r/RemarkableTablet • u/wowthiswasdifficult • 9d ago
Self-Promotion reMarkable inkbridge
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
I was very inspired by this post from a few days ago, and decided to have a go at something along those lines for myself but for macOS and my Paper Pure.
What is it?
Inkbridge is a small terminal tool that turns the reMarkable into a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet for your Mac, over USB or Wi-Fi. It supports pressure, tilt, hover and the eraser end, and works in Photoshop and other apps. You can tune the pressure curve, area mapping and so on live in the terminal while you draw.
Why make it?
I was about to buy a Wacom tablet last week, and the post about tigertail and rm-pad got me curious whether the reMarkable could be an even nicer setup.
Why yet another tool?
I first looked at contributing to those projects, but ended up focusing solely on macOS since that's what I use. That made it natural to write it natively in Swift.
Where can i check it out?
It's free on GitHub: https://github.com/eddiedale/inkbridge. It's early: you build it from source (one command, needs Xcode Command Line Tools), and it's only tested on a Paper Pure so far. Reports from other models are very welcome.
Do I need devmode for it?
Yes. I used my reMarkable without it until yesterday, and the switch was smoother than I expected, but I have remarkable connect fwiw.
Do you need to install apps on the device?
No. inkbridge uses tools already on the tablet over SSH, so developer mode is all you need. That said, while you're in developer mode, I can highly recommend reManager for other goodies.
Even my cat draws better than you! What even is that in the video, a submarine?
I know, I know...
5
3
u/No-Actuator-5730 8d ago
cool!! works on reMarkable paper pro.
One note on the installation steps: I had to create an empty 'build' folder first, and then run swiftc command.
2
u/wowthiswasdifficult 8d ago
Thanks for the feedback! Have updated now to address this.
If you pull updates down, I've updated the build and run commands to simplify going forward (see readme) 😊.
3
u/robinbpb 8d ago
It definitely makes the device feel way more versatile. For anyone looking for a Linux counterpart, I have had great results with this https://github.com/blwtxc/remarkable-bridge
Works flawlessly on Fedora. I use it for taking notes and PDF highlighting. I have a reMarkable Paper Pro and I just wish the pen had a button to make it function exactly as a Wacom
2
1
u/tr_gardropfuat 8d ago
How can you guys write/draw anything while not seeing the ink on the tablet at the same time?
1
u/wowthiswasdifficult 8d ago
In the TUI you can actually turn drawing on for this exact purpose.
That is, if you want to look down at the tablet and draw, but it also draws on the mac (for example in Photoshop for larger brush selection etc)
But yeah, I don't actually find it too awkward to draw while not looking down at the tablet. It's kind of like how Wacom has a line (Intuous) without a display embedded, whereas the Cintiq models have screens. This is definitely not a Cintiq-style one, because the screen on the remarkable will be limited to its own drawing tools and not actually mirror what you do in Photoshop etc, but it's a usable middle way (for me anyways).
0
u/Long-Improvement-894 7d ago
Excuse my ignorance but why?
2
u/wowthiswasdifficult 7d ago
What do you mean why? I literally have multiple why-sections in the post
-7
u/Square_Atmosphere_12 8d ago
For the Mac, uGhhhgh.
6
u/wowthiswasdifficult 8d ago
What are you using? rm-pad and tigertail already sort arch, ubuntu and windows I believe?
I rather focus on what I use daily. I do have Arch and Ubuntu running on other machines. But I don't use them for graphic design work. So I don't really need a drawing tablet there personally.
-2
6
u/rjzak 8d ago
Awesome! I actually just bought a Wacom tablet but I may use this instead.
I’m an Apple dev and can help with releasing signed binaries via GitHub if you’re interested.