I wanted my reMarkable to look like an ordinary pen tablet to my laptop. Plug in a cable, pick up the pen, draw. The laptop already knows what a USB input device is.

Inkline 0.4.18 adds standard USB HID pen support to the terminal I have been building for reMarkable 2. Position, pressure, tilt, and the eraser travel over USB. There are Windows, macOS, and Linux profiles you can change with a finger, plus an explicit mouse fallback. Drawing does not require an SSH session or a companion program on the laptop.

The initial installation still uses SSH. Using the installed tablet as a pen does not.

USB can do more than one thing

The first keyboard mode treated USB networking and keyboard output as separate choices. That was a software limitation. A USB device can present several functions through the same cable.

Send now combines the network interface, HID keyboard, and HID pen. USB networking starts enabled and has its own toggle. I can type or draw on the laptop and keep the tablet's USB network connection available for file access and maintenance.

The other direction gets its own Receive menu. Tap Receive and Inkline starts looking for a keyboard, mouse, and supported Ethernet adapters. A powered hub has several ports; the software now behaves accordingly. Modem and goTenna controls are independent, so a keyboard, mouse, wired network, modem, and radio can coexist. Ethernet uses DHCP when the firmware supports the adapter. Wi-Fi remains useful for reaching the tablet while the hub has its USB port.

There is still one physical port. It can be a peripheral for the laptop or a host for the hub. The simultaneous part is the collection of devices within either role.

The AlphaSmart part

I liked the separation between writing and sending on the AlphaSmart. A draft belonged to the writer until I deliberately sent it somewhere.

Inkline's Typewriter follows that pattern. Open it with an attached, unfolded Type Folio and write locally. Several documents can stay in RAM at once. Files shows the open documents and a directory browser, so opening a draft means tapping its name.

Send is a separate page. Tap a document in RAM or a file on disk to type it into the application focused on the laptop. Tap several and they go in order. Choose 5, 10, 20, 40, or 80 characters per second, depending on what the receiving program can keep up with. It makes a useful shelf of passages to assemble elsewhere.

While that page is open, the Folio also works as a live USB keyboard. Presses and releases go directly to the host. They do not edit the local buffer, run through Inkline's input methods, or cause an e-paper redraw for each key. The document speed setting does not slow live typing. Pressing a key interrupts a queued document send.

Fingers operate the controls. Throughout Typewriter, the pen and eraser belong to the laptop, including over buttons. Tap Editor to return to local writing, or Exit typewriter to return to USB settings. Folding the Folio stops forwarding.

This release also fixes the Folio's punctuation in live Send. Its printed symbols do not all occupy standard PC keyboard positions. Tilde, double quote, the zero key, plus, minus, underscore, and equals now get the appropriate US HID reports. For a US Folio, select a US keyboard layout on the receiving computer.

The ordinary things matter

AppLoad is now part of the standard installation. After a reboot, three quick power-button clicks enable its menu; tap AppLoad, then Inkline. Opening a terminal no longer depends on already having a keyboard working. Inkline supplies an on-screen keyboard when the Folio is inactive outside Receive mode.

The installer puts the PDF guide in My files. Inside Inkline, Documents lists that guide alongside the reMarkable library. Original PDFs open without closing the terminals. Notebook and EPUB files have paths available for shell tools; the PDF reader does not render notebook handwriting overlays.

Upgrades also remove obsolete software versions. An old version stays around while a running process needs it, then can be cleaned up. Documents stay put. Collecting every executable I have ever built was a poor use of the tablet's storage.

This is still a preview, targeting reMarkable 2 on firmware 3.28. The development tablet runs 3.28.0.172. The automated checks cover reports and state transitions; pressure, eraser behavior, and application support still need broader physical testing across the three laptop systems.

The installation page has the download and instructions. The bundle includes matching source and the guide in nine languages. I wanted a quiet little writing machine that could also lend its keyboard and pen to the computer beside it. That is what this release is for.