Something else that's very good with Vista: Windows Journal and it's Ink handwriting recognition
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Just got a digitizing tablet (Wacom Bamboo about 65 bucks) for drawing and for testing out the Ink interface in Vista with our apps. I have to say it's pretty amazing. Vista seems to be almost psychic at reading my extremely horrible handwriting. I've been using computers for so long and even typewriters before that, that my handwriting rare get's used at all. Maybe a grocery list or labelling a CD or signing something, that's about it. If you saw some of the original text I scrawled that was correctly recognized you'd be very surprised. I don't know how they do it to be honest, but I think a lot of contextual processing is going on in the background to narrow down the field of possible words that I could be writing. When I got the tablet and installed the drivers I only had to go to the programs and features and enable the ink related stuff and it all works perfectly with my tablet. Windows Journal is pretty cool software. Basically it's an electronic lined notepad. You can draw on it, write text and save it as a page. Later you can search for your hand written text just like typed text in a word processor. Also you can select email and it will go through the page, recognize all the text and insert it in an email ready to send. Too bad SVG was more widely used, I'd like to be able to draw a diagram and send it in the body of the email as an SVG document. I know there's likely a way to accomplish that but not enough recipients would be able to view it by default. The thing about the Journal software is I keep a notepad on my desk and when I'm working I jot stuff down all the time. The only reason I don't type up notes is that it tends to stifle creative thinking for some reason. Journal is perfect for that because you not only write and sketch as normal and can even highlight, change from a pen to a marker etc. But you can save it, back it up, search it, convert it into text for any application etc. Very handy. The only downside so far is that Inkscape and The Gimp, otherwise perfectly adequate programs for nearly anything suffer from using a GTK library that doesn't work well with drawing tablets. I can't afford expensive commercial software for what is really just a hobby so I'm stuck with the freebie software for now, however, I've never been more tempted to write my own vector graphics drawing program, I'm thinking it would be a breeze if I did it using WPF. Someone else did but it's pretty limited and it annoyingly saves the files as .xaml and re-associates .xaml files with itself.
I agree entirely: MS has some extremely good products. However, products like Journal are not operating system software, and it's the Vista operating system that sucks. And Office 2007. Until Office 2007, MS Word was, without a doubt, the best and most versatile computer program ever written. Now I'm seriously considering migrating to OpenOffice.
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I agree entirely: MS has some extremely good products. However, products like Journal are not operating system software, and it's the Vista operating system that sucks. And Office 2007. Until Office 2007, MS Word was, without a doubt, the best and most versatile computer program ever written. Now I'm seriously considering migrating to OpenOffice.
Mark Wallace wrote:
Now I'm seriously considering migrating to OpenOffice
From what I hear you're not the only one.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Hmmm...logically and by everything I've read that's exactly where it shines. On modern low resolution displays of course which are quite high compared to anything a few years ago.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
I guess vector graphics get already much better with altialiasing and subpixel positioning. But when I say "low resolution" I thought of 640x480x16 more or less fixed colors (and I still remember the outcries when some new version of X requried *that*)
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
My first real C# project | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Mark Wallace wrote:
Now I'm seriously considering migrating to OpenOffice
From what I hear you're not the only one.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
From what I hear you're not the only one.
I went to OOo a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. When do you get your SIM card from Toronto? When is drinks in January good for you? I'm taking the missus and kids to Queensland from the 9th to 17th, start work again on the 21st and have and will be doing more shifts at the local bottlo than I do when at work for most of my holidays. Plus I have to organise a few of the other local CPians to make it along.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Just got a digitizing tablet (Wacom Bamboo about 65 bucks) for drawing and for testing out the Ink interface in Vista with our apps. I have to say it's pretty amazing. Vista seems to be almost psychic at reading my extremely horrible handwriting. I've been using computers for so long and even typewriters before that, that my handwriting rare get's used at all. Maybe a grocery list or labelling a CD or signing something, that's about it. If you saw some of the original text I scrawled that was correctly recognized you'd be very surprised. I don't know how they do it to be honest, but I think a lot of contextual processing is going on in the background to narrow down the field of possible words that I could be writing. When I got the tablet and installed the drivers I only had to go to the programs and features and enable the ink related stuff and it all works perfectly with my tablet. Windows Journal is pretty cool software. Basically it's an electronic lined notepad. You can draw on it, write text and save it as a page. Later you can search for your hand written text just like typed text in a word processor. Also you can select email and it will go through the page, recognize all the text and insert it in an email ready to send. Too bad SVG was more widely used, I'd like to be able to draw a diagram and send it in the body of the email as an SVG document. I know there's likely a way to accomplish that but not enough recipients would be able to view it by default. The thing about the Journal software is I keep a notepad on my desk and when I'm working I jot stuff down all the time. The only reason I don't type up notes is that it tends to stifle creative thinking for some reason. Journal is perfect for that because you not only write and sketch as normal and can even highlight, change from a pen to a marker etc. But you can save it, back it up, search it, convert it into text for any application etc. Very handy. The only downside so far is that Inkscape and The Gimp, otherwise perfectly adequate programs for nearly anything suffer from using a GTK library that doesn't work well with drawing tablets. I can't afford expensive commercial software for what is really just a hobby so I'm stuck with the freebie software for now, however, I've never been more tempted to write my own vector graphics drawing program, I'm thinking it would be a breeze if I did it using WPF. Someone else did but it's pretty limited and it annoyingly saves the files as .xaml and re-associates .xaml files with itself.
"....The only downside so far is that Inkscape and The Gimp, otherwise perfectly adequate programs for nearly anything suffer from using a GTK library that doesn't work well with drawing tablets. I can't afford expensive commercial software...." Get paint.net. (getpaint.net[^]) Pros: LOTS of plugins (or make your own in c#), 1.3 Mb, and it's FREE! Cons: Ummmmm........I don't think there are any. :D "Impressive." - PC World, #19 on "Top 100 Products of 2007" "It raises the quality bar," - Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror "... An absolute joy to use." - WebUser Magazine Review Always trying to help, Sidneys1
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"....The only downside so far is that Inkscape and The Gimp, otherwise perfectly adequate programs for nearly anything suffer from using a GTK library that doesn't work well with drawing tablets. I can't afford expensive commercial software...." Get paint.net. (getpaint.net[^]) Pros: LOTS of plugins (or make your own in c#), 1.3 Mb, and it's FREE! Cons: Ummmmm........I don't think there are any. :D "Impressive." - PC World, #19 on "Top 100 Products of 2007" "It raises the quality bar," - Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror "... An absolute joy to use." - WebUser Magazine Review Always trying to help, Sidneys1
Interesting, I'll give that a try, looks like a possible replacement for "the gimp". Unfortunately it doesn't do vector graphics which is what I'm mainly into art wise, I only use the bitmap stuff with photographs. It's a shame no one is trying to write a .net contender to replicate Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. It would be very easy with wpf.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
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Just got a digitizing tablet (Wacom Bamboo about 65 bucks) for drawing and for testing out the Ink interface in Vista with our apps. I have to say it's pretty amazing. Vista seems to be almost psychic at reading my extremely horrible handwriting. I've been using computers for so long and even typewriters before that, that my handwriting rare get's used at all. Maybe a grocery list or labelling a CD or signing something, that's about it. If you saw some of the original text I scrawled that was correctly recognized you'd be very surprised. I don't know how they do it to be honest, but I think a lot of contextual processing is going on in the background to narrow down the field of possible words that I could be writing. When I got the tablet and installed the drivers I only had to go to the programs and features and enable the ink related stuff and it all works perfectly with my tablet. Windows Journal is pretty cool software. Basically it's an electronic lined notepad. You can draw on it, write text and save it as a page. Later you can search for your hand written text just like typed text in a word processor. Also you can select email and it will go through the page, recognize all the text and insert it in an email ready to send. Too bad SVG was more widely used, I'd like to be able to draw a diagram and send it in the body of the email as an SVG document. I know there's likely a way to accomplish that but not enough recipients would be able to view it by default. The thing about the Journal software is I keep a notepad on my desk and when I'm working I jot stuff down all the time. The only reason I don't type up notes is that it tends to stifle creative thinking for some reason. Journal is perfect for that because you not only write and sketch as normal and can even highlight, change from a pen to a marker etc. But you can save it, back it up, search it, convert it into text for any application etc. Very handy. The only downside so far is that Inkscape and The Gimp, otherwise perfectly adequate programs for nearly anything suffer from using a GTK library that doesn't work well with drawing tablets. I can't afford expensive commercial software for what is really just a hobby so I'm stuck with the freebie software for now, however, I've never been more tempted to write my own vector graphics drawing program, I'm thinking it would be a breeze if I did it using WPF. Someone else did but it's pretty limited and it annoyingly saves the files as .xaml and re-associates .xaml files with itself.
John C wrote:
Vector graphics are so clearly superior in every way to bitmap graphics it's a wonder that the entire OS isn't fundamentally based on them.
I agree. But a key issue is that vector graphics don't look "pixel-perfect" on modern displays. When displays get to such ridiculously high resolutions that you can't even see individual pixels, then a fully vector-based OS would be super sweet. I wonder though, if it's not a little bit of a catch-22: There is no market for uber-high-res displays because of the unusability of the OS at that res, and no demand for a vector-based OS because the displays can't handle it. ;)
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Interesting, I'll give that a try, looks like a possible replacement for "the gimp". Unfortunately it doesn't do vector graphics which is what I'm mainly into art wise, I only use the bitmap stuff with photographs. It's a shame no one is trying to write a .net contender to replicate Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. It would be very easy with wpf.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
PDN is definitely solid. Its interface rivals Photoshop, but doesn't have nearly the depth of ability. It's great for simple or limited things, and does have a few powerful tricks up its sleeve.
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John C wrote:
Vector graphics are so clearly superior in every way to bitmap graphics it's a wonder that the entire OS isn't fundamentally based on them.
I agree. But a key issue is that vector graphics don't look "pixel-perfect" on modern displays. When displays get to such ridiculously high resolutions that you can't even see individual pixels, then a fully vector-based OS would be super sweet. I wonder though, if it's not a little bit of a catch-22: There is no market for uber-high-res displays because of the unusability of the OS at that res, and no demand for a vector-based OS because the displays can't handle it. ;)
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logan1337 wrote:
But a key issue is that vector graphics don't look "pixel-perfect" on modern displays.
I'm not sure what you mean. They look exactly the same as bitmap graphics on my modern display until you scale them, then the vector look just as perfect and the bitmap graphics are an ugly mess.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
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logan1337 wrote:
But a key issue is that vector graphics don't look "pixel-perfect" on modern displays.
I'm not sure what you mean. They look exactly the same as bitmap graphics on my modern display until you scale them, then the vector look just as perfect and the bitmap graphics are an ugly mess.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
What I mean by this is that unless measures are taken to define the vector in terms of "device-independent pixels" (WPF does this), there is no guarantee that shapes will line-up on pixel boundaries. For example, something that *should* look like a one-pixel wide black line may end up looking like a two-pixel wide medium gray line if it falls between two pixels. You are right of course that when scaled, these issues become much less apparent, but only because there is usually nothing small enough to be noticable. Logan
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