New Moleskine books let you save your handwriting digitally

Moleskine has unveiled a range of notebooks that allow you to save your pen and paper notes in digital form.

Moleskine

The company has worked with smartpen manufacturer Livescribe to create the new range.

Livescribe smartpens feature a camera on the tip, which reads a pattern of dots on the special Livescribe paper. Using this dot information the pens can track handwriting and send information through the Livescribe app to be converted into digital text.

Users can also record audio linked to their written notes and tag and flag items by tapping on-page icons with their smartpen.

Moleskine

The new Moleskine range uses the special Livescribe paper, combined with familiar Moleskine details including the ribbon bookmark and elastic closure.

Each page also features ‘control’ icons that let the user control their note-taking.

Maria Sebregondi, co-founder and vice president of brand equity and communications and Moleskine, says, ‘Far from disappearing, handwriting is developing into new forms.

The camera on the Livescribe pen
The camera on the Livescribe pen

‘Whereas once it relied on a quill and inkpot, now we use roller pens, spray cans or smartpens to capture our thoughts.’

Sebregondi adds, ‘We’re creating tools and services which bridge analogue and digital methods for a more seamless experience.’

The new Moleskine notebooks are available now priced at £18.

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Comments
  • milind k November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Hi, nice feature, is it possible to upgrade the feature/software in such a way our digital handwriting is used the same style the way we write. Messages/ or whatever we write it can identify those strokes/style and it should be seen by receiver as in original form not in digital format or fonts.

  • Melanie Fisher November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I love milind K’s idea that a digital version of one’s own script would be nice.

  • marc harridence November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Sorry to pee on the parade but i came up with this exact same idea at university in 2007, you can even ask one of my lecturers!:P

  • Eric Richards November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I have had one of these for 3 years now and yes it is in your original stroke/style also it can duplicate and read to digitise your words to different fonts if you want.
    @marc, someone must had heard you because my older sister had something similar in 2007.

  • Gary Etheridge November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    @marc. the idea was around way before 2007, Logitech developed this technology, but it did not fly because of flaws in the recognition software. It was based on a micro dot matrix on the paper that allowed a sensor in the pen to track your hand writing in relationship to it.
    So you may of been late to the game Marc.
    I hope this moleskin one is better…might be worth a try, would love to hear from others on how reliable it is. The thing I never liked about the Logitech one was the size of the pen and that you were stuck with one kind of ink;a brio I believe.
    I am a designer and like to use lots of different kinds of pens, pencils, etc. I can see how it would be great for writers and note taking, but designers need more options
    Thanks
    Gary

  • Martin Rayala November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Having an idea is often a long way from developing a viable realization of it. Livescribe Smartpens seem to have moved us quite a way toward having a viable option. It is a failure of imagination to think that designers need more options than this technology can provide. Through software, a single instrument will soon be able to provide variations in line width, color and variety of scale. It could produce results that look like pencil, pen, brush, marker, etc. in any color imaginable. This technology can ultimately provide more options than you would care to carry with you in traditional media.

  • Jay Daley November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Not quite 2007 but I wrote a post asking for this in 2008 http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/2008/09/06/anoto-pens-moleskine-notebooks-and-osx/ unfortunately it looks like they only do these new books in lined pages not blank pages.

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