InkEdit and InkPicture provide the ability to capture ink input from users of Tablet PCs.
The InkEdit control captures and recognizes handwriting and optionally converts it to text. The InkPicture control captures signatures, drawings, and other annotations that do not need to be recognized as text. You can place a background image in an InkPicture control, and capture and save a user’s annotations to the picture.
The ink controls are fully functional on Tablet PCs. On other computers, the InkEdit control behaves like a multiline edit control. If the Microsoft Tablet PC Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.7 is installed on the computer, InkPicture controls can accept ink input from the mouse.
The InkEdit control on a Tablet PC is like a MultiLineEdit control that has the added ability to accept ink input. On other PCs, the InkEdit control behaves as a normal MultiLineEdit control and cannot collect ink.
On a Tablet PC, the InkEdit control collects ink from a user in the form of handwriting and can handle single or multiple lines of text. It also recognizes gestures, which are specific pen strokes that represent a keyboard action such as backspace, space, or tab. The InkEdit control can convert ink to text, or leave it as handwriting.
The InkPicture control behaves like a Picture control that accepts annotation. The InkPicture control does not convert ink to text. You can associate a picture with the control so that the user can draw annotations on the picture, then save the ink, the picture, or both. If you want to use the control to capture and save signatures, you usually do not associate a picture with it.
You might use an InkPicture control to display an image of a process flow chart or a floor plan of a building, and capture suggested changes that users enter in the form of ink. Using an image of a garden, for example, a user could mark trees and shrubs to be removed and indicate where new plants should be added.
You can save the background image, the ink annotations, or both, to a file or to a blob.
