
Wacom’s Inkling Captures What You Draw On Paper Digitally - camtarn
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/30/wacom-inkling/
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ben_straub
I worked for Wacom up until 4 months ago, and I was involved in the
development of this product. I'm not sure how much I can talk about this
without violating NDA, but I'll try.

Normal Wacom tablets use electromagnetic resonance (EMR) to both power the
electronics in the pen and to locate it in 3D space. Inkling uses the same
technology for pressure sensitivity in the pen tip, but location is performed
by a different method, using the base (the part you clip on). It's not nearly
as accurate as EMR coupling (the tablets are accurate to less than 1mm), but
the ability to record an ink drawing is pretty awesome. No matter how well
natural media is simulated, it's never going to be actual real paper and ink.

~~~
lobster_johnson
But if this new pen is _not_ accurate to less than 1mm, then it will not work
for sketches like the example drawing (in the link). 1mm is a lot when dealing
with drawings of that scale.

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iwwr
This is not new. Staedler has had something like this for some time

<http://www.staedtler.com/digital_pen.Staedtler>

On the other hand, I'd like to hear some impressions from people who tried
this themselves.

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nopassrecover
It looks well executed (particularly the new layer feature) but what's new
about this device? These digital pens have existed for years.

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camtarn
I hadn't realized quite how many of the special-paper-free digital pens were
out there now - last time I'd looked, the pens needed special paper and used a
pen-tip camera for sensing (basically a special-purpose optical mouse).

Here's a collection of them: <http://digital-pen-review.toptenreviews.com/>

Interestingly, the last three pens in the comparison table all do look very
similar to Wacom's offering. I wonder whether the Wacom pen is using the same
technology (or is maybe even made by the same manufacturer behind the scenes?)

In any case, I reckon the Wacom name will help them sell, possibly helping
promote them to artists wanting to sketch on the move rather than (as the
linked comparison mentions) for business purposes.

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zupatol
My guess is wacom managed to improve the quality enough to make it usable for
artists. The other pens seem to be mainly useful for ocr, and are marketed as
tools for taking notes.

The automatic vectorization of the drawings is also nice.

~~~
camtarn
Very possibly... this article mentions that it has 1024-level pressure
sensitivity, which really makes a big difference for artistic work:
[http://recombu.com/news/wacom-inkling-digital-pen-
launches_M...](http://recombu.com/news/wacom-inkling-digital-pen-
launches_M15018.html)

It also mentions the UK launch date and price: October 2011, at £149.99.

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codingsolo
I know what I want for Christmas! I am not an artist but like to doodle. I
have an Intuos4 but being tethered to my computer and confined to a graphics
editing program is a lot of overhead for me (not an artist) when I want to get
something digital done. I can see this being able to freely create web site
mockups and wireframes, rough logo work, annotations, etc. I think this will
fit into my workflow. I like the promise of being able to utilize this without
having to be near my computer.

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brudgers
The drawbacks I see are that the package is a bit oversized to fit in a pocket
and only a single type of tip and ink. Both of these would tend to create
"gadget friction."

[compare to [http://www.amazon.com/Winsor-Newton-Cotman-Sketchers-
Pocket/...](http://www.amazon.com/Winsor-Newton-Cotman-Sketchers-
Pocket/dp/B0006TZO4M/ref=sr_1_3?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1314708945&sr=1-3)]

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xiaoma
My bamboo fun tablet is one of the best purchases I've ever made. It was 80%
of as good as using a real pencil and probably 90% of as good as a paint brush
or air brush.

I absolutely love Wacom and will be in line to buy one of these as soon as I
can scrounge up the money to do it on my meager Chinese salary!

~~~
lobster_johnson
Those are fun, but as an artist I could never deal with the mental dissonance
of my eyes watching the result on the screen while drawing somewhere else.

The Wacom Cintiq (<http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Cintiq.aspx>) fixes that
by providing a pressure-sensitive display, so you see what you draw.
Apparently Pixar is using a ton of these. But it's also hideously expensive.

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geuis
On a side note, what are the trademark issues with this product considering
there is a company called Inkling?

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adam
Ironic since we were in the market first as Inkling
(<http://inklingmarkets.com>) in 2006, then the well-funded "Inkling"
(inkling.com) came along who ignored our claims about trademark, and now the
Wacom Inkling tablet. Guess it's just a cool name. :)

~~~
wavesplash
A quick search on uspto.gov shows Inkling, Inc. abandoned their trademark
filing from 2006? If so, Inkling.com had every right to reclaim the mark.

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misuba
How does this beat having a scanner?

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ben_straub
This is actually the question the product answers. A lot of graphic designers
like to start designing on paper, then move to Illustrator or PS for the final
work. The classic way to do this is to scan in your sketch and make it a
layer, and essentially start over with digital art on top of it.

Inkling lets you split your sketch into multiple layers as you're sketching
it. Say you're drawing a character for a game, and the character can be
carrying things. You can sketch the two together, with overlapping lines, but
keep the character and the carried thing on separate layers. All without
having to find the boundaries and snip carefully to separate them in PS.

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misuba
Why wouldn't you just draw the thing the character is carrying a few
millimeters away, and save $150? (Bear in mind, these are artists we're
talking about; that money matters.)

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madlynormal
This is amazing, I feel it's uses can go far beyond just drawings.

