Our key technologies

Digital pens and digital ink are at the center of all our activities. Ink is the medium humans have been using for thousands of years to express and preserve. Creatives use it to visualize their inspirations. And everyone uses ink to capture thoughts, to communicate, and to sign.

We develop and advance a range of digital pen and ink technologies for our Wacom branded products and the solutions for our partners.

EMR™ (Electro-Magnetic Resonance)

We originally developed this unique technology for our professional tablet and display devices to enable a precise and speedy pen input with highly accurate pressure sensitivity. The result is a natural pen-on-paper-like feel on each writing surface. We call it "Wacom feel IT technologies".

The pen is powered by the electro-magnetic field that is generated by the EMR sensor under the display. That allows for a cordless and battery-free pen with a high degree of freedom in both usage and pen design, such as the one which can be easily stored in a smartphone.

Active ES™ (Active Electro-Static)

Our capacitive pen solution shares the same sensor and controller for both pen and finger touch. With no pen-dedicated sensor needed, mobile devices with this technology gain higher flexibility in product planning and design.

Active ES can establish compatibility with other pen protocols that use the same capacitive pen technology, such as Microsoft's Surface pen. With our Bamboo Ink styli, users can write on a Microsoft Surface as well as on one of our OEM customers' products with Active ES.

Wacom Ink Technologies

In the digital world, ink is more flexible and powerful than ever before. Our vision for the digital age is an enriched ink that carries semantic meaning, context and biometric identity. The foundation for this universal ink is the Wacom Ink Layer Language. In short: WILL™.

Together with the developer community we use WILL to create ink experiences for the future.

Wacom Ink Technologies include:

  • An algorithm that creates a beautiful visual representation of ink, which motivates people to use it.
  • A file format specialized for digital ink (similar to .pdf or .doc), the structure of which allows for the storage of metadata that enables an unlimited number of use cases.
  • A family of SDKs that developers can use to quickly and easily utilize the power of WILL digital ink within their applications on any platform, using any pen, stylus or touch-enabled device.

Explore our developer support pages.

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