The latest Preview Build of Windows 11 brings improvements to Windows Ink that have been available on the iPad for years.
In Windows 11 Build 23481Windows Ink is “being modernized to allow users to enable inking directly onto edit fields. In addition, we are improving the accuracy from the recognition technology and a scratch out gesture for when users need to make edits. The goal with Windows Ink is to let users use their pen and handwrite anywhere they can type on their Windows device.”
Sound familiar? Scribble was introduced to the iPad in 2020 as part of iPadOS 14 and has been allowing users to enter text into text fields with handwriting ever since.
The new improvements to Windows Ink will arrive later this year for Windows 11 users and only supports English (US) for now. If you’re on the Insider Dev Channel, the feature is currently in the process of being rolled out and should be available on your device soon.
Scribble more.
Scribble on iPad with Apple Pencil is so easy to use and well-incorporated into the operating system that I sometimes wonder why I don’t use it more.
The ability to tap on a text box and input handwritten text without ever typing on a keyboard is incredibly practical and, thanks to iPadOS’s great handwriting detection, very efficient too.
It’s great to see Windows 11 add these features to Windows Ink, as having the option to input text using handwriting on a tablet just makes far too much sense. It will be interesting to see how Windows 11’s handwriting input works compared to Apple’s Scribble and which one will take the crown as the best handwriting input on a tablet.
We don’t have long to wait for these updates to come to Windows 11, and we might even see more improvements under the hood in iPadOS 17 that make Scribble an even better proposal. It’s a fun time to love handwriting.