If you were a Palm OS fan, you were probably a whiz with Graffiti, the shorthand text input system. In college I took all my notes on my Palm M100, and I used Graffiti so much my pen and paper notes were in an unholy mix of print scrawl and Graffiti. So when I saw this morning that Access had released Graffiti (the famous, original, pre-lawsuit with Xerox version) for Android, I practically danced in my cubicle.
It is everything I had hoped it would be and more! I was very skeptical at first, since Graffiti is so stylus-based, but it works beautifully with a fingertip. Access deserves a great deal of praise for how well it responds. Even with your whole finger pad mashed down, the accuracy is excellent. It even has the shortcut that brings up a “cheat sheet” when you swipe straight up! This is a full-on input replacement, so you can select it in settings and long-press in any input window to swap between the stock Android Keyboard and Graffiti.
While it’s been almost 4 years since I’ve had a Palm OS device with a graffiti area at all, and probably close to 6 years since I’ve had one with Graffiti 1, it came flooding back immediately. Within a few minutes I was slamming out short messages with no problem, and for me it’s definitely faster than the onscreen Android keyboard. Swype is probably faster for longer text input, but Graffiti is great for unusual words, which is where Swype really trips up often. And since I am in the habit of popping out the Droid keyboard for anything more than a few sentences, Graffiti is perfect for quick on-screen typing.
If you’ve never really been a Palm OS fan, you may not warm up to Graffiti; what was once a key and useful shorthand has been pretty well replaced with accurate soft keyboards and auto-correct. But if you “grew up” in the PDA world with a stylus practically glued to your fingertips, and with most of your handwritten notes sporting half-formed “A”s and curlicued “y”s, this is going to make your day!
Graffiti for Android is FREE and available in the Android Marketplace. You can scan the QR code below and head right to the listing on your Android phone.
What I Like: Graffiti! Best input method ever!; Fast; Doesn’t slow down the phone or input screens
What Needs Improvement: No autocorrect or spell check
