Wacom often has cool gadgets; their pen tablets are widely known and widely used. Now they have launched another cool device some time ago: the Inkling. With that you can simply draw on paper, including layers, and then edit the drawn directly in Photoshop or Illustrator. Nice stuff for a little draftsman.
Unfortunately I’m not such an artist now. Not on paper and neither with Photoshop. So I asked my colleagues from the creative department to play with the Inkling. Uh, doh, that’s what they wanted. Score your best points ;-).
About the Inkling
Concretely about the Inkling : in the packaging you will find a kind of box containing the pen, the device itself, four drawing pens and a USB cable. The box functions as a charging case, the pen and the device have rechargeable batteries that are charged when they are in the case. You fix the Inkling at the top of a paper. It works with paper up to A4 size. The device records everything in vectors, so that you can later edit the lines and the like.
The Inkling is primarily intended for draughtsmen who like to sketch on paper. The advantage is that you don’t have to throw out sketches. You create a new layer and you just draw the final lines over the sketch. Saves paper and you don’t have to work on your PC against your will. With the help of an export program from Wacom you can export sketches to Photoshop.
But does it also work?
According to my colleagues, yes. The idea that you have what you draw directly in vector is mentioned as the biggest advantage. Furthermore, it is simple and intuitive, it makes the process a bit faster because you don’t have to scan anything and it also looks neater than a scanned drawing. The disadvantage is mentioned by both that some lines were not properly recognized by the device. And, it would have been nice if there were the possibility to work with different pens, with different thicknesses. Because although the pressure on the pen is measured, it is still quite limited. For really detailed work, the device still needs some improvements. But overall it works very well and it is also fun to make and edit drawings that way.
On average, the Wacom Inkling gets a thick 8.5. It’s fun, great for sketches and wireframes, but needs some improvement for details.
Where to buy?
At the moment, the Inkling is not yet for sale everywhere, but at Bol.com you can have it in your house within 3-5 days for 179 euros :).
Are you going to buy it?
haha heel herkenbaar, ben zelf ook niet zo’n tekenaar! Wel wat aan het aanmodderen met zo’n wacom pen & touch, maar het resultaat is er nog niet naar 😀 Dit lijkt me wel een stuk intuitiever.
Ik had ook graag wat van jouw schetsen gezien Annelies 😉 Aanvulling? En sowieso, ik wil graag mindmaps, schema’s en dat soort zaken uittekenen en digitaliseren. Werkt dat hier mee ook goed?
Ha Kees,
Zoals ook in het stukje staat: ik ben geen tekenaar, vandaar dat ik mijn collega’s gevraagd heb.
In principe is de Inkling echt bedoeld voor schetsen tbv tekeningen, en ook blauwdrukken en dergelijke zie ik er nog wel uit ontstaan. Vanzelfsprekend kun je er ook mindmaps en ander spul mee tekenen en daarna importeren in Photoshop en verder bewerken, maar of dat helemaal de bedoeling is…maar het zal ongetwijfeld goed werken.
En hoe dan ok ben ik benieuwd naar je tekenkunsten 😉 Hmm zo te horen valt het ding dus precies tussen wal en schip; jammer! Thanks voor je snelle reactie!