Digital pens are not even a fashion trend, but just a separate narrow layer of devices. Although the idea is good - we write on paper, then we see the text on the computer. But in the end, there are a variety of nuances that prevent the normal use of such pens.
There have already been several reviews of digital pens on our resource, and Livescribe’s products are rightfully the industry leader. The price tag is immodest, you need your own paper - but there are no additional modules, there are special applications (for example, a dictionary), and there is also a built-in microphone in the pen. Happiness, what can I say.
Today we’ll talk about a product from Wacom, a recognized leader in the production of graphics tablets, or digitizers. I don’t know why Wacom brought it to the steppe of digital pens - but it already happened that it did. And Wacom came up with the Inkling product.
A beautiful box, inside - a handle, a carrying case, a module for attaching to paper, replaceable rods, a miniUSB cable. The dimensions of all this stuff are quite large, plus the solution - you can charge both the pen and the module at once, plus spare refills included. There are also instructions.
The weight of the receiver is 39 grams, the handle is 19 grams.
The handle is very massive, made of soft-touch plastic. The weight distribution is strange, it is at its heaviest in the rear part - as a result, holding it is not very comfortable. Another disadvantage is the thickness of the handle itself, as well as the thickening closer to the rod. I can’t call myself overly picky, but I didn’t like holding Inkling in my hand. For reference, the diameter of the pen is about 16 mm, that is, it is more like a marker. Length – 154 mm.
The case and module are also made of plastic, the module has a clothespin, buttons for turning on and turning the virtual page, as well as 3 indicators - operability/charging, pen activity and page turning.
As for charging and operating time. The entire set takes 3 hours to charge, according to the manufacturer it works for 8 hours - I have not checked this time.
How the pen works. We attach the block with the receiver to a sheet of paper (as firmly as possible), and turn it on. Next you need to tap the pen on the sheet, it also turns on, you can start drawing or writing something down. When you need to start a new page, you can press the corresponding button on the module.
The limitations are simple - the block does not record pen movements at distances less than 2 cm from it, and the drawing area is also limited to the size of an A4 sheet.
What about quality? The stated accuracy is 2.5 mm for the main part of the sheet, and 5 mm for its edges. In fact, it is important to ensure that your fingers do not slip onto the lower part of the handle, otherwise you get obscenity, which can be seen in the pictures above.
In my opinion, this is absolutely no good, but I have a bad habit of holding the pen close to the shaft. If you hold it high, then Inkling will suit you (the drawing of the rabbit was done by a friend who just holds her hands normally).
Together with a friend, we developed several disadvantages:
Okay, one way or another – we wrote something down, but what to do next? Next you need to transfer the pictures to your computer. Connection is simple - the module is defined as a USB drive, you can install a program for working with sketches. The functionality is simple - viewing (both the finished drawing and the process of its creation), exporting to various formats: JPEG, BMP, TIFF, SVG, PNG (in the latter case, massive files of 25 megabytes are obtained).
I didn’t write about the price of the device, so to speak, I saved the most interesting for last. The price abroad is 199 dollars, here it is about 10 thousand rubles.
I understand perfectly well - Wacom, convenient case included. But - with such “convenience” of use, the price should be slightly higher than that of Ritmix pens (they cost 3 thousand rubles), but certainly cannot be compared with Livescribe with a microphone, the highest recognition accuracy, applications, uploading to Evernote. The only downside to Livescribe—which leads to most of the upsides—is the special notebooks that you have to buy.
I understand that you can get used to it - but I’ll get used to the Ritmix set faster, and I’ll spend several times less money (with the same functionality).
You should decide, first of all, whether you need such happiness - and for that kind of money. If you are thinking about purchasing, I recommend trying this pen in the store where it is possible.
The editors thank the iCover.ru store for providing the Wacom Inkling kit for testing.
Ilya Tarakanov ()
Undoubtedly, computers have become mobile, and a workplace can now be organized anywhere - even in a park, square or in the yard on a bench. But it still won’t become a full-fledged workplace. Scanners and printers, alas, are not nearly as mobile as computers, and the prototypes that developers promise us will not please those who like to work outside the office for a long time. However, artists and designers, fashion designers and illustrators have always been freer than others, because they do not need office centers to work, and soon they will not need scanners either. New development from Wacom digital pen entitled Wacom Inkling, will transfer all sketches and sketches from paper directly to the computer.
You can also divide the image into layers directly when drawing on paper; for this, you also just need to press a button. Layers are preserved upon import, and separate the sketch from the finished drawing so that the author can refine one or the other. It records the device and the pressure of the pen on the paper, which will be very useful if the author is working on drawing a portrait or other realistic image. By the way, Wacom Inkling does not need any special paper or coating for it - you can draw even on a napkin in a cafe, even on a piece of toilet paper, even on a page from a notebook or notebook. The main thing is to attach the “receiver” to the edge of the page - Wacom Inkling will do the rest itself.
The digital pen and receiver are powered by batteries that are charged via a USB connector. The kit also includes special software Inkling Sketch Manager, which will help you work with imported drawings, prepare them for subsequent processing in other graphic editors and save them in popular graphic formats. More information about the project can be found on the website of the manufacturing company Wacom.
Many people already know what graphics tablets are. The recognized leader among manufacturers of these digital devices for a long time is the Wacom company, which has gone even further, breathing life into people’s fantasies: tell me, who among those who like to draw in their spare time, grabbed a sheet of paper from the next table, did not think that it would be nice to see the result right away on the computer screen. Previously, you would definitely have to scan the image...
With the advent of the Wacom Inkling device, the situation has changed. Draw on plain paper and at the same time receive a digital copy, which can be saved in one of the popular graphic formats or exported to a program for further processing in vector or raster form.
Sounds fantastically great. Now we’ll find out how close to ideal the result of the Inkling digital pen is in harsh reality.
System requirements: Windows 7, Vista, XP (SP3) or Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.
Pen - 1024 pressure levels.
You can save the result of your work in the following file types: JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, SVG and PDF; or export - to programs: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro or Sketchbook Designer (2011 and higher).
Looking inside the box, we see a digital pen, a charger and a battery for it. Where is everything else, so carefully listed on the packaging. At the very bottom, a quick start guide was found, which revealed the secret.
A pen cradle is a kind of “pencil case”, consisting of two halves connected by a magnetic lock on one side and a pen socket on the other. The missing items were thoughtfully placed inside - a connecting cable, 4 spare ink refills and an Inkling receiver.
This truly interesting, slightly futuristic-looking little thing is made of high-quality plastic of two types - matte and glossy.
The nib is generally comparable in size to a regular ballpoint pen.
The design uses soft-touch plastic, only a strip with the Wacom logo and the “claws” that secure the rod are made of glossy material.
The upper part is expanded, there is a compartment for the battery. Access to it is not difficult - you just need to open the hinged lid with a little effort.
Battery activation is indicated by the green LED in the cap turning on.
Before using for the first time, you must fully charge the receiver and pen battery. When charging, the receiver's power indicator lights up red, which changes to green when the process is complete.
The pen's battery is fully charged in approximately 3 hours. It is worth noting that the connection cable is extremely short - about 22 cm, so in this case you need to save some space for the Wacom Inkling near the USB port.
The receiver is easily attached to a sheet of paper using a convenient “clip”. For correct signal transmission, it is required, at a minimum, that there are no foreign objects between the pen and the receiver during operation, and you should not take the pen by the area where the “legs” that hold the tip are located. The reading area starts 2 cm below the fixed receiver.
On the front side of the receiver there is a line of three indicators and two buttons above it. On the left is a pair of indicators and the Power button, on the right is New Layer. The indicator between them lights up, receiving a signal from the pen while drawing (or simply touching the work surface).
If the indicator does not light up, all your efforts are in vain - you should check the battery in the pen. Hence, another feature of using the pen that I had to deal with: every time you start working with Wacom Inkling, you need to make sure that the battery is active, since even during use, after 30-60 seconds. In standby mode, the pen light turns off even if the receiver is still ready to record a signal. This can be attributed to the manufacturer’s concern for longer battery life of the pen. Reactivation does not take much time, you just need to fold back and close the battery compartment lid again - a couple of movements and you're done.
As you may have guessed, the receiver is equipped with built-in memory (2 GB). In addition to a folder for saving sketches, there is a distribution of Inkling Sketch Manager for Mac and Windows, as well as a set of documentation in PDF format, including a user manual and important product information in several languages.
What amazes the Wacom Inkling when you first look at it? What makes you almost ready to give in to the impulse and buy it immediately? The answer is simple - mobility. A picture easily appears in your head of how, sitting somewhere on a bench (the beach, on the train, in a strawberry patch or other place far from the computer), without worrying about wires and the presence of electrical outlets, you can selflessly transfer your ideas onto paper, at the same time saving them electronically.
I tested Wacom Inkling on drawings and handwritten text. It is worth noting that the device accepts A4 format in vertical orientation as the working field, so you need to think about the location of the receiver in advance. If you are right-handed and working with a sketchbook in landscape orientation, then the Inkling receiver will need to be placed on the left side of the sheet, and not on top, otherwise you will not notice how your drawing will go beyond the reading area.
Below are examples of drawings: first, a scanned “handle,” followed by a corresponding sketch from the Inkling receiver.
The drawing is recorded quite accurately. It was applied to paper on a table, that is, under almost ideal conditions of a flat surface. It can be seen that the hair on the top of the head fell into the “blind” zone of the receiver. It also remains a mystery to me why the paste in the pen is black, but it is recognized as blue.
The handwritten text was written in Spartan conditions, namely, an album and a notepad were used, placed on the lap. Moreover, the album performed worse because it was thinner and had a larger area, which created greater curvature of the surface, and therefore difficulties for the receiver in interpreting the signals.
In general, if you want a decent result, follow the instructions, that is, find a flat table nearby (or at least carry with you a hard office tablet, an album with a thick back - there are a lot of options) and create for your health.
Wacom Inkling, perhaps, cannot be considered as an independent tool for creating high-quality images, but paired with a graphics tablet, it will be an indispensable aid in the artist’s work, speeding up the transfer of sketches made on paper away from the computer into specific graphic design programs for subsequent processing.
Those who consider the Wacom Inkling solely as a fun and fashionable toy can be advised to pay attention to budget models from Ritmix. They can’t compete with Wacom in quality, but it won’t be such a shame to throw them on the shelf when your interest wanes, otherwise you’ll still have to learn to draw to recoup the money spent.
Writes to us Dima Marov.
Many of you must already be using some product from Wacom. It could be a Bamboo or Intuos graphics tablet, an old Graphire or the latest Cintiq screen, or it could be a Bamboo for iPad stylus or the Bamboo Paper app. Wacom products are known all over the world and have proven themselves in work and everyday life.
About a year ago Wacom released a really fun product called Inkling.
Inkling- This is a compact and quite elegant pencil case, inside of which is everything you need. First, the pen. Almost an ordinary ballpoint pen with a built-in pressure detection mechanism. Secondly, a signal receiver about the movement and touching of the pen on the writing surface. The handle and receiver are placed in a pencil case that acts as a charging dock and hides a miniature USB cable for connecting to a computer. The pencil case also contains four spare refills for replacement in the writing unit of the pen. As they say, the pencil case carries everything with it.
The purpose of this device, no matter how much you twirled it in your hands, no matter how you tried to use it, remained unclear. On the one hand, a long-standing problem has been solved - the inability to use the pen from a graphics tablet as a regular pen to draw on paper, and the result would be transferred to the computer. This problem seems to have been solved, but in a very different way. On the other hand, this is a toy that has no equal.
A review wouldn't really be a review, since Inkling was announced almost a year ago and wasn't released yesterday or even a month ago. The copy we received was subjected to some pretty funny tests.
The overall outcome of using Inkling remains unclear. It seems like a good thing, but all the little things that Wacom usually polishes so carefully in its products spoil the picture in this pen. Firstly, it is not at all clear who the product is intended for. It is unlikely to be useful in everyday life; few people need to have a digital copy of what is written on paper, considering that a pen simply does not write down anything in digital form; for this you need to attach a receiver to the paper. Secondly, the pen is a ballpoint pen, and not everyone likes to write with ballpoint pens. For example, I don’t like it. Thirdly, it is not convenient for drawing: the tip is wide, like a Wacom tablet pen, but does not allow you to grab the edge due to the slots along the contour, and illustrators especially love this grip; and the digital drawings are, to put it mildly, not very pleasant. But first things first.
They brought a box of Inkling and took out the contents. A quick study of the instructions suggested: you need to insert a battery into the pen, and connect the pencil case using the included USB cable, which is securely located in the pencil case. We did it, waited a little for everything to charge. It should be noted that it charges quickly, and during the tests I was not able to get the battery down either on the receiver or on the handle (18 hours of operation for the receiver, 15 hours for the handle).
Having examined the pencil case, its contents and all removable components, I would like to note that everything was done perfectly. The shape of the plastic, the seam gaps, the overall design and aesthetic performance are at the highest level, to which users, for example, of Intuos 4 graphics tablets, are already accustomed. The material (plastic) is approximately the same. The body of the receiver and the pencil case are made of glossy and matte plastic, glued together flawlessly. All USB contact points are perfectly placed - engineers and industrial designers at Wacom can safely exhale; the quality of their work is difficult to even discuss. I was pleasantly surprised by the color and brightness of the diodes, signaling to the user that the receiver and pen are turned on and transmitting data. If you have a D-Link switch or something similar at home, then you know how diodes can burn out your eyes, flashing incredibly bright lights and disgustingly toxic colors. Inkling and diodes are in perfect order: soft subsurface light, diffused by plastic, even color, well indicating the condition. Considering that the receiver is constantly in the field of view when in use, this factor is important. And here Wacom will have a plus.
Okay, everything is clear with the execution, but what about ease of use? The pencil case is quite light and strong. We decided to sacrifice the test with a drop on asphalt, from which the impact resistance and safety after a fall are not known. The handle is weighty, but not heavy. The design and balance of the center is very similar to the pen from the Intuos 4. The only difference is that the Inkling pen has a battery that changes the center of gravity. It will be difficult to write with such a pen for a long, long time; your hand will get tired quickly. The handle does not need to be turned on and off; it itself goes into energy saving mode after some (unspecified) period of inactivity. There was no case in the work when the handle turned off at the wrong moment. Although, if this happens, part of what was written in digital form will definitely not be counted. The receiver-recorder is very light, I can’t even believe that it has a battery. The receiver has a convenient way of attaching it to the writing surface - a clothespin. A clothespin can grip and hold fairly securely on one sheet of paper. It pins a maximum of 18 sheets of standard office printer paper.
The first laugh came when they had already attached the receiver to the notepad, turned it on, it reported that it was ready and the hand began to write text from the head, but the ink did not apply to the paper. It's a ballpoint pen! First you need to paint it ;-).
The second laugh came with the question of how to make it clear to the receiver that I want to start recording in a new document? There are two buttons on the body: on/off and new layer. Everything is clear with layers, but the task is not to make a new layer, but to create a new file in the receiver so that data from the new sheet is written to it. It turned out that everything was brilliant and simple. New sheet = remove the receiver + put it back on the “new sheet of paper”. Logical, but unusual. It could have been done with one button, probably.
The first field test was in the subway. Through friends, a girl was found who could take shorthand. Armed with a Canson XL Mix Media notebook, taking the entire Inkling pencil case, I went to the metro named after. IN AND. Lenin. The girl took the pen, noted its strange weight at the upper end (still, it’s true, writing for any length of time would be agony with such a balance), I attached the receiver to the notepad and began to dictate. After half a minute, I noticed that the diode signaling the touch of the pen to the writing surface lights up, at best, once every three to five bars and ticks of the transcript. After a little fiddling, it was determined that a flat writing space is very important for the receiver. If the sheets are bent, if you try to write close to the receiver, or if he has not yet “seen” the pen, a pitiful sight awaits you when reading the file. It will not contain even half of what you wrote or drew. So, the first conclusion: the device is not suitable for field activities.
Having moved after the failed shorthand test closer to laboratory conditions, I began testing what the pen can do and what it can’t. In principle, it turned out that the pen itself can do everything. Writes well, the ink is black, contrasting, dries quickly, the ball does not smear clumps of residue, nothing bleeds. A surprise awaited when I connected to the computer and viewed what I had written.
The included visualization utility for visualizing data from the receiver into a picture showed fear and hatred for everything that had been done. Firstly, the application itself is called Sketch Manager, although the application itself says Inkling Sketch Manager. I couldn’t remember the name of the application the next day; I would have had to look for it in the Applications folder if the application itself had not been immensely intrusive. After installation, every time you start Mac OS X, it will launch itself and hang in the Dock without asking. Brrr, somehow this is not very pleasant. Moreover, a small icon is placed in the tray, it is not clear what it symbolizes, but if you close the application, the icon disappears. Horrible, sad, I hope this will be fixed in app updates. (If there are any at all. There is no update function in the application.)
The screenshot clearly shows that from the manager you can export drawings and notes to three applications: Photoshop (in raster form), Illustrator (in vector form) and SketchBook Pro (or SketchBook Designer; in vector form). We were not able to export the image directly to Photoshop. Upon command from the manager, After Effects is launched instead of Photoshop, which reports that it cannot open the pngloader.jsx file. This means that the manager has a certain mechanism for rasterizing vector images, the output of which is a script written in JavaScript for Photoshop, including the path to access the file. Oh my God, I exclaimed! Why didn’t they make one “Export” button, behind which would be a window for choosing which format to save in - EPS, TIF, PNG or SWF? The question is rhetorical. The sediment remains.
This is what the digital drawing result looks like. Overall, it’s really nothing. It’s just that on some letters the shading has crawled to the right and down; in some places the shading is missing, but not critically. There are places where continuous lines are missing and not recorded. This is critical. On the left side of the image is the result of export to SketchBook Designer 2012, on the right to Illustrator CS 5.1. Both applications work with vector data and stroke thickness, line style is processed based on their presets, so the difference in line thickness and line style is not significant for the test. It is important that Sketch Manager correctly output data to both applications - point to point. Personally, I think the result looks scarier in Illustrator.
Let's take a look at the structure of vector data. It is worth admitting: for an optical method of reading data on the movement of a handle, the resolution, or rather the discreteness and accuracy of recording discreteness, is impressive. Of course, it would be great to see not so many points and generally see the result in Bezier curves, but is there much I want from a product whose price in the US is $199, whose dimensions are comparable to a glasses case, and whose weight is about half that of iPhone 4?
The pen passed testing with primitives confidently, but with flaws in the results. The picture shows that the circles have turned into ovals, tilted at different angles. Lines drawn first in one direction and then in the opposite direction do not always remain lines. Both circles and lines were drawn on paper using a ruler.
The most difficult test for such a device is writing a manuscript. In the drawings, all the details are linear in nature, and the manuscript is so expressive and nonlinear for an optical device that it must fall asleep on it. And so it happened. The receiver loses its handle in some places, which is why part of a word or letter may not be counted.
This test follows all the rules required of an Inkling user:
1. the writing surface is placed on a plane;
2. the receiver is fixed in one of the proposed zones along the edge of the sheet so that no other object or my own hand blocks the visibility of the pen;
3. I hold the pen not by the edge, but above the mark so that the receiver can see the special markers in the grooves at the tip.
And still, he missed the letter “and”.
After conducting a series of specific tests, I made a conclusion. Inkling is a wonderful toy. Not a professional tool, but a serious toy. With the proper skill and habit, as well as the ability to turn a blind eye to some flaws, a toy can become an excellent auxiliary tool for an illustrator. The size and shape of the pencil case, as well as the convenience experienced when using Inkling, are comparable to using a good tablet (again, Wacom). The device is beautifully made, works flawlessly, and is definitely worth the money.
In the future, obviously, we will either improve this device or completely abandon the idea and concept entirely. Both options are possible. In the meantime, this is one of the most interesting and useful gifts that can be presented to an illustrator, designer, artist and any other specialist who draws sketches. I would not recommend purchasing Inkling for children under 15 years of age. Personally, I am completely satisfied with Inkling and now I draw interface sketches for iOS with it. Convenient, practical, there is a copy on paper, and there is a digital vector one, which can be colored in SketchBook in five minutes.
Inkling is a new digital pen from the company that digitally duplicates sketches made with regular ink on paper. After securing a sheet of paper with a special clamp, use Wacom Inkling It will be possible to make sketches and sketches, combining drawing on paper and digital writing. At the same time, the resulting images can then be quickly and easily converted into digital format and reproduced on a computer. The Wacom Inkling digital pen also allows you to create layers in digital files in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.
The Wacom Inkling digital pen combines both software and hardware. In this case, the second includes the pen itself and a wireless receiver that remembers the drawing and saves it in digital format. The ballpoint pen is equipped with Wacom pen pressure sensitivity (1024 levels), which helps you detect and remember the pressure you apply when drawing. The difference in pressure will be displayed in a digital version of the drawing.
The receiver included with the Wacom Inkling pen can be mounted on a regular piece of paper, and can be adjusted to a comfortable position for both right- and left-handed users to ensure continuous detection of the pen tip. Once you're done sketching, connect the receiver to your computer via USB, and files can be either transferred or opened using Inkling Sketch Manager. This software also allows you to edit the resulting files and change their format, delete and add layers, and transfer files to various applications for further changes.
