Wacom moves to pen-to-digital drawing solution

Highly respected digital interface and graphics tablet maker Wacom has gone back to its sketchpad to create a digital drawing solution that feels like its from the future.

Yes, tablets are the 'in' thing right now, but for an artist there is nothing better than putting a real pen to real paper. And that is exactly what Wacom has done with its digital (but real) sketch pen and receiver combo, the Inkling.

'Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling bridges the gap between paper sketching and digital drawing by giving users at the front end of the creative process a way to rough-out ideas with real ink on paper and capture their concepts digitally so that they can be later refined on their computer,' said Wacom in an August 30 press release.

The Inkling comprises a ballpoint pen which can capture up to 1024 levels of sensitivity and a receiver that is clipped to the edge of a notepad.

The Inkling is capable of storing thousands of sketches with layers and can be exported directly into Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro or saved in JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, SVG and PDF formats.

Wacom is not the first to release a paper-to-digital pen, paper-based computing company Livescribe has developed its own range of 'smartpens.'

Livescribe's smartpens are able to capture a digital version of your handwritten notes (when used with a special paper), have an embedded microphone for recording audio and include other smart features.

Wacom's Inkling is priced at $199 and will be available in mid September.

A video of Inkling in action...