Ink

Ink provides real-time visual feedback when users employ a pen to input data. However, for , ink is much more than a visualization of pen strokes; it is a data type. You can build applications for TabletPC that support various levels of functionality forInk provides real-time visual feedback when users employ a pen to input data. However, for Tablet PC, ink is much more than a visualization of pen strokes; it is a data type. You can build applications for Tablet PC that support various levels of functionality for pen, ink, and ink stroke recognition, ranging from recognizing simple text input to creating and editing complex ink. The following diagram depicts the levels of ink support that you can implement and the degree of effort that is involved.

Ink-to-Text Conversion

If your application itself does not accept pen and ink input directly, that application can still receive ink and handwriting input through Microsoft Tablet PC Input Panel. Input Panel uses handwriting recognition and other input functionality that is necessary to interact with applications that are not ink-enabled and pen-enabled. In a typical text input scenario, the user would input ink into Input Panel, and Input Panel would convert it to text and paste it into the application at the insertion point.

Ink Controls

You can use Tablet PC ink controls in an application or document to add a quick and easy pen-based user interface. For example, you can position these controls on the user's screen to define a fixed region for pen and ink input. The controls have properties and methods for retrieving and manipulating the ink and its properties, as well as for affecting the appearance of the controls. The controls generate events for which you can write handlers.

Microsoft® Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition includes the InkEdit, and InkPicture controls. You can create additional controls that are based on the Managed Library and Automation application programming interfaces.

Note   The ink controls are not marked safe for scripting and should not be used in HTML or ASP pages.

Surface Ink

Applications that store and handle ink as a data type constitute the bulk of true, pen-enabled and ink-enabled applications. These applications use surface ink, which means that they recognize Ink objects and their context in relation to other document objects. They also support features such as selecting and editing ink, but do not convert handwriting to text.

Also, such applications do not reflow ink. Ink that the user lays down on the screen is layered on top of the document. If the user changes the structure of the document—such as by adding a new paragraph—the ink maintains its absolute position in the document, rather than moving with the other items in the document.

Ink Manipulation

Applications that exploit the ability to manipulate ink can be used to author rich documents that contain text, graphics, vector shapes, and multimedia objects. These applications handle ink as a data type in the same way that surface ink applications do, but also have advanced capabilities such as reflowing and overlaying Inkobjects in ways that are similar to the other document objects that they handle. For instance, applications that reflow ink bind the ink, in a logical way, to the underlying document tree. If the structure of the document changes, the ink maintains its relative position in the document.