Since the earliest version of MacPaint, launched in 1984, graphics software programmes have done their best to imitate real life, providing mini icons of pens, pencils and paint pots to show what these magic pixel-manipulators will do on your screens. But now, in a process of barely credible technological sorcery, those software tools are feeding back into real life. You know the pipette icon that can reproduce any colour on your screen? Soon you’ll have one in your real-world pencil case.
Launched this week on Kickstarter, the Scribble Pen is a real-life colour-picker that is capable of sampling then drawing in 16 million different shades, from something the size of your average felt-tip pen. Tap a tomato with one end of the magic wand, and moments later you can splurge out a stream of scarlet ink from the other.
“We were inspired by Microsoft Paint and Photoshop,” says Kevin Harrison, from the San Francisco start-up that has been developing the device for the past two years with a team of electronic engineers and colour scientists. “We thought, wouldn’t it be great if you could have a physical colour-picker that could not only sample, but match and reproduce any colour in real life?”