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Wacom’s Bamboo Paper for iPad is OK Inking App but Lacks Features

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Inking Apps for the iPad are obviously of interest to me and a number of readers here on GBM. I’ve reviewed and talked about quite a few. When I saw that Wacom had released Bamboo Paper I had to take a look and so I did.

As far as the Inking experience is concerned its very good. I compare it very favorably to Penultimate, the Inking App that is my go to App when I need to take some notes in Digital Ink. There’s no mention of wrist protection or palm rejection but I was able to rest my hand on the screen and Ink comfortably without leaving stray marks. The App has some customization available including a limited selection of your standard different types of paper, you can change Ink colors. You can pinch and zoom to areas of the screen for writing and doodling or use two fingers to pan the page. Neither is as smooth as it needs to be given that if you don’t touch the screen just right your finger(s) will create ink on your page. The biggest glaring omission is that you can’t create multiple notebooks in this first version. I don’t know if that will ever become an option but at the moment your stuck with one notebook, which you can rename, or change the color of the cover. But there is an area on the first page of the note book called library which indicates that we may see multiple notebooks possible in the future.

You’re also limited in how you can export your notebooks. You can email the notebook as a PDF, email a page as a PDF, or save a page to your Photo library. You can also use the AirPrint feature of iOS if you’re set up to do that. Other Inking programs have more options like using Dropbox or at least working with the laborious transfer document process via iTunes.

But, as you’ll from the product page, I think this free App is geared towards giving those who purchase a Bamboo Stylus for the iPad something to play with once they get their hands on a Bamboo Stylus. There’s even a hook in the program to show you how to order one. You don’t need a Bamboo Stylus to use Bamboo paper. I tried several different styli out on Bamboo Paper all with equally good Inking results.

Here’s hoping Wacom will actually do more with Bamboo Paper in the future as the Inking experience is pretty good.

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. DNel

    06/18/2011 at 4:18 pm

    Though I don’t own an iPad (and probably never will) it is interesting to see the numerous inking apps being created. I would reconsider my purchase decision to “probable buy” if inking and pen input (active digitizer) were added. I think it was a mistake for Steve Jobs to state how people could interact with the iPad (no pen)

  2. Anonymous

    06/18/2011 at 4:53 pm

    Just tried Bambo Paper – quite good, inking very similar to Penultimate in terms of the ‘inky’ look and feel and palm rejection – of which both aren’t perfect. Sticking with Penultimate for the moment because of the custom papers for my UI templates and multiple notebooks. Anybody know of a glove that can handle the palm issue?

  3. Kev

    06/19/2011 at 1:52 am

    Good review. Have you tried Duke pen? It is also free from the app store and it is now my favorite inking app! It allows multiple notebooks and if fat fingers without a stylus is a problem, then simply select the keyboard.

  4. Marioncatlin

    06/26/2011 at 11:14 pm

    Thanks for info here. Does anyone know if there are any apps that will alow you to handwrite notes that are then converted to keystrokes a bit like OCR?

    • Chris Burke

      09/22/2011 at 10:05 pm

      There is an app called “writepad” that does this

    • Chris Burke

      09/22/2011 at 10:05 pm

      There is an app called “writepad” that does this

  5. Amrith

    06/28/2011 at 5:49 pm

    How do you delete a page in Bamboo Paper app? I can add pages, but cannot delete.

    Ex: I can create five pages, and I can clear the third page (make it blank), but cannot delete a page

  6. Amrith

    06/28/2011 at 5:49 pm

    How do you delete a page in Bamboo Paper app? I can add pages, but cannot delete.

    Ex: I can create five pages, and I can clear the third page (make it blank), but cannot delete a page

  7. Gaga

    07/08/2011 at 10:26 pm

    how do you delete a page ??

  8. Gaga

    07/08/2011 at 10:26 pm

    how do you delete a page ??

  9. Kenneth A.

    07/31/2012 at 2:47 pm

    @Amrith & @Gaga:

    “You will find a large dot just above the page number. Click the dot to get an overview of your pages. Here you can either delete or re-arrange your pages by clicking and dragging.”

    ~FAQ [Bamboo Paper for iPad]
    https://www.wacom.asia/bamboo-paper/faq

    Hope that helps! :)

  10. Katy

    12/19/2013 at 3:21 am

    How do you delete a photo?

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