31.6 Taking Notes and Sketching with the Pen
To create drawings with the pen, you can use a professional graphics
editor like The GIMP or try one of the note taking applications, Xournal
or Jarnal. With both Xournal and Jarnal, you can take notes, create
drawings, or comment PDF files with the pen. As a Java-based application
available for several platforms, Jarnal also offers basic collaboration
features. For more information, refer to
https://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal-net.htm.
When saving your contents, Jarnal stores the data in an archive format
(*.jaj) that also contains a file in SVG format.
Start Jarnal or Xournal from the main menu or by entering
jarnal or xournal in a shell. To
comment a PDF file in Xournal, for example, select and
open the PDF file from your file system. Use the pen or another pointing
device to annotate the PDF and save your changes with .
Dasher is another useful application. It was designed for situations
where keyboard input is impractical or unavailable. With a bit of
training, you can rapidly enter larger amounts of text using only the pen
(or other input devices—it can even be driven with an eye tracker).
Start Dasher from the main menu or with dasher from a
shell. Move your pen in one direction and the application starts to zoom
into the letters on the right side. From the letters passing the cross
hairs in the middle, the text is created or predicted and is printed to
the upper part of the window. To stop or start writing, click the display
once with the pen. Modify the zooming speed at the bottom of the window.
The Dasher concept works for many languages. For more information, refer
to the Dasher Web site, which offers comprehensive documentation,
demonstrations and training texts. Find it at
https://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/
