aha! InkWriter (Maquette)
A truly revolutionary product, aha! inkWriter allowed you to work with handwritten text as if you were using a word processor. You could hand write paragraphs, create bullet lists, highlight text, add and delete words, and even sketch and clean up drawings.
This is an original maquette (hand-crafted prototype) of the original aha! InkWriter packaging. Note the tape used to hold the printed image on the white box. Note also that there is no product version or platform listed in this version of the maquette.
Interestingly, when rotating the box, you can hear paper and a diskette moving inside. However, it is impossible to open the box without damaging the maquette.
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Artifact Details
InkWriter Maquette
aha! software corporation
United States
English
1993
Unopened white box with color printed paper taped to the sides.
Possibly paper and a diskette.
Approx. 8" x 9.75" x 1.75"
38967261b558d27a
1995
Donation
Gift of Greg Stikeleather, Founder and CEO, aha! software corporation
2020-07-10
Organizations
People
History
This maquette is a hand-crafted prototype of the retail packaging for the original aha! InkWriter, its front panel carrying the aha! logo, the InkWriter wordmark, the tagline "the simplicity of pen and paper, the power of word processing," and an illustration of a handwritten note being edited and reformatted with a pen.1 The same wordmark and tagline run along the box spine, and no panel of the maquette names a product version or platform.2
aha! software corporation announced InkWriter on June 14, 1993 as the first product in its InkProcessor product line, presenting it as the first software to let users of pen-based computers, personal communicators, and personal digital assistants edit and search handwritten words in the form of electronic ink without first translating them into computer text.3 Built on aha!'s patent-pending SmartInk technology, the program let users erase, highlight, italicize, or embolden handwritten words with a few strokes of the pen, and it automatically rewrapped the remaining ink when words were deleted or moved.3 aha! software was an applications-software company founded in early 1991 and based in Mountain View, California, with Greg Stikeleather as president and chief executive officer.3
The initial release ran on the PenPoint operating system from GO Corporation on both the 386/486 and Hobbit families of microprocessors — the Hobbit being the low-power RISC chip used in the AT&T/EO Personal Communicators — and carried a $249 suggested retail price ahead of a July 1993 ship date.3 aha! had been named among the application developers building productivity software for Hobbit-based personal communicators when AT&T Microelectronics announced broad industry support for the processor on November 16, 1992.4 In October 1993, EO and the top five PenPoint independent software vendors — aha! among them — began a six-city national seminar tour for the AT&T/EO Personal Communicator, where InkWriter was presented as a note-taking, word-processing, and drawing utility.5
aha! extended InkWriter beyond PenPoint the following year, releasing aha! InkWriter for Windows on June 10, 1994 at a $199 suggested list price.6 In April 1996, Microsoft Corporation announced a definitive agreement to acquire aha! software corporation, citing the company's approach of manipulating handwriting in its ink form rather than relying on handwriting recognition.7
AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes
Footnotes
- aha! software corporation, aha! InkWriter (Maquette) (image scan), 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! InkWriter (Maquette) (image scan), 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! software Delivers on Promise of Electronic Ink — Does for Pen What Word Processor Did for Typewriter, June 14, 1993
- AT&T Microelectronics, AT&T Microelectronics Announces Industry Support for Hobbit Microprocessors, November 16, 1992
- EO, Inc., AT&T/EO and Top Five Independent Software Vendors Begin Nationwide Roadshow to Demonstrate Effective Real World Software Solutions for Mobile Computing, October 12, 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! software Releases InkWriter for Windows, June 10, 1994
- Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft to Acquire aha! software, April 8, 1996
Oral History
Connections
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