The future is here. A seriously cool application of Wacom technology to the old pen and paper sketch lets you take your drawings digital without a scanner.

The Inkling uses Wacom’s knack for great styluses and pressure sensitivity to turn out an actual, usable pen! Meanwhile a docking station/stylus recorder is affixed to the page you’re working on and records your every stroke. By the time you’re done with your paper version, you have a vector image ready for upload and tweaking on the computer.

PROS: Never seen anything like this, the novelty is great, and for prolific sketchers who don’t have time to scan everything this is a great way of preserving and uploading work. I would love to see a way to instantly tweet and track stuff that was being drawn, esp when it comes to some of my favorite artists.

CONS: Only one pen – who sketches in ballpoint anyway? For many artists who go from paper to digital the emphasis is on the brushstroke, which gets cleaned up and filled in digitally. A simple rough outline won’t win over artists who are trying to give their lines a specific feel. Doubtless though, if this goes over big on first release, Wacom will probably back this up with some custom styluses: markers, maybe even a brush pen if they can get the pressure working.

The SO-SO: There’s no way you can erase, if you want to tweak the final product, you’ll have to dig through hundreds of vector lines. A pain, but for some it might still beat scanning, and digitally re-inking their lineart as a vector.