About this deal
To see the stylus tools when you take your stylus out of your Chromebook, turn on Open stylus tools when the stylus is removed. USI is a platform on which companies can develop inexpensive pens for classroom use or highly accurate pens used for digital art and animation. In fact, all but one of the Chromebooks launched in 2020 include USI pen support, a trend I expect will continue. Let me fill you in on what you need to know and help you get a digital stylus that will work with your Chromebook Which Chromebook pen do I need?
A passive stylus works just like your finger. They are also the cheapest digital stylus because they don’t require sophisticated electronics or batteries.
Draw or sketch
The Pixelbook pen and Apple Pencil are both examples of active styluses. Both of these pens work very well (and are obscenely expensive). Over the next 6-12 months I expect to see a number of new USI pens hit the market at various price points. USI promises to make it easier for companies like HP, Lenovo, and Dell to work with the companies that design digital pens. For admins who are comfortable with creating bootable USB drives using dd command-line utility or other third-party utilities.
An active stylus contains internal electronics that communicate with your device. This allows your pen to communicate pressure, angle, and user preferences, providing a custom user experience. Teaching during the COVID pandemic made this abundantly clear to me…some things are just easier to do with a pen. If you’re showing off your artwork or giving a presentation, you can use your stylus as a laser pointer. To see something up close, you can use your stylus to make part of your screen bigger.
LIQUID CHROME™
Create the installer. If you’re using a third-party utility, refer to product documentation. If you’re using dd command-line utility on a Linux device: Because there is no standard for how laptops and digital pens talk to one another, performance can vary widely. Google is a major supporter of USI and is requiring that pen-enabled Chromebooks come standard with USI support.
Don’t quit on me yet….I have one more option to tell you about! USI: the solution to the confusion!An active stylus will work with most touchscreen Chromebooks, but the results vary widely because there is no agreed upon standard for these pens. Want to learn more about USI? Listen to this podcast episode featuring Peter Meuller, chair of the USI committee. USI is a group of companies (Google, Lenovo, Bic, Dell Wacom, and more) who are working together to develop a set of rules that govern how digital pens and devices work together (kind of like how USB makes it easy to plug stuff in to your computer). All contents on the USB drive will be erased. Use Chromebook Recovery Utility Step 1: Install Chromebook Recovery Utility To test the accuracy of a digital pen I slowly draw a straight line to look for jitter – jagged imperfections in the line. A good pen will have little or no jitter.