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Mackx · 07-30-2009, 02:48 AM

First thing: Don't expect it to behave like a PC. The device was developed for reading books/journals/papers and annotating them, but not for sketching or making drawings.
However sketching/drawing IS possible, don't expect that you can make the same 'art-work' then on your PC, but for making some first sketches to be further detailed (or redrawn) on a PC is possible.
Currently there are two possibilities:
- Using the build in functionality to annotate pdf files (just use an empty 'template')
- Using Xournal.
Both have their advantages and dis-advantages, you will have to experiment yourself. Both will produce pdf-files, which might not be the best basis to do further processing.

Do NOT expect to have tools that 'support' sketching, only a few pen-sizes are available. Selecting different pen-sizes can take a 'lot of time' (compared to a PC). The refesh of the screen takes almost 1s, so most of the times a quick-refresh mechanism is used that will make your picture appear different then after a full-refresh. Positioning of your pen is not always accurate, towards the borders it seems to deviate more then in the centre. Around the border your stroke can be off by 1 or 2 mm. In the centre it is more accurate (less then 0.5mm). Some people manage to get their stylus calibration better, I hope that iRex will come up with a better calibration and compensation method in the future.

I use it so make simple (technical sketches), but I am not an artist so I am not making 'art'.

All software for the DR has been released as public domain and it is 'easy' to add extra programs. So if you have programming skills you can also create you own sketching program or improve an existing one. (Don't expect miracles on this part, porting programs is a hard-job and the capabilities of the DR processor are limited, but small things can certainly be improved. If you make a good case in this forum someone even might be willing to do the changes for you.)

I hope this gives you a better understanding of the tablet-function (or scribble-function as it is mostly called in this forum).

07-30-2009, 02:48 AM	#2
Mackx Guru Posts: 999 Karma: 19985 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Netherlands Device: iRex DR1000S	First thing: Don't expect it to behave like a PC. The device was developed for reading books/journals/papers and annotating them, but not for sketching or making drawings. However sketching/drawing IS possible, don't expect that you can make the same 'art-work' then on your PC, but for making some first sketches to be further detailed (or redrawn) on a PC is possible. Currently there are two possibilities: - Using the build in functionality to annotate pdf files (just use an empty 'template') - Using Xournal. Both have their advantages and dis-advantages, you will have to experiment yourself. Both will produce pdf-files, which might not be the best basis to do further processing. Do NOT expect to have tools that 'support' sketching, only a few pen-sizes are available. Selecting different pen-sizes can take a 'lot of time' (compared to a PC). The refesh of the screen takes almost 1s, so most of the times a quick-refresh mechanism is used that will make your picture appear different then after a full-refresh. Positioning of your pen is not always accurate, towards the borders it seems to deviate more then in the centre. Around the border your stroke can be off by 1 or 2 mm. In the centre it is more accurate (less then 0.5mm). Some people manage to get their stylus calibration better, I hope that iRex will come up with a better calibration and compensation method in the future. I use it so make simple (technical sketches), but I am not an artist so I am not making 'art'. All software for the DR has been released as public domain and it is 'easy' to add extra programs. So if you have programming skills you can also create you own sketching program or improve an existing one. (Don't expect miracles on this part, porting programs is a hard-job and the capabilities of the DR processor are limited, but small things can certainly be improved. If you make a good case in this forum someone even might be willing to do the changes for you.) I hope this gives you a better understanding of the tablet-function (or scribble-function as it is mostly called in this forum).