Wacom Inkling

Apparently I've been pretty good this year, cause I scored a Wacom Inkling for xmas (thanks honey).

I'll be honest I didn't know what it was when I opened it. Im the guy that usually 'discovers' how great something is 12 months after everyone is already upgrading. Its the way I roll.

So as it appears I may be ahead of the pack for once, thought I share what I've discovered.

In very basic terms the Wacom Inkling records your pen movements as you traditionally draw, eliminating the need to scan. That may be over simplifying it, well okay it is.... I'll try a little harder -

The inkling is a 'Special Ballpoint Pen'. Theres also a niffty little box thingy, which you clip to whatever paper / sketchbook your drawing on. The magic little box tracks your pen movements and pressure (yep, pressure) and records it. There's also a button that allows you to record in layers! layers! Magic.

From there you simply USB it to your computer. The basic software provided (more on that later) allows you to save it for Photoshop, Illustrator (vector!) and a bunch of other formats.

Although mighty powerful and mysterious the magic box, does have its limitations. From what I gather its about A5, but it may be bigger, need to do more tests.

Unfortunately the software 'Sketch Manager' is crap. It has the potential to offer a lot more, but falls harder than Icarus. If they were intentionally going for basic (nothing wrong with that), then they should of stripped back a lot of the pointless shit in there.

Ultimately, after playing with the Inkling for a couple of hours, I've decided I like it. Its great for sketches, thumbnails, brain storming, warming up. Designers will love it.

Personally, I like traditionally sketching first. Im fine with ball point and have always needed to tweak refine stuff digitally.

This is a pretty damn handy tool to have.

Anyway thats my ramblings. I've attached screen grabs of a quick test sketch (Ive tweaked somewhat in the final output form).

http://ministryoftype.co.uk/

http://inkling.wacom.com/