In this section we describe how the new Windows UI of Windows 8 supports user interactions through pen devices. Here you can learn how to take full advantage of pen/stylus capabilities in Windows Store apps.
This documentation is relevant for developers building Windows Store apps for tablets and computers that have an attached digitizer (beneath the surface of the screen or as a peripheral device) that accepts pen input.
A pen/stylus can be used as both a pointing device and a drawing device and is typically associated with digital ink functionality.
The Windows 8 ink platform, together with a pen/stylus device, provides a natural way to create handwritten notes, drawings, and annotations. The platform supports capturing ink data from digitizer input, generating ink data, rendering that data as ink strokes on the output device, managing the ink data, and performing handwriting recognition.
In addition to capturing the spatial movements of the pen as the user writes or draws, your app can also collect info such as pressure, shape, color, and opacity, to offer user experiences that closely resemble drawing on paper with a pen, pencil, or brush.
Note The ink platform in Windows 8 also supports input from other pointer devices, including touch digitizers and mouse devices.
In this section
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
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This Quickstart walks you through capturing ink data from an input digitizer. | |
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Learn how to render ink stroke segments as smooth Bézier curves. | |
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This topic demonstrates how to save ink data by serializing it as Ink Serialized Format (ISF) metadata and embedding the metadata into a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) file. | |
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This topic demonstrates how to load ink data by de-serializing it from ISF metadata embedded in a GIF file. | |
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Learn how to select ink strokes in a Windows Store app using JavaScript. | |
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Learn how to erase ink strokes in a Windows Store app using JavaScript. | |
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Learn how to use handwriting recognition and convert ink strokes to text in a Windows Store app using JavaScript. |
Related topics
- Conceptual
- Responding to user interaction
- Reference
- Windows.Devices.Input
- Windows.UI.Core
- Windows.UI.Input
- Windows.UI.Input.Inking
- Samples (DOM)
- Input: DOM pointer event handling sample
- Samples (Windows Store app APIs)
- Input: Device capabilities sample
- Input: Ink sample
- Input: Simplified ink sample
Build date: 11/29/2012
