Let’s face it: there is an inexplicable bond created when you slide a pencil or pen across a piece of paper, leaving traces of graphite or ink on what was once a blank canvas. That series of scratches coalesce to form a manifestation of an idea. As your mind scribbles and erases and scribbles some more, so does your hand. The physical steps become a part of the mental process.
让我们面对现实吧：当你用笔在纸上写下一行字，把石墨或墨水凝成的字迹留在一张白纸上，总会产生一种说不清道不明的感觉。这一系列涂鸦变成了一种思想的体现。随着你的思想写写划划、删删改改，你的手也忙个不停。书写这套动作，已经成为思考过程的一部分。

Technology has done wonders to reduce these steps. Computers and tablets (and keyboards and mice and capacitive displays and even speech recognition software) help us more quickly create. The problem, it seems, is that sometimes our minds aren’t quite up to speed. We need a little low-tech resistance to make the right ideas flow.
科技奇迹般地缩短了这些步骤。电脑和平板电脑（以及键盘、鼠标、电容屏甚至语音识别软件等）使我们可以更快地进行思维的创造。但问题是，有些时候，我们的意识还没有跟上科技创新的脚步。所以为了让正确的创意喷涌而出，有时候我们不得不放慢脚步，来一点“低科技”作为佐料。
As someone who makes a living staring at a blinking cursor that seems to always be a step ahead of me, I often find myself retreating to—if you’ll permit me saying so, here on this website—the analog version of Microsoft Word. Not to romanticize it, but writing is an intimate act, and that aspect is often overlooked as digitization marches on. (Well, except in Milan. The folks at Moleskineseem to get it.)
作为一个依靠盯着闪烁的光标（它似乎总是比我快一步）讨生活的人，我经常发现自己对微软Word之类的软件有抵触情绪。我不是在吹嘘自己有格调，不过我认为书写是一种舒适的行为，但是随着数字化的发展，这一点经常被人忽略了。（呃，米兰人除外，做Moleskine高档笔记本的那群家伙似乎懂得这一点。）
Believe it or not, technology companies seem to be aware of the problem. Microsoft, among others, is putting a lot of effort into replicating the familiarity of pen and paper on a layer of pixels below a slab of glass. It’s one reason why the company touted the Surface Pen as a primary selling point for its Surface Pro 3 tablet. As you may recall from an earlier column, I was veryimpressed with how it performed, and as I went from meeting to meeting with it during a trip to Japan, people continued to approach me and ask: “What stylus is that?” (Which was often followed by: “Does it work with the iPad?”)
不管你信不信，一些科技公司也意识到了这个问题。比如微软等公司就花费大量精力，试图在平板电脑上模拟用纸笔写字的感觉。这也是为什么微软要把Surface Pen当作Surface Pro 3平板电脑的主要卖点之一。我在早些时候的一篇专栏文章中曾写道，Surface Pen的表现让我非常惊艳。前一阵我去日本出差时也带着它参加了一场又一场的会议，不断有人问我：“这是什么笔？”（下一句话经常就是：“它能在iPad上用吗？”）
The Surface Pen does not work with an iPad, of course—its proprietary software is Microsoft-compatible only. But the inquiries set me on a search to find an iPad stylus that could replicate the experience of the Surface Pen and, by extension, the conventional pencil or pen.
当然，Surface Pen是不能在iPad上用的，它的专有软件只在微软的产品上兼容。不过问的人多了，我就开始搜索有没有和Surface Pen的体验差不多、甚至接近传统纸笔书写感觉的iPad专用笔。
My search began with Pencil from FiftyThree ($60 and up). Its chiseled form is reminiscent of a carpenter’s pencil, and its walnut or graphite housing underscores the reference. On the business end you’ll find a soft rubber tip designed to glide across an iPad display; the butt of the tool offers another contact point that’s meant to duplicate an eraser. Thanks to a Bluetooth 4.0 sensor, the implement can detect tip pressure (which, through software, translates to line thickness), determine when the eraser end is in use, and eliminate any errant doodling when you rest your palm on the screen.
我首先找到的是FiftyThree公司推出的Pencil笔（售价60美元以上），它的造型让人联想起木工铅笔，胡桃木加铅笔芯的搭配更强化了这种感觉。笔尖一端有一个软软的橡胶头，用来在iPad显示屏上写字；笔端有另一个接触点，模拟的是橡皮擦的功能。借助一个蓝牙4.0传感器，它可以探测笔尖的压力（通过软件可以转换成笔迹的粗细），也可以探测到你是在使用笔尖还是使用橡皮擦，同时也可以避免当你把手放在屏幕上时，出现不合时宜的涂鸦。
Writing with Pencil, it was apparent that I was using a digital tool. Instead of concentrating on what I was writing, I constantly found myself focusing on what I was writing with. How I positioned the tip of the stylus was a persistent thought because its soft material made the contact point change in shape as I wrote with it. My letters would blend together unnecessarily, not unlike the stereotype of a physician’s freehand, leaving me to decipher my own transcribed thoughts. Pencil makes for a superb sketching tool, but as a writing implement it left me wanting.
用这支笔写字时，我明显能感到自己是在用一款数码工具在写字。因此我关注的不是我在写什么，而是一直把注意力放在我的书写工具上。我一直在想自己应该用什么姿势使用这支笔，因为接触点的软质材料容易在书写时变形。我的字迹会出现不必要的模糊，就像医生开处方的草书一样，有时候很难识别。Pencil笔可能是一支很好的画画工具，但是作为书写工具仍稍嫌不足。
The Cosmonaut by Studio Neat ($25) was recommended to me by a reader. This stylus was thick like the Pencil but was cylindrical, designed to replicate the feel of a dry erase marker. The Cosmonaut is far simpler than its peers because it lacks internal electronics and dedicated software, instead relying on a device’s capacitive screen for interaction. The rubber tip of the stylus is firm and made for a consistent contact point on the iPad’s screen. Despite the tool’s girth, I felt like I had more control over my handwriting than the Pencil—I could indeed read my own handwriting. Unfortunately, it stops there: because the stylus lacks its own software, it offers little in the way of pressure detection or quick-erase smarts.
Studio Neat公司推出的Cosmonaut笔（售价25美元）是一位读者给我推荐的。这支笔的粗细跟Pencil差不多，但它是圆柱型的，使用时感觉像是一支白板笔。Cosmonaut要比其它电容笔简单多了，因为它没有复杂的内部结构和专用软件，而是依靠设备的电容屏进行交互。它的橡胶笔尖较硬，而且与iPad屏幕的接触点比较一致。尽管这支笔还是比较粗，但我觉得我对字迹的控制要好于Pencil——至少我能看懂自己写了些什么。可惜它的好处也就止于此处，由于这支笔缺乏自有软件，它既没有压力探测功能，也没有迅速删除功能。
Is simple better for a stylus? I walked out of a Best Buy with a slim model made by Targus ($9) to find out. The implement has a soft rubber nib on one end and most closely resembles the shape and size of a traditional pen. Like the Cosmonaut, the Targus stylus lacks internal components or accompanying software. Unlike the Cosmonaut (but quite like the Pencil), it was a complete distraction during use. It quickly became clear to me that this stylus was better suited to acute tasks, such as selecting icons or buttons in an interface, rather than free-form writing.
对于电容笔来说，是否简单才是更好的？我在百思买（Best Buy）买了一支Targus公司生产的一支较修长的电容笔（售价9美元）。这支笔有一个较软的橡胶笔尖，形状和大小都像传统铅笔的笔尖。像Cosmonaut一样，它也没有内部元件或专用软件。不同之处在于（这一点跟Pencil比较像），它在使用的时候非常容易让人分心。它很快使我意识到，这支笔比较适合应急，比如选择图标或者按钮什么的，而不是自由书写。
To the other end of the price spectrum, then. The Adonit Jot Touch ($120) was by far the most expensive stylus I tested, and like most of the models I used, it had a thicker profile, akin to a full-size Sharpie (but with two buttons where your thumb might rest). Like the Pencil, the Jot Touch uses software to facilitate interaction with an iPad. The two buttons can be assigned actions, depending on your composition app of preference; during my testing, I set the bottom one as an “Undo” action and the top one as a “Redo.” (What can I say, I’m an indecisive writer.) Though the Jot Touch’s body is thicker than a traditional pen, its “Pixelpoint” tip isn’t, and I found it suitable for writing at length.
再说说高端产品。卖价120美元的Adonit Jot Touch是目前为止我测试过的最贵的一支电容笔。另外和大多数我测试的其它产品一样，它的“三围”也比较丰满，有点像一支大号的Sharpie牌签字笔，它有两个按钮，你可以把拇指方在上面。像Pencil一样，这支笔通过软件来促进与iPad的交互。根据你的偏好，这两个按钮可以进行指定的操作。在我的评测过程中，我把下面那个按钮设置为“撤消”功能，把上面那个按钮设置为“恢复”功能（没办法，我写作时爱犹豫）。虽然这支电容笔比传统钢笔要粗上一圈，但它的“像素点”端却没那么粗，而且我发现它很适合长时间写作。
The world of styluses is surprisingly large, and I in no way claim to have tested every size, shape, or type available on the market. (In Best Buy alone, there was a four-foot section of them.) I evaluated the implements above on the advice of readers and personal research, using the Noteshelf app as my digital paper of choice. (Which, I should note, explicitly supports the Pencil and Jot Touch.)
电容笔已经成了一个大得惊人的产业，而且我也绝不敢声称我把市面上的每一种规格、型号、外观的电容笔都测试了。（光是在百思买超市里，就有四英尺长的一排货架是卖电容笔的。）我根据读者的建议和个人的搜索评测了上述几款产品，搭配的书写应用软件是Noteshelf。（务必要指出的是，它对Pencil和Jot Touch支持得特别好。）
After a week of staring at my embarrassing penmanship—at times laughing at the fact that it could actually get worse than what’s already become of it in this keyboard-first world we live in—I came to an obvious conclusion. The Jot Touch, with help from Noteshelf, is the iPad stylus that best replicates the pen and paper experience so many covet.
我连续看了一个星期我那令人尴尬的书法，好几次苦笑着承认一个事实：在这个以键盘为主的世界，我们的字只会写得越来越难看。在这之后，我得出了一个明显的结论：Jot Touch电容笔在NoteShelf软件的配合下，可以说是在iPad上模拟传统纸笔体验最出色的电容笔。
But a facsimile is not the real thing. If you’re looking for an intimate, creative, even romantic way to put pen to paper—well, you know what to do. Let the mind wander. Doodle in the margins. There’s a time to be efficient. This isn’t it.
但模拟得再像，毕竟也不是真的。如果你想要一种放松的、创造性的甚至是有格调的书写体验——你知道该怎么做。让思想游荡，让笔尖在白纸上涂鸦。有些时候我们必须追求效率，但是写作不能这样。