Stylus

Different styluses were used to write in cuneiform by pressing into wet clay, and to scribe or carve into a wax tablet.

Cuneiform was entirely based on the "wedge-shaped" mark that the end of a cut reed made when pushed into a clay tablet; from Latin cuneus 'wedge'.

The linear writings of Crete in the first half of the second millennium BC which were made on clay tablets that were left to dry in the sun until they became "leather-hard" before being incised by the stylus.

Styluses are still used in various arts and crafts, for example in: rubbing off dry transfer letters, tracing designs onto a new surface with carbon paper, and hand embossing.

Modern day devices, such as phones, can often be used with a stylus to accurately navigate through menus, send messages etc.

Today, the term stylus often refers to an input tool usually used with touchscreen-enabled devices, such as Tablet PCs, to accurately navigate interface elements, send messages, etc.

An active stylus includes electronic components that communicate with a device's touchscreen controller, or digitizer.

Since many modern tablets make use of multi-touch recognition, some stylus and app manufactures have created palm rejection technologies into their products.

This works to turn off the multi-touch feature allowing the palm to rest on the tablet while still recognizing the stylus.