Take Notes With a Pen to Upload to Computer

Smart pens combine traditional writing implements with modern digital technology. The result is a pen that helps capture what you lot've written in digital form, turning what'south traditionally a messy analog medium into organized, structured information that y'all tin keep forever. Some smart pens record what you're writing using tech in the pen itself; others rely on special paper, your tablet, or your smartphone to capture the data.

Considering there are so many options – and because they piece of work quite differently from i some other – you may demand a guide to the right smart pen or stylus for you. Depending upon your annotation-taking or sketching needs, you might want something like the Livescribe, which has a built-in audio recorder, or a Rocketbook with a Frixion pen which is super inexpensive, but focused on capturing images of your notes. We've rounded upward the best smart pens and styluses for your reading pleasure. And at the stop of the article, you'll also find a buying guide that highlights the most important criteria to expect for when shopping for smart pens and styluses

TL;DR – These are the Best Smart Pens

Livescribe Symphony Smartpen
Rocketbook Cadre Erasable Smart Pen
Wacom Bamboo Ink 2nd Gen
Neo Smartpen N2
Apple Pencil (2d Generation)
Moleskine Pen+ Ellipse
SyncPen 2nd Generation

1. Livescribe Symphony

Best Smart Pen

Livescribe Symphony Smartpen

If yous want to get about your note-taking on paper like normal while notwithstanding enjoying the digital backups that come from a smart pen, and so the Livescribe Symphony is where it'southward at. This premium, smart pen offers upwards an ink pen experience for yous to write on Livescribe'south special dot newspaper, while the digitizer records your handwriting and transfers it to the Livescribe+ app on your smartphone, tablet, or reckoner.

In one case your notes are converted into a digital format, it'south piece of cake to catechumen them to PDFs, images, or even searchable text documents with recognition for upwardly to 28 languages. You tin can share your notes or back them upwards to the deject just as simply. The Livescribe Symphony paired with the Livescribe+ app will also allow y'all go beyond just writing and cartoon, equally y'all tin create audio recordings that will sync with your handwritten notes, giving y'all more than detail or context for your notes. With 90 days of standby battery life, you shouldn't need to supervene upon the bombardment also often either. And, if you lot're taking notes away from your phone or figurer, the pen itself can store up to 1,200 pages of notes on internal storage to sync later.

ii. Rocketbook Cadre

Best Erasable Smart Pen

Rocketbook Core Erasable Smart Pen

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Like the idea of savings paper past going digital with your notes? The Rocketbook Core will let yous continue using paper and pen to take all your notes, permit you digitize them, so start fresh without actually needing to become more than newspaper. That's thanks to the Rocketbook Cadre'due south special notebook paper. You can write on the Rocketbook Core with a wide diversity of Frixion pens, zip too special, and then when y'all're all done, you just wipe the pages off with a clammy cloth. The kit comes with a microfiber textile to go you started. That's all it takes to erase the Frixion pen ink from the Rocketbook Core so yous can starting time fresh.

The Rocketbook Core will let y'all scan your notes into Android or iOS devices to accept your notes digital. And, yous can even get those notes in colour. It'southward a pretty flexible system, and it's also incredibly affordable. New Frixion pens only cost a few dollars, and microfiber apparel are almost a dime a dozen.

3. Wacom Bamboo Ink second Gen

Best Smart Pen for Windows

More and more Windows laptops are coming around to supporting agile stylus input. With then many ii-in-1 laptops offer this adequacy, it just makes sense to have advantage of information technology. Many computer makers will offer their ain styluses to get with their machines, just they frequently price a pretty penny — looking at you Microsoft. Meanwhile, for just $fifty, Wacom offers the very-capable Bamboo Ink stylus.

This stylus is coming from one of the best brands in the business. Heck, a lot of the digitizing layers going onto displays to support styluses are coming from Wacom. The Bamboo Ink stylus will permit you tap into that Wacom Agile ES tech or the Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP), helping you lot become support on a wide range of devices (see compatibility here). The stylus can automatically launch the Windows Ink Workspace on your machine without even needing to exist paired, and it tin can provide 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, letting you really express yourself. Two side buttons will also permit you apace change settings or tools on the fly.

4. Neo Smartpen N2

Best Smart Pen for Microdot Paper

The concept behind the Neo Smartpen N2 should be familiar to anyone who has used a smart pen before. The pen itself has all the brains, which includes a battery, camera, and processor. You demand to use the N2 with special micro dotted paper, and on that forepart the pick is huge – perhaps the largest of whatsoever smart pen. You can choose from among memo books, pocket-sized mini books, planners, spiral-ring notebooks, and many other options.

The pen uses standard D-1 type pen tips, which means you can supercede the ink with any standard refill then you're not tied to refills supplied but by Neo. It contains 90MB of storage, which ways you can take extensive notes without synchronizing it with your mobile device and not worry nearly running out of memory. Yes, other pens have more memory – like the 2GB Livescribe Echo – merely a lot of that storage is committed to audio. The N2 captures text only.

When you sync the pen with your mobile device, your notes and sketches are stored in the Neo mobile app, and you tin also share the files with cloud services like Evernote, Ane Note and Google Drive.

5. Apple Pencil (2nd Generation)

All-time Smart Pen for iPad

Apple Pencil (second Generation)

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The Apple Pencil isn't your ordinary smart pen; information technology'south a stylus that turns an iPad into a device that you tin write and draw on. Apple has created an almost Microsoft-level corporeality of confusion around the Pencil by giving ii different products – the Apple Pencil and Apple Pencil (2d Generation) – the same name, barely even distinguishing them on the website, despite the fact that they're incompatible with one some other.

The 2nd Generation pencil works with the latest iPads (the 12.nine-inch and eleven-inch models) and is a refined, powerful tool for writing and drawing. It is finished in matte white and is flat on i side, which prevents information technology from rolling around. There'southward no Lightning port for charging; its battery charges when information technology's attached to the iPad (which it does magnetically).

Like many of the other smart pens in this listing, the Apple Pencil lets yous write and sketch – though merely on compatible iPads. There are a broad diversity of apps that work with the Pencil; yous can accept handwritten notes, marker-up documents, and even edit photos. The downside? It's a single-apply accessory that is designed exclusively for your iPad.

half dozen. Moleskine Pen+ Ellipse

Best Smart Pen for Sketching

Who said you lot had to use a smart pen simply for notes? The Moleskine Pen+ Ellipse works merely equally well for notes as information technology does for doodles. You can sketch away in your Moleskin Smart Notebook while using the Pen+ Ellipse, and the pen volition transfer it all in real fourth dimension to your Android, iOS, or Windows device.

The Moleskine Pen+ Ellipse comes with the pen itself, which features a replaceable ink tip, equally well as a notebook to get y'all started. The pen features a rechargeable bombardment, then you don't accept to fiddle around with opening it up. And, the device is capable of sound recordings in instance you want to make some mental notes while you're sketching.

7. SyncPen second Generation Smart Pen

Best Hybrid Smart Pen

The SyncPen 2d Generation smart pen takes the capabilities of a lot of its competitors and pairs it all with a handy, 10-inch LCD pad. In effect, you take notes as yous would normally, just you'll never accept to utilise any paper. The LCD pad will brandish what you're writing or drawing, and information technology features the micro dots required for the pen to track, but the LCD display can exist erased instantly to get-go on your next set of notes. Just, if you prefer paper, the SyncPen 2nd Generation also supports micro dot paper (which you tin can print yourself after you use the included notebook) and includes refills for both ink and the plastic tip used with the LCD pad.

The SyncPen volition pair with your iOS or Android device over a Bluetooth connexion to let you meet the copies of your notes. The LCD pad even allows you to command the color you're taking notes in, and then you can create more than circuitous notes using color to highlight details or differentiate certain elements. Y'all can convert your written notes into digital text and export in diverse file formats, and you also get the pick to tape audio with your notes.

What to Look for in a Smart Pen

Smart pens and styluses are adequately niche products – and probably always volition be. For many people, a stylus like the Apple tree Pencil is merely ane more matter to lose, which is why a lot of people don't want to carry it effectually. And when it comes to the other smart pens, the thought of using technology to write notes that'll sync with a PC can seem needlessly complicated – fifty-fifty if it'due south not. The real fob, and then, is finding a solution that'south as straightforward and unproblematic as possible, while at the same time solving the nigh problems along the way.

To that end, it's helpful to empathise what problems yous're solving. Presumably, you lot need to capture text and images to a phone or PC. But how easy does the device brand information technology to get your notes to the cloud, or to share it with others? Does it sync automatically, or do you need to do it manually? And if so, is there sufficient memory, or will you lot need to worry nigh syncing the pen as well often?

If you lot don't want to sync often, look for a pen that has a lot of memory; the Livescribe models have more often than not large amounts of storage, while the Wacom Bamboo Folio volition run out of space quickly. And if you're comfortable syncing pages manually, consider the Rocketbook.

About smart pens have special features that distinguish them from similar models. Some can record audio, for example, and store it on the pen itself. That'southward user-friendly, but information technology tin can also exhaust the pen's memory, so other pens do the same affair by connecting to your phone, relying on both the telephone's microphone and storage.

Lastly, think about how you like to work, and what kind of smart pen suits your workflow. Are you okay with the danger of running out of specialized paper, which may smart pens rely on? If not, consider a pen that can use plain paper (like Wacom), or reusable, erasable paper (similar Rocketbook).

Dave Johnson has been writing most gaming and tech since the days of the Palm Pilot. Run across him shout into the Twitter void @davejoh

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Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/best-smart-pen