Wacom: Create Digital Art with a Pen and Paper

Digital art is a medium that is increasing in popularity for illustrators all over the place. Tablets allow you to sketch directly onto the screen. Software like Photoshop and Illustrator are armed with countless ways to enhance these sketches. However, what both of these methods lack is the familiar experience of sketching on a piece of paper: the accuracy that is achieved, the slight resistance that the paper gives and pressure control.

Wacom Inkling Digital Sketch Pen

This pen has the best of both worlds of art. It functions the same way as a ball point pen, by putting ink on paper and being pressure sensitive. It also has the ability to digitally store your art onto your computer. It is a bit bulkier than most pens, but that is due to the attached 400-mAh battery that powers it.

Receiver

The Inkling digitizes your art with the use of the receiver that can clip onto your sketchbook or a single piece of paper up to size A4. Then you turn it on and start drawing. The receiver records the strokes that you make, saving them for when you transfer via USB to your computer. The button on the right of the receiver allows you to create a new layer.

Compatible Software

Once your project is complete, you plug the receiver into your PC or MAC and can then either save them to your hard drive or enhance them using photo-editing software. Compatible software include: Photoshop, Illustrator, Autodesk, Sketchbook Pro and Sketchbook Designer. Adobe products must be CS3 or higher.

Specifications

The battery of the Inkling will give you up to eight hours of working time. In that time you can store hundreds of sketches to the 2GB memory of the receiver. The system requirements for PC users are Windows 7, Vista or XP. Mac users need to be running OSX 10.4.11 or higher. The Inkling can export the following file formats: wpi, wac, svg, .bmp, jpeg, png, tiff and pdf.