New Aspects of InkML for Pen-Based Computing

As pen-based computing becomes more prevalent, it is increasingly important to be able to share ink across applications and across platforms. The emerging standard Ink Markup Language (InkML) is intended for this purpose. Four drafts of the proposed standard have been produced since 2003, resulting in a specification with broad input from industry and invited experts. The last working draft has simplified and generalized the specification in some important ways and the specification is now in "last call" status. This paper presents an overview of the main features of InkML, with an emphasis on the rationale for what has changed for the last call version.