Writing or drawing digital ink

The easiest way to write or draw digital ink is to use your interactive product’s pen or pens.

You can also create freehand objects using the Pens tool. The Pens tool enables you to write or draw digital ink using five pen types:

You can create freehand objects using

Pen type	Purpose and example	Notes
Standard	Write or draw digital ink in a variety of colors and line styles.	Using the Standard pen type, you can write or draw digital ink that fades after a few seconds (see Writing or drawing fading digital ink).
Calligraphic	Write or draw digital ink, like you do with the Standard pen type, but with lines of varying thickness.	The Calligraphic pen type is useful for teaching students handwriting. The Calligraphic pen type is available only if your computer is connected to a SMART interactive product.
Crayon	Write or draw crayon-like digital ink.	The Crayon pen type is intended for artistic work such as painting, coloring pictures and so on rather than writing.
Highlighter	Highlight text and other objects.
Creative	Add colorful elements to your presentations.	You can create custom Creative pen styles (see Creating custom Creative pen styles).

To write or draw digital ink

1. Press Pens .

   The Pens tool buttons appear.

   

2. Press Pen Types, and then select a pen type.

   Note 

   In addition to the above five pen types, you can select the Magic Pen and Shape Recognition Pen tools (see Using the Magic Pen and Creating shapes with the Shape Recognition Pen tool).

3. Select a line type.

4. Optionally, customize the line type using the property selectors.

   Note 

   You can also customize the line type using the Properties tab (see Changing objects’ properties).

5. Write or draw digital ink on the page.

   Tips 

   • Don’t rest your elbow or the palm of your hand on your interactive product’s surface while you write or draw.

   • If you write or draw multiple lines, SMART Notebook software automatically combines the lines into a single object. For example, if you write the letters of a word, SMART Notebook software combines the individual letters, enabling you to interact with the whole word. If you want to write words on the same line but don’t want them combined, leave a large gap between them, use different pens, or briefly put the pen in the pen tray before writing another word (interactive whiteboards only).

   • If you want to write diagonally, write in a straight line, and then rotate it (see Rotating objects).

   • If you want to write in small letters, write large letters, and then reduce their size (see Resizing objects).

   • You can fill areas that you’ve enclosed with digital ink (see Filling digital ink drawings).

© 2012 SMART Technologies ULC. All rights reserved. Last updated October 30, 2012.
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