Tablet PC has had platform technologies for COM \ WinForms developers dating back to our first release in 2001.  Over the last few years, the Tablet team has been busy developing a new Tablet client platform for Avalon.  We’ve integrated our code directly into the Avalon assemblies, which makes inking available anywhere Avalon is.  I’m the development lead for the team and I started this blog to talk about what we’ve done in the Tablet Avalon platform, and why.

To start off, if you haven’t already, install the May CTP of Avalon / CLR:
CLR:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7ABD8C8F-287E-4C7E-9A4A-A4ECFF40FC8E&displaylang=en

Avalon / Indigo
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b789bc8d-4f25-4823-b6aa-c5edf432d0c1&displaylang=en

You can also install the Tablet PC SDK to get support for a stylus on an integrated or external digitizer.  If you don’t install this, you can still ink with your mouse
Tablet PC SDK 1.7
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B46D4B83-A821-40BC-AA85-C9EE3D6E9699&displaylang=en


The Avalon / Indigo link also has links to Visual Studio and the WinFX SDK.  Once you have installed those, adding ink to your application is as simple as this:

<Grid xmlns=http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/avalon/2005>
 <InkCanvas/>
</Grid>


You can type that directly into the XAMLPAD tool that is included with the WinFX SDK, drag your mouse (or stylus) across the InkCanvas to get ink!

InkCanvas is similar to the InkPicture control that is part of the Tablet COM \ WinForms platform.

The difference is that InkCanvas can host more than an image; in fact, it can host anything an Avalon Canvas can.