Ink: Settings That Affect Handwriting Recognition

Symptom

These are behaviors you might encounter as you become familiar with your tablet and handwriting recognition:

• Your writing disappears when you try to dot an "i", cross a "t", or complete two-stroke letters such as a "k". The writing is thus recognized prematurely, and it appears in the target application as something other than what you intended.
• Some letters may seem more difficult to write than others. You might notice this with multi-stroke characters, like "k" and "E".
• Some handwriting styles are more difficult to use than others, and are not recognized as readily.
• You sometimes have difficulty using the pen as a mouse. The Ink writing space (yellow paper) may appear too quickly for you.

Solution

Settings that affect when text is recognized

Ink may prematurely try to recognize your writing if you lift your pen too high above the tablet when completing multi-stroke letters, or when you write anything else that causes you to lift your pen more than usual. This is due to the preference "Recognize my handwriting when the pen moves away from the tablet," which is on by default. This preference allows you to simultaneously enjoy competing benefits: a relatively long recognition delay, and an easy option for forcing immediate recognition (lifting the tip of your pen).

Additionally, you may prematurely invoke recognition if you have set the "Recognize my handwriting after" slider to an extremely short value.

To address the first, you need to practice keeping your pen lower, or deselect the preference. To address the second, try writing with the slider set to different delay values. Both of these preferences are accessed by clicking the Options button in the Ink preference pane.

Settings that affect ease of writing certain characters

When writing, you may be applying different, lighter amounts of pressure as you form certain characters. This can affect recognition. There are two things you can do to compensate for this. First, adjust the pen tip pressure setting to be "softer" in your tablet setup software, such as the Wacom Tablet application. This makes it easier for Ink to recognize lighter strokes. Second, try pressing down a little harder when you write (particularly if you do not want to change the pressure setting).

Note: If you see unintended gaps in your on-screen Ink, the gaps accurately reflect what Ink does and does not recognize. You should adjust your pen tip pressure (or simply press a little harder) until the gaps no longer appear. Gradients portrayed in on-screen Ink are for aesthetic purposes only, so you should only be concerned with actual gaps.

Handwriting styles that work best with Ink

Ink is optimized for printed characters and relatively straight lines, not for cursive writing. You may, however, experiment with tracing back over the straight lines of printed, non-cursive characters so that you complete them in one stroke. If you want to practice emulating a handwriting style, use the InkPad feature. The default font in InkPad is Apple Casual, and it is designed to best reflect the style that Ink recognizes.

Settings that affect when Ink is invoked, when yellow paper appears

There are three ways you can address this.

First, notice that by holding the tip of the pen just above the surface of the tablet, you may be able to mouse with the pen indefinitely without invoking Ink. You may need to adjust the pen tip pressure setting in your tablet's setup software, such as the Wacom Tablet application.

Second, experiment to find the settings you like best by following these steps:

1. Click the Options button in the Ink preference pane.
2. Drag the "Start inking after the pen moves" slider all the way to Long Delay.
3. Drag the "Use pen as mouse" slider all the way to Short delay.
4. Click OK.

You may not want to keep these extreme settings, but this will allow you to get a better feel for the timing. As you become accustomed, drag the sliders slowly back towards the middle, until you find the setting you like best.

Third, you may set the "Allow me to write" pop-up menu to "Only in Inkpad", then send your text from Inkpad to the target application. Your tablet driver software may allow you to toggle the "Allow me to write" setting via the pen button.