free.
Maurizio versus "sö Böbbles"
Before the tattoo artist can get to work with his Apple Pencil, he has to apply the foil. This is the biggest hurdle in the employees' work with each foil. A hurdle that is only worth taking if the result is absolutely stunning. This is exactly what worries Maurizio. In the worst case scenario, he has to apply the film several times, which increases the risk of it tearing. Then the film could end up crooked on the iPad.
Or air bubbles could form. Maurizio will almost despair of them.
But he doesn't know that yet as he unwraps the foil from the grey envelope and looks at the minimal instructions. Essentially, Paperlike provides a link where a man called Jan demonstrates how to apply the film.
In English with a German accent, he demonstrates how to attach and align the film using specially designed adhesives. This is done quite quickly and well, even if it sounds extremely complex.
Then comes the part where Maurizio has to press the resulting air bubbles - Maurizio pronounces the English word "bubbles" with a German accent, i.e. "Böbbles" - under the film to the edge so that it lies smoothly. He should use a microfibre cloth to push the smaller bubbles towards the larger bubbles and then press the larger ones against the edge. It looks really easy in the video.
"I give up," says the tattoo artist after a few minutes of pushing around without any meaningful success. The large blisters disappear, but the small ones remain. Maurizio grabs his SwissPass and pushes all but the most stubborn blisters to the edge.
At some point, his curiosity gets the better of him. He wants to know what the paper equivalent feels like when he draws with it.
"Fuck the bubbles. I want to draw."
Says and reaches for the pen, which he has wrapped with the handle of a tattoo gun so that he has as consistent a feel as possible from the sketch to the tattoo.
The revelation after the first stroke
Maurizio picks up his pencil a little nervously. Was the battle against the "Böbbles" worth it?
"Wow."
Then he falls silent for a moment and continues drawing. His pen flies over the iPad. A soft scratching can be heard in the quiet studio, where music usually plays. A scratching that sounds like a pencil on paper.
"It works perfectly. Just like Jan said."
Maurizio has decided that the Jan in the video should take the rap for the Paperlike company. Incidentally, Jan is probably Paperlike's CEO Jan Sapper. The man grew up in Guatemala, completed a degree in Engineering in Vienna, a Master's in Business Management in London and then decided to invent MacDock, which puts all other Mac docking stations in the shade. Not by its size, but by its minimalism and functionality.
And then: Paperlike. A slide that Maurizio will never want to do without again. At 10.32 pm in the evening, he writes on WhatsApp with another sketch attached:
I love the Paperlike!!! So much more relaxed.
Tablet screen protectors
Paperlike Screen Protector
2 Piece, iPad Air 2019 (3. Gen), iPad Pro 10.5 2017 (1. Gen)
Tablet screen protectors
Paperlike Screen Protector
2 Piece, iPad Pro 11 2018 (1. Gen), iPad Pro 11 2020 (2. Gen), iPad Air 2020 (4. Gen), iPad Air 2022 (5th Gen)
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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