PEN TABLET: Who uses one?

[BeautyNut]

My school just received the Wacom Intuos 4 small pen tablets.

I wanted to ask:

How many here actually use a pen tablet for design work?

If so, how often -and- do you find it actually more helpful than a mouse?

I think the pen tablet is super neat, and I'd love to have one day. I think that it would be extremely helpful for PS and AI programs.

Thank you very much.
:)

Intuos 4

http://www.wacom.com/intuos/small.php (http://www.wacom.com/intuos/small.php)

[budafist]

I find the pen useful for Photoshop work. Not so much for Illy or Indesign stuff as I find it's easier to do points with a mouse as a pen isn't as steady as a bar of soap. ;)

It's a good idea to switch between both pen and mouse during the day to vary your position so that you run less risk of work related injuries.

[Syphon]

I have a Wacom Bamboo Fun Medium.

I bought it back in Fall 2008 to make use of the tablet features only in PS and Ill CS4. I don't use it as much as I wish, but I'm trying. I believe I would use it more if I had one at work where I do majority of my work.

I does feel strange using a pen tablet, but the more you use it the less strange it feels. And yes, it is more helpful than a mouse.

[WannaBrie]

I have a graphire that I use almost exclusively.

[BeautyNut]

Yes, IT DOES feel strange!

I used it for a few minutes today. :eek:
Definitely need some practice to get use to it.

:p

Syphon,
Yes, you do need one at work.
You can't get one at work or transport from home -or- too much trouble?

[Callendale]

Hi BeautyNut!
Have you checked out The Art of Wacom thread? It's near the top of the General Design section. There's some neat artwork in there - all done with Wacom tablets/pens.

[Red Kittie Kat]

Nope not all ... mine are with the Digi Pro tablet ;)

[Callendale]

Haven't heard of Digi Pro (just looked it up). Do you mind having a battery in the pen or is it no big deal? I've got a Wacom Graphire (had it for years), and was thinking about getting an Intuos while my better half is in school (discount!). But he surprised me with a Vistablet - after all, they're all the same, aren't they!!! It's still in the box a year later. One of these days I'll try it out, but it's so darn big, I'll have to clean my desk off to use it.
And Kitty - nice painting with your Digi Pro.

[Wiggles]

My day job has been providing all the graphic designers with Wacom tablets for years, I got addicted and had to buy one for home too. It's weird though, I am naturally left-handed with a pen (and Wacom pen), but right-handed for mousing - so I had to relearn all the keyboard shortcuts with my other hand when I switched to the Wacom. But I find the Wacom to be quicker to use in general than a mouse is (and i no longer have a mouse connected at all, i use the wacom exclusively). Also, the tablet impresses the pants off clients who have no idea about these fangled contraptions!!!

[kfh_king]

well i have used one in the past and i am hoping to get one soon! they are useful for any kind of art i think ether in photoshop or illustrator. i guy with every one here once you use it your addicted.

[Ned]

I use a tablet and it's all I use, all day long. I have a couple of them. At the moment I have one attached to the laptop and one attached to the Mac at the office. My poor PC is the only one stuck with a mouse, but it's so slow it doesn't matter much anyways. ;)

[Red Kittie Kat]

Thanks Callendale ;)

... and no I don't mind at all ... I've had it for 5 years and haven't had to replace the battery yet :p

[Broacher]

^ That's like my vibrator!

Okay... so who's up for some shared doodling?

http://www.twiddla.com/122098

[Typically]

TMI borahcer :D i have an intuos 2 and its still kickin. def fun to use once you get used to it

[Cre8tivDirector]

A tip I got from someone when I bought my first tablet a few years ago was to put the mouse away. Seriously - unplug it and put it in a drawer and promise yourself you won't bring it back out for at least a week. You'll fight and struggle and be slow for a few days but after that week - you'll feel just as comfortable and confident with the tablet as you do the mouse - and then once you're comfy again - you can bring your mouse out and introduce the two to eachother. :) Bliss usually ensues.

[BeautyNut]

That is great advice - tough- but good!
Makes plenty of sense.

I'd love to buy me one in the future.

[Syphon]

Yes, IT DOES feel strange!

I used it for a few minutes today. :eek:
Definitely need some practice to get use to it.

:p

Syphon,
Yes, you do need one at work.
You can't get one at work or transport from home -or- too much trouble?

BeautyNut--
The printshop has a budget which doesn't include tablets for prepress. And knowing me, if I take my tablet to work I mostly will forget about it and leave it there when I need it at home.:p

And sorry for the late response, I have been working hard so I can take next week off.

[BeautyNut]

Syphon,
I do understand.

Budgets can definitely limit certain items, and I would forget it too when I needed it at home, and then probably never remember it for the next 5 years. ;)
Ok, maybe not that long, but I do understand. ;)

No problem about the late response.
I hope you have an awesome - RELAXING- week off next week!
:)

[Ned]

BeautyNut--
The printshop has a budget which doesn't include tablets for prepress. And knowing me, if I take my tablet to work I mostly will forget about it and leave it there when I need it at home.:p

That's why I get extras so I can leave one at my contracts and not have to transport it back and forth every day. ;)

[Obsidian86]

I use a tablet all the time. I'm left handed, but use the mouse with my right hand, so I use the mouse and the tablet at the same time. The pen has 3 buttons on it that I set to common hotkeys so it doesn't interfere with my work flow. Once you get used to it, its hard to imagine being at a computer without one. I've been drawing every since I could remember, and was "interning" to become a tattoo artist for awhile, so it didn't take much time to adapt to it.

[BeautyNut]

I use a tablet all the time. I'm left handed, but use the mouse with my right hand, so I use the mouse and the tablet at the same time. The pen has 3 buttons on it that I set to common hotkeys so it doesn't interfere with my work flow. Once you get used to it, its hard to imagine being at a computer without one. I've been drawing every since I could remember, and was "interning" to become a tattoo artist for awhile, so it didn't take much time to adapt to it.

That's awesome.
I definitely admire tattoo artist, because I can hardly draw a stick man. ;)
Ok, I may have a little more talent than a stick man, but not much. LOL ;)

Thanks!

[Broacher]

There's something I like to say to all the bosses who throw 'budget' out as the reason why they can buy their work staff tablets. Think of this: how much would it cost you in lost production, or costs of hiring emergency staff or outsourcing the stuff, or lost goodwill for your customers if your highly skilled operators have to take a couple of weeks (or potentially much longer) off because of a round with CTS or a related condition? For a few hundred bucks per worker, you're protected.

And as computer hardware goes, I've found that tablets (particularly Wacom, I admit) are still one of the greatest deals out there. Basic maintenance and they're good to go longer than most of the OS's that they run in.

[pirate]

I have two tablets, one at work (Intuos 3) and one at home (Graphire 2) that I've had for about 6 years. Can't work without them.

[digizan]

Reviving another dead thread to add my $0.02.

I started off with a Graphire back in 2001, then moved up to an an Intuos 2 circa 2003. I loved it for retouching things in Photoshop, but never used it for much else. Okay, that's not really accurate—I did use the mouse a lot, but not the pen. Why? Because I hated having to put down the pen, type, pick it back up, put it down again, type...

Sadly, it got fried by static electricity a couple of years ago (naturally right after I spent close to $50 to replace the mouse), so I replaced it with a Bamboo. I seriously considered getting another Intuos, but just couldn't justify the expense considering how I basically used the last one as a really expensive mouse pad. :rolleyes:

Digi

[BeautyNut]

Reviving another dead thread to add my $0.02.


Please do. :)
Thank you.

[Leukeh]

I use a Wacom Graphire 3 when I'm drawing or doing some photo retouching or manipulation. Can't stand using it when I'm working in Illustrator though, gotta be using a mouse for that.

[Pix_Z]

I use a tablet when I am retouching, mouse for layout and Illy. When I am retouching I wonder how I ever got along without my tablet.

My work is cheap, so I had to provide my own. I happened upon a cheap tablet ($25 about 5 years ago) at a swap meet, off brand and got that. I thought it would probably perform horrible, but I haven't had any issues yet. I'm sure there are quality differences between it and Wacom, but my work probably doesn't need that fine a differentiation. And no, the battery doesn't need changing a lot. I leave it in the car and take it inside only when I'm doing retouching as I don't want anyone to think it's company equipment.

If you don't want to lay out the $ for Wacom and don't think you'll use it heavily, you can try getting an off brand from eBay. I got one that way, $60 for a medium-sized tablet.

[Red Kittie Kat]

Just my opinion .. but if you just want to have one to get used to using it and don't have the money for a wacom ... do what I did .. I have a digi pro .. it cost 30 bucks. There are much cheaper varieties other than Wacom.

I'm not knocking Wacom at all I would love to have one .. I just can't afford one yet .. so in the mean time I still wanted to get my feet wet ;)

You can see what I can do with it in the Art of the Wacom (http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25599)thread

(even though I don't have one) :p

[BeautyNut]

Red Kittie Kat,
Thank you.
I'm with you - not really able to afford the Wacom, but would like to have one.

I will check into some cheaper ones for now.

[polsart]

I have used the wacom tablets for many years, very usefull, infact i never use a mouse anymore even browsing the net etc. All artwork i create for web and print is produced using a wacom tablet.

http://www.polsart.co.uk/images/stories/services/largebook.pngThis was done using a wacom tablet and using adobe illustrator, currently used on my website homepage.

[Cmate]

is Bamboo good? The brand I mean...

[Leukeh]

When I first started looking, people were saying that the only brand worth looking at is Wacom. That was a few years ago now, so things might have changed.

[digizan]

is Bamboo good? The brand I mean...

Bamboo is made by Wacom. It's good. The main difference between it and the Intuous is the level of sensitvity and the ability of the tablet to sense the tilt of the pen. At least that's what the differences were—I just looked at the site and it seems that they've come out with a new Bamboo design and several different bundles.

Digi

[Syphon]

Cool!

Wacom has come out with a new line of Bamboo Fun tablets with Multi-Touch.:D

[Ned]

Bamboo is made by Wacom. It's good. The main difference between it and the Intuous is the level of sensitvity and the ability of the tablet to sense the tilt of the pen. At least that's what the differences were—I just looked at the site and it seems that they've come out with a new Bamboo design and several different bundles.

Digi

Yup, the Bamboo is currently the only model which offers the multi-touch finger pad usage along with pen usage. I have all kinds of Bamboo tablets, from the basic old pen tablet, the bamboo fun which works with the pen and mouse, and the newest bamboo which works with pen and finger touch. Of course the pen + touch is the best. The touch gestures are great for getting around the computer with, but the pen input is still necessary for "work work" particularly in Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, Indesign, or the likes. I had the touch-only tablet and got rid of it as soon as the store got stock in for the combo Pen + Touch tablets.

The Bamboo now comes in four basic models, the Touch Only and Pen Only, the Pen + Touch which combines both, and the Bamboo Fun which gives you Pen, Touch, and a mouse. Um... you don't need the mouse though, it's useless (as you'll find any mouse is after you start using a pen, lol). However, you do want to buy the Bamboo Fun if you want a larger tablet as it comes in the 6x7 Medium size as well as the 4x6 Small size which the other Bamboo tablets come in (Bamboo Small and Medium sizes correspond to the same sizes in the Intuos line as well, but Intuos has the Large and up besides).

Keep in mind that the pens from the new tablets are not compatible with the old pre-touch Bamboo pens. You can still raid your old pens for pen tips, though. ;) If you want to go cheap then you can still get the Pen only Bamboo tablets which aren't much different than the old ones except in design (though I think you lose the zoom wheel - the old ones had in a touch-button, and the new ones you do it on the tablet with your fingers). Don't bother with a Touch-Only if you want to use it for graphical applications though... but if you get one with both then bonus.