(Archived) Penultimate... Ink Seine or past 'ink' noters in EN on Windows

[brettmansdorf 6]

OK, used the 'ink' side of Evernote for years... Although it was quite an improvement from the 90's and my CrossPad, it suffered from hardware/software failures on the tablet manufacturers... From the beloved little fujitsu's without palm detection (frustrations), through the solution - my brick of a lenovo X200 series with active digitizer (worked great - just HUGE). Now with a current Win8 tablet... EN seems a bit busy with the beloved Metro app and I'm sure other items, so I'm not holding my breath on a Q1 release of Penultimate for Win8. As for the Surface tablets - had one for 2 days - seemed a bit lacking in functionality - Microsoft certainly seemed to aim for the ipad crowd (and missed)... For me - they are useless - as I have needs for a full fledged notebook, and have always had a smallish fujitsu in the car or with me. I never made the switch to the iPad. However, I would like some insight from someone who went from Windows based tablet - inking in Evernote - to an ipad with Penultimate.

I used to use Ink Seine (microsoft research), which when it worked - was awesome... I've had issues downloading it to the new (toy) Win8Pro tablet, and considering its 4+ years old, I doubt its headed for production nor support...

I'm losing patients and am likely to simply buy an ipad just for this... My question is - anyone out there switched from inking in the desktop windows software of Evernote to an iPad with penultimate? Your worth on the product would be appreciated...

I hate to be rude, but if you didn't ink on a WINDOWS based tablet - I don't need to hear your opinion (you have no basis to answer the question which relates more to feel and quality than function).

As always, appreciate the help.

[Bardolobo 14]

Hi Brett.

I have been using ink in Windows since 7 years ago. I have used it under XP, Vista, 7 and 8, in Journal, OneNote (2003,2007 and 2010), InkSeine, Evernote, and some more that I can't remember now.

Ink (just ink) in iPad depends a lot of the app you're using. In Penultimate is very good, almost the same than in Windows. But, again, I'm talking about the ink. Palm rejection is better in Windows than in Penultimate, but what really marks the frontier is pens: in windows you have Wacom pens that feels like a real pen, but in iPad I couldn't still find one of those capacitive pens with soft points that feels the same. That determinates how do you write, since you have a different feeling in iPad that in Windows.

Don't misunderstand me: If you want elegant ink papers, for showing in meetings, lessons, etc, Windows is better. But if you want notetaking yourself can understand, Penultimate (and other apps too) serves you very well. Just take a little time to adjust to the new feeling and don't search for perfect looking handwriting.

For me, when put in balance what I miss from inking in Windows against what I get using an IPad (that is my everyday tool as a high school teacher), inking in iPad is an absolute win. But, again, I just use it to handwriting notes for myself (even long ones) and as a notebook to explain something to students when one of them has a question.

Hope this help you a bit. Don't hesitate in asking more if you need.

[tpbishop 3]

Bret:

I was one of the first Microsoft Tablet PC MVPs. I've used Tablet PCs since the first Motion Computing machine came out. My applications include(d) Windows Journal, the first FranklinCovey Tablet Planner released along with the first Tablet PCs, OneNote (all versions through 2013), early versions of Evernote ink, InkSeine, and others. I've been looking for the right inking experience on iPad since the first iPad (I now carry the mini until Surface Pro is available).

The principal difference between Windows ink and iPad ink is Windows has an active digitizer; this means the cursor follows the pen even when the pen doesn't touch the screen. This ability makes digital inking mimic physical writing; the screen knows where the pen is about to touch. The iPad experience is less fluid and more disjointed, more like the inking experience on the old Palm devices. I tried two different iPad/Pen dongle devices that promised an active ink experience without satisfaction. IMHO, no iPad inking app does a great job of handling palm rejection or makes up for the lack of an active digitizer.

I bought Penultimate early on. It is a serviceable ink experience on iPad, but still lacks a zoom feature, palm rejection, advanced pen settings, and sophisticated page/notebook management.

I am still a fan of Penultimate. My intention is to leverage the integration with Evernote so that each Penultimate page will basically be one page in a pocket notebook or one sticky note. Synced to Evernote, I'll tag, organize and manage them from the Evernote app. I will not have to kludge around to get a searchable image into Evernote. Searching handwriting is a powerful reason to keep using it, especially in full integration with Evernote.

If your desire is to have a more complex iPad ink notebook like OneNote has in Windows, you may want to look at apps Noteshelf, Notes Plus or Noterize for comparisons.

Hope this helps.

Bishop