Nevertheless, it’s just a hipster conceit that ignores the “proper” way to ink a line: Click once, extend the line to its endpoint, click again. You can place the “ruler” and then draw, and if your stylus drifts below the edge the line will continue, straight as an arrow. Microsoft’s one nod to whimsy, the digital straight edge it showed off at Build, acts realistically. Windows Ink Sketchpad allows you a minimal number of pens and tools to illustrate your ideas.

Microsoft provides options to adjust the line widths and colors, and the ability to crop the image and share it, but that’s about it. Sketchpad offers a few more options: You can choose from among a digital pencil, a pen, and a highlighter. (That is, after you’ve relaunched following the seemingly inevitable crash when Sketchpad is first opened.)īoth Sketchpad and Whiteboard skew toward minimalism: Whiteboard supports a pair of pens, a few digital ink colors, plus a “lasso” tool to move ink around. If you’re familiar with the Whiteboard interface used in Microsoft’s Surface Hub, you’ll likely notice the similarities in Windows 10’s Sketchpad app. Right now, the suggested apps are entirely weighted toward drawing, but more may be on the way. Returning to the Ink Workspace, you’ll notice a small array of icons for recently used apps at the bottom of the screen, as well as a link to pen-enabled apps within the Microsoft Store. Click it (using the mouse cursor is fine) and you’ll launch the Windows Ink Workspace. Nothing within Windows 10 insists that you should immediately begin inking, but you’ll probably notice a small icon in the lower-right corner of the screen. (And let’s not forget about the pen-centric, $22,000 Surface Hub aimed at organizations). With Ink, Microsoft is making the pen more central, presumably in an effort to convince consumers they need a pricey, pen-enabled Surface tablet rather than a cheaper, more traditional laptop. If you haven’t actually worked with digital ink before, relax: Windows Ink is an optional way to interact with Windows, in much the same way you can use either voice or keyboard to query Cortana. Many of Microsoft’s existing applications already include pen support in some form or another: Clicking the stylus that’s attached to a Surface Pro 3 or Surface Pro 4, for example, launches a pen-optimized version of Microsoft OneNote. Click the new pen icon to launch the Windows Ink Workspace apps.

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