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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday July 09 2015, @10:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the where's-my-pencil dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Thursday July 09 2015, @08:33PM

    by Marand (1081) on Thursday July 09 2015, @08:33PM (#207111) Journal

    The images are worse than If I had used a yellow-pad and pen, because the friction between stylus and glass is less and some of the feedback to your fingers goes missing, and your letter formation suffers. But you can do diagrams, circles and arrows. Lots of images in google images about this.

    You didn't specify which generation of Surface Pro you have, but I suspect by the complaint that it's a Surface Pro 3. The Pro 3 uses an n-trig pen instead of the Wacom ones of the previous generations, probably to cut costs. I've used a tablet with an n-trig pen (Lenovo's first-gen Thinkpad Tablet) and a pen display using a UC-Logic pen (a 19" pen display sold by Monoprice), and they both felt like what you describe, with no alternative nib choices.

    One of the biggest drawbacks of non-Wacom pens is polish; Wacom has practically owned this market for twenty years, so they've had plenty of time to put extra work into fit-and-finish issues that the upstart companies haven't begun to tackle yet like this. Wacom has a variety of pen nibs made with different materials that have different friction, ranging from the plastic-on-plastic smooth gliding to high-friction felt nibs. The Wacom pens that come with Samsung's Galaxy Note devices I've used (phone and tablet both) have high-friction nibs that negate that slippery feel, as do the replacement nibs and pens available.

    I'll admit that I haven't had any hands-on with the Surface Pro 1 or 2, so it's possible they have the same problem because Microsoft decided to use the slippery plastic nibs for some reason, but if that's the case it should be fixable; the tech Wacom sells to other vendors for their tablet computers is generally the same, which means you can either acquire pens from other computers or get replacement nibs that have a different feel.

    I think Microsoft made a huge mistake switching, honestly. It's one thing for the end consumer to choose the cheaper tech, because they can make an informed decision and choose what trade-offs they're willing to accept, but when the vendor cheaps out on you, you're stuck with the problems. Wacom still has the best pen technology right now, with enough R&D, patents, and a massive head-start on the competition for polish, so using anything else in a product like the Surface Pro just seems like corner-cutting at the cost of the end user.

    For what it's worth, though, if you spend enough time using it you'll adjust to the differences and be able to write just fine on it. My (usually terrible) handwriting actually got better on pen displays once I adjusted to them, even the slippery ones. It adds to the learning curve but it's not an insurmountable problem.

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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday July 09 2015, @09:13PM

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday July 09 2015, @09:13PM (#207131) Journal

    It was a pro 1, with the slippery plastic nib. The learning curve to manage this is short. I've never thought about getting a different stylus or changing the nib, but perhaps I should. This Wacom [amazon.com] pen seems to get good reviews when used on the Pro 1.

    The stock Pro 1 pen has no battery, its a so-called Passive Pen [wikipedia.org] which does have circuitry to alter the inductance patterns emitted by (and sensed by) the screen.

    The Pro 3 switched to a powered N-Trig pen (quad-a battery) which I've used before and didn't like them. Batteries invariably go flat and can be hard to find. They are heavier also.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday July 09 2015, @10:57PM

      by Marand (1081) on Thursday July 09 2015, @10:57PM (#207177) Journal

      Interesting that Microsoft chose the plastic nibs, then, because the higher-friction alternatives like the Galaxy Note uses are nicer. Though, from what the Q&A on that page said, the pen you linked works with the galaxy note and the surface pro. That means you might be able to use something like the nibs from here [wacom.com], either on that pen or maybe even the pen that came with the Surface, to change the feel of it a bit. Hell, you could probably get a Galaxy Note pen, or maybe swipe the nibs from one, too. (The pen itself is very small and might not be suitable for your tastes)

      The stock Pro 1 pen has no battery, its a so-called Passive Pen which does have circuitry to alter the inductance patterns emitted by (and sensed by) the screen.

      Yep, I love that about the wacom pens. I suppose eventually their patents will run out and others will start adopting it.

      The Pro 3 switched to a powered N-Trig pen (quad-a battery) which I've used before and didn't like them. Batteries invariably go flat and can be hard to find. They are heavier also.

      Sounds like the one I had. The battery didn't actually bother me -- the weight felt good to me and I kept a spare around -- but I hated the n-trig pen tip. I don't know if it's changed since mine (it was from around 2011), but it was this huge cone shape that felt completely unnatural. the UC-logic based ones Huion (and monoprice) uses are closer to what wacom has, though the tips are still plastic and slippery. The lack of friction doesn't really bother me, though, so I like the fine. The pens are really light, too, using a rechargeable non-replaceable battery (that lasts for-freaking-ever on a charge) instead of the oddball AAAA ones n-trig uses.