The implementation difficulty of multi-touch on resistive touch TFT screens is higher than that on capacitive screens. In the early days, traditional resistive screens only supported single-point touch due to structural limitations.

However, modern technology, through improving hardware design and algorithm optimization, has been able to achieve limited multi-touch functions, mainly adopting two technical paths: "analog voltage division" and "matrix scanning". Analog voltage division technology is applicable to two-point touch. Its core is to apply voltages in different directions simultaneously on the upper and lower conductive layers. When two points touch at the same time, the controller calculates their respective coordinates by detecting the superimposed voltage values of the two contact points.

For instance, when a voltage of 0-5V is applied to the X-axis and a voltage of 5-0V to the Y-axis, two different voltage combinations will be generated when the two points touch. Through algorithm analysis, the positions of the two touch points can be distinguished. However, this approach has a "ghost point" problem (i.e., misjudgment of non-real touch points), and it is necessary to use software filtering algorithms to eliminate incorrect coordinates to ensure the accuracy of two-point touch. Matrix scanning technology achieves multi-point identification by dividing the conductive layer into multiple independent small areas (matrix units), each equipped with an independent detection circuit.

For instance, the X-axis is divided into 10 columns and the Y-axis into 10 rows, forming 100 matrix units. When multiple points touch, the controller can simultaneously detect the conduction status of different units and locate multiple touch points. This technology supports three or more touch points, but it requires an increase in the complexity of the conductive layer's circuits, which is relatively costly. Moreover, its resolution is limited by the number of matrix units, making it suitable for medium and low-precision scenarios.

At present, the multi-touch of resistive screens is mainly applied in two-point operations (such as zooming and rotating), and is used in industrial drawing boards and some handheld terminals. Although it is inferior to capacitive screens in response speed and the number of touch points, it has more advantages in stability in harsh environments (such as oil stains and moisture).