Properly supporting copy and paste

Copy and paste are two common text manipulation techniques on the iPhone and iPad, allowing users to quickly move text between fields or applications, much like on a standard desktop computer.

Copy and paste came late to iOS, not falling in place until the release of version 3.0 in the summer of 2009. Apple took their time in implementing the feature, waiting to release the functionality until they had perfected the feature interface.

In some applications, specifically iPad magazines or creative pieces with long prose, we may find it easier or more effective to take a design route that keeps the user from being able to copy and paste. Magazines are specifically notorious, displaying text content in an image so that copy and paste selection is impossible.

However, such interface behavior can be quite detrimental to the overall usefulness of our app, while also making our work much less accessible to those with disabilities. These are the outcomes that...