Wacom Inkling

1/13/2014

For those of us who have not tried using a Wacom tablet, or for those that would like a new tool.....eh gadget to play with, Wacom Inkling might be a great bridge from pen to stylus.
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/inkling Using you're own sketch pad, the Inkling "records" everything you draw and sends it right to your computer. I like this idea very much for two reasons. 1. I like to sketch with a pen. 2. I don't want to invest in expensive software and hardware and then never use them. This might be the perfect introduction to creating "digital" work for me. It's not very expensive and hardly intimidating. Will have to get a demo to fully appreciate it. What do you think?
kat McD

2 Comments

Siri Weber Feeney link

1/13/2014 02:18:57 am

It does look interesting, Kat — positively freeing, if one likes to sketch in ball point pen and likes to work afterward from pen sketches. I like its ability to record in layers so easily and its portability!

I also like the inkling's directness. With a tablet, thinking "the live area of the tablet coordinates with the equivalent area on the screen" takes getting used to.

With a tablet/stylus, one surely might miss the "feel" of pen on paper (even when using a sheet of paper on top of the tablet). The tablet's pen movements do read through paper, but the tip of the stylus doesn't feel like a pen or pencil. That also takes getting used to.

I'd be much more excited about inkling if it were "graphite" instead, and I could use the soft lines of a pencil. Maybe that's not far off in the future.

The fancier Cintique tablets let you draw/paint directly on the screen, but their price and that "tablet feel" of their styluses* have been a stumbling block for me.

The inkling has pressure sensitivity, so you can draw with varied weights and that's terrific, but a stylus' pressure sensitivity increases the usability of lots of tools — paintbrush, pencil, eraser cloning, etc. and is easier on one's hand/wrist. I hardly ever use my mouse.

So, because of the extra usability, I would choose a small tablet over the inkling, for a first purchase. It takes a looong time to get tired of the smallness of a tablet (since the live area coordinates with the screen, when you zoom in on the screen, you zoom in on your drawing, so you can handle details.)

But if still interested in inkling, buying at half price may be worth it. At this writing, a small Wacom tablet is about $240, inkling looks like it's $99 on 50% discount.

*I'm in my 17th year of using Wacom tablets. After my second tablet bit the dust, I was tempted by the lower price of a Wacom Bamboo tablet, because it has most of the same features, but its surface-to-stylus feel was somehow like fingernails on a chalkboard to me, so I ended up getting an Intuos 5 touch instead, which has a smooth feel. (Cintiques also are smooth, but a big leap in price.)

Carol Heyer link

1/13/2014 07:08:02 am

I'm considering now what tablet to buy. The inkling seems great because I also do a lot of my rough sketches in ball point pen. But, I agree with Siri in the overall benefits of the Wacom tablet. In the long run I would rather use the product with the most possibilities. I think buying the inkling might not fit the bill for the art I want to do. Then I'd have to call the first one a loss and wind up buying the more expensive tablet anyway!? I also like the idea of using the stylus instead of a mouse!

Wacom Inkling

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