The Letterville BullBoard: WACOM drawing tablets....which size should I get and what do they Cost?

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Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :

Hi Heads,

I'm getting my nerve up to go WACOM, and I'm afraid their small tablet will be to small to work with, and anything larger might be too costly.

What do they cost? How easy are they to work with? Can I do great art work on a small tablet or do I need a big one? ( I guess I'm thinking in terms of a piece of paper or canvas where the largest sheet means you can draw the greatest amount of tiny detail...and I suppose that is the wrong way to think since you probably can zoom in on a tiny area and do detail work.

(Can any of you point me in the right direction or pros / cons?

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Draper The Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA
Stop in and visit a while!
309-828-7110
signman@davesworld.net
Raptorman or Draper_Dave on mIRC chat

Posted by Robert Beverly (Member # 1907) on :

Dave

I have aquired both large tablets and small and without hesitation, I would suggest a smaller tablet...say 6 x 6 wacom for 100.00 because the large tablets have you going all over the screen.You would be tired before it is all said and done...The tablet reflects the screen size of the computer and when doing fine detail work you normally magnify in when doing that detail therefore the justification. I have become so use to the small that it is and has replaced my mouse for the most part.

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Posted by Brian Stoddard (Member # 39) on :

Hi Dave, My wonderful wife just bought me a Wacom Tablet for Christmas. I dont know how I lived with out this thing! I have a 9" x 12" and I sont think I would want to go any smaller than that. I use it for my my mouse as well to do everything, I have not touched the mouse in weeks. It also comes with a cordless 4d mouse that is very programmable. It works with the pressure tool in Corel. And is perfect for Photoshop. It also came with a light version of PaintClassic or something like that, made by a company who was bought by Corel. I am thinking about upgrading it since it such a nice app for just doodling and painting. Good stuff!

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Brian Stoddard
Expressions Signs
A few puddles east of Seattle

Posted by Henry Barker (Member # 174) on :

Dave,

I am also interested in other peoples thoughts on Wacom boards, I know they have a new series out called the Intuos in A6-A3 from about A6 $150 & A4 $350 over here it must be cheaper in the US of course I have an old Gerber GDS2 Digitizing station connected into my GA software in the PC but that's a crosshair mouse I have no pen and its too old for a replacement pen, that might be something for you to look into also Dave, I used to have an old Apple 2 computer to run the GDS but after getting a PC, years ago, I hooked it up here.

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Henry Barker #1924
akaKaftan
SignCraft AB
Stockholm, Sweden.
A little bit of England in a corner of Stockholm
www.signcraft.se
info@signcraft.se

Posted by Larry Elliott (Member # 263) on :

Dave,
We have a Wacom 4x5 a 9x12 and an old Kurta 12x17, the Kurta has been my favorite for over 12 years but the Wacom 9x12 is now more 'compatible' with the newer programs. It comes with a cordless pen and a cordless 'mouse', is pressure sensitive (pen) and works well. As for getting more detail from a larger tablet, no, they both operate at 2540 LPI and you can zoom in with the design software the same. I do like the freedom of movement with the larger tablet especially when sketching in a paint program. You can set up different configurations that can be called up with a single click for different functions and features within different programs. Way better than a regular mouse but still not the real feel of pen on paper because your still looking at a monitor while your hand is on another plane. Someday when the new 'monitor/tablets' come down in price thats what I'll have. Imagine being able to go back to eye-hand coordination,,, WOW!
Costs:
4x5 around $100/$120 (US discount catalog)
9x12 around $400/$450 (US discount catalog)

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Larry

Elliott Design
McLemoresville, Tn.

If you can't find the time to do it right,
where gonna find the time to do it over?

Posted by Mark Smith (Member # 298) on :

I have a Wacom Graphire 4"x5" and I think the earlier comment about magnification really applies. I like it a lot and have never wished for a larger area!

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Mark Smith
Ampersand Signs & Design
EstiMate Sign Estimating Software
www.ampweb.com/estimate
1-888-304-3300
Hailing from beautiful Asheville, N.C.

Posted by Tim (Member # 1699) on :

I have recently purchased the wacom graphire 4x5 and find it fantastic. I'm not quite comfortable with the pen yet, its a bit fat for my liking, but I probably just need more time with it. It also came with a cordless mouse, but I think as others have mentioned your mouse will not be getting much use. I found mine for $120 canadian, so it must be under $100 in the US. Try it, you'll like it......

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Tim Rieck Signs
Halfmoon Bay, BC
tim_rieck@dccnet.com

Posted by Bob Darnell (Member # 27) on :

Hi Dave,

I bought a 12" x 12" tablet for Christmas and have been really happy with it. I went with 12" x 12" instead of 12" x 18" based on opinions here on the bulletin board. (and the price) It's the perfect size for me, and you can also split the larger tablets into two sections, where a small portion of one corner lets you zip around quickly while the remainder functions normally.

I don't want to be accused of advertising, but I bought mine through the Canadian side of www.onvia.com . There is a U.S. side as well that comes up be default. It was certainly the best price I could find here in Canada, and my purchase had free shipping. It's worth looking into - it saved me $150 Canadian from the place I was going to buy from. I ordered it quite late Friday afternoon close to Christmas and it arrived the next Tuesday morning. I don't want to be held reponsible for a third party web business, but I wouldn't hesitate to "shop" there again.

I'm sure you'll love whatever one you get. After using it for 10 or 15 minutes, I couldn't help but feeling REALLY stupid for not having one earlier. It puts a lot (not all) of the tactile feel back into design, which as most of us agree, is very welcome. I'm not exactly the world's best hand-letterer, but I've been creating some fairly impressive script lettering with a lot of bounce quite easily. I would like to see a real hand letterer use it.

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Bob Darnell
London, Ontario, Canada
_______________________

Personal portfolio: www.members.home.net/bob.darnell
Where I work: Excellent Signs and Displays Inc.
_______________________

Posted by Mike Pipes [in a cubicle] (Member # 1841) on :

I have one of Wacom's Intuos tablets, the 6x8 size and I dont think I would want anything bigger.

I'm into efficiency and the larger ya get, the less inefficient because ya gotta move yer whole arm to get across the tablet.

The 6x8 is the perfect size (for me at least)... less arm movement.. plus its the same overall size as a laptop computer so if you have some extra room in your laptop bag, this tablet will fit right in there.

I highly recommend the Intuos line though, the drivers and programmability are simply astounding. You can have different settings for all your favorite programs.. say if you use CorelDRAW, you can disable the pressure sensitivity since it doesnt have any effect in a vector graphics program. IT has customizable menus right on the tablet, and each program can have a different menu set.

The pen with the eraser is cool too.. you can draw with the pen tip and if ya mess up, just flip the pen around and use the eraser end to erase..no need to select the eraser tool in your graphics program.

The tablet also senses if the pen is tilting so you can get even better realism with airbrush and paintbrush tools.

Intuos also supports using a pen and mouse on the tablet SIMULTANEOUSLY. Really cool for painting on 3D objects in 3D Graphics/Animation software, but that's not the only use for it! =)

The price tag on a 6x8 Intuos is about $350US, but the programmability and efficiency available with help from the drivers is worth that much money alone.

Web browsing and photo editing is nice and comfortable with the tablet too.. put the tablet in yer lap, put the feet up on the desk, lean back and relax..

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Mike Pipes
-----trapped in a box with a computer and a slice of cheese-----

Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :

Dave

I have two Wacom tablets. I have a 12 by 12 which I love and use all the time, even when I am on the road with my laptop. I also have a 5 by 6 which I bought to use with my laptop and do not like at all.

-dan

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Dan Sawatzky
Sawatzky's Imagination Corporation
Cultus Lake , British Columbia
dan@imaginationcorporation.ca

www.imaginationcorporation.ca www.giggleridge.com

"Isn't it great to do what you love and love what you do!"

[This message has been edited by Dan Sawatzky (edited January 12, 2001).]

Posted by Sarah Clark (Member # 413) on :

Onvia was just bought out by another company and have already raised prices and are charging shipping. Lots of complaints on them now in some newsgroups.

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Posted by Bob Darnell (Member # 27) on :

Ya, maybe you're right, Sarah. I just checked Onvia - I bought my tablet for $628 Canadian and it's on there now for $770. Yikes. Although it could be just a different distributor there charges a higher price since it is a small business exchange.

Usually I buy something and then see it on sale much cheaper a week later. It kind of feels good to see it the other way around for a change.

Posted by Bob Rochon (Member # 30) on :

Dave,

I had these same questions about 4 months ago. I wanted as big as of a tablet as I could get, but didn't really want to shell out 3 or 400.0o on a tablet not knowing if I would like it or even use it that often. So I purchased a Graphire 4x5 with the pen and mouse. It has only 512 levels of pressure sensitivity, versus the 1024 of the larger tablets, but I found mine on the web for 74.00 at computers4sure.com US. money.

I love this thing and like others above said you'll never want to use a mouse again. The small size is not even an issue, the size of the tablet equals the size of the screen no matter what size you get.

I will state that if you want to trace a design into the computer, & the design is bigger than the tablet, then it does become a problem, you'd have to section off your drawing & do it in sections. that is probably the main reason I would get a larger size.

But at $74.00 the Graphire is an awesome way to get familiar with tablets, then if you upgrade to a larger and a higher levels of pressure tablet, then the graphire would make a great mouse replacement.

Just my opinion.

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Bob Rochon
Creative Signworks
Millbury, MA
bob@creativesignworks.com

"Some people's kids"

Posted by Greg Stamps (Member # 1777) on :

The Sam's Club in our area is selling the Graphire for $79. Decent deal if you consider shipping charges from online purchase.

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Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :

With these tablets, can you put a piece of paper over the tablet and use the pen to trace over a drawing?

Any of you that have more than one tablet....DAN....and might want to sell the excess tablet, please contact me or put it on the auction page, with some description of the limitations of the product.

I'm appreciative of the education I'm getting here about the comparison of the different tablets. Thanks

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The SignShop
Mendocino, California
"Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"

Oh, for the faith of a spider! He begins his web without any thread.

Posted by Mike Pipes [in a cubicle] (Member # 1841) on :

Rick,

Im not sure about the graphire tablets, but Wacom's Intuos models have a clear overlay on the drawing surface that allows you to place artwork underneath and trace it, while allowing the pen to slide effortlessly. =)

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Mike Pipes
-----trapped in a box with a computer and a slice of cheese-----

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