From a recent issue of Wired:
Study after study shows we remember things better when we write them—our brain stores the letter-writing motion, which is much more memorable than just the mashing of a key that feels like every other key. We think in fragments, too, in shapes and colors and ideas that just don't come through on a keyboard. "Think about how many things that are built start as a drawing," Bathiche says. "Most things, right? Everything you're wearing probably started as a drawing."
You can't type out the folds of a dress, or the gentle curves of a skyscraper. Drawing with your stubby finger on a touchscreen isn't much better. Humans are tool-based creatures: Our fingers can do amazingly intricate things with a pen, a brush, or a scalpel, that we can't replicate with a mouse or the pads of our fingers. Our computers are giving back that kind of detailed control. In turn, the pen is opening up new ways of digital expression, new tools for communication, new ways to interact with our tech.
My wife's cousin's husband is a cartoonist for the New Yorker. He uses a high-end Wacom digitizer. Hasn't the problem of the high tech pen been solved?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Marand on Thursday July 09 2015, @11:05AM
If only there were tablets with screens built in...
For anyone interested but unaware, dbot is likely referring to Wacom's Cintiq line of active pen displays, which have long been the only (and costly) option.
There are others in the market now, making alternatives at more reasonable prices, though there are trade-offs in screen resolution and other areas. Yiynova is the first I heard of, with Huion also making decent ones. Monoprice was also selling one based on the Huion displays, too.
Funny enough, if you're used to a normal tablet where you have the hand / eye disconnect, there's another learning curve with using a pen display because you get accustomed to not having your hand in the way of what you're looking at.