Digital Sketch Pen Captures Strokes As They Happen

30.08.2011
Over the years, several companies have tried to make the digital pen happen. Today, a new outfit has added itself to that list: , which has introduced a digital sketch pen. What distinguishes this digital ink slinger from its predecessors is its narrow target audience: artists.

Unlike digital pens made for note takers, the Wacom Inkling ($199) works with any kind of paper. Digital pens such as the old and the more current Pulse smartpen, need special paper to capture a scribblers' scratchings.

In another departure from its predecessors, Wacom's product also uses two pieces of hardware--the pen and a small "receiver" that slides onto the top of a sheet of paper or the page of a sketchbook. As a sketcher draws on the page, their strokes are captured by the receiver.

The pen also allows a sketcher to create "layers" on the fly with a click of a button. A layer is an overlay image that can be manipulated to obtain effects like allowing a background image to be seen through a foreground image. Layers are very useful when working with graphics programs, but trying to think in layers with a pen may be a bit challenging.

The pen also supports 1024 levels of "sensitivity." These levels allow the pen to interpret the pressure behind a stroke and accurately render its depth--something that would be impossible to do if the sketch were just scanned into a computer.

When it's time to upload sketches created with the pen to a byte box, the receiver--which Wacom estimates can hold up to 50 sketches--can be plugged into a USB port and its contents stored on a hard drive. Incoming files can be converted into a number of image formats--JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, SVG and PDF--by Wacom's Sketch Manager software. In addition, the product can be configured to load a receiver's files directly into Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and AutoDesk Sketchbook Pro/Designer.