Questions about WideScreen monitors & WACOM tablets

The pixels are still square on a widescreen monitor

Edit: assuming you set them to the correct resolution of course…

The Wacom (whichever model) maps its active surface area to the screen you are using by default. You do not need a wide Wacom to use a widescreen monitor. Your strokes will appear absolutely the same regardless.

what are the cons of buying a widescreen monitor(apart from price)?<<

You may have to change your video card to one that supports the native resolution of the monitor on a DVI output.

I use a Wacom tablet with a wide screen monitor so I can answer some of your questions.

1. Does images on widescreen monitors only appear ‘stretched’ when u set it to fill screen?

2. At normal times, the images are mapped by pixel basis, so a widescreen monitor will not affect the correct ratio of photos?

The answer to 1 and 2 is really the same. Using fullscreen mode doesn’t make a difference as to stretching. Your display resolution determines whether you have stretching. You need to set your screen display size to match the resolution of your monitor. If you do that, you will not get stretching and the aspect ratio of your photos will be unchanged. And remember, for LCD monitors you want to use the native resolution for best results.

3. im thinking whether to buy the WACOM intuos3 6×11(wide) or 9×12. If 9×12 isn’t made for widescreens and i use it with a wide screen monitor.
3.1 what are the consequences?

3.2 will it cause my strokes to appear more horizontal as VS a normal monitor? since the tablet work area would be mapped to the monitor’s resolution

3.3 can i restrict the tablet’s work area to say only a portion of the screen(i will navigate the remaining portion with my mouse)

3.1 and 3.2 are basically the same thing. And 3.3 is a subset so I’ll answer them together.

Yes, you can use any size tablet with any size monitor regardless of aspect ratio. I’m currently using a 1.25:1 aspect ratio tablet with a 1.6:1 monitor, for example (I originally bought the tablet when I had a standard monitor).

The tablet driver controls the screen to tablet mapping. The default is to map the height and width of the screen to the height and width of the tablet. If the aspect ratios of the two are different, you will get distortion. On mine, with default mapping, a circle traced on the tablet will become an ellipse on the screen. You can easily change this through the tablet driver controls.

The driver lets you define the portion of the screen to be mapped and the portion of the tablet to be mapped. So, yes, you can restrict the tablets work area to a portion of the screen. If you set the driver so you map areas that have the same aspect ratio for both screen and tablet, you will retain your relationships and there will be no distortion on your strokes.

4. Are there any advantages of using a 6 x 11 (wide) for wide screen monitors as compared to 9 x 12? im mostly doing character illustations, digital painting & photo-editing.

It depends on your personal preferences and work habits. The size you need is very dependent on what you will be doing with it and how you are used to working when you draw. I prefer a small tablet because I can cover the entire screen with minimal hand motions. I don’t like to make large sweeping movements and I don’t need to trace documents. If you are used to drawing on a larger surface, a bigger tablet will feel more natural. How big depends on what you feel comfortable with (or, if tracing documents, how big the document is).

You should get a table that has an aspect ratio that comes close to that of the screen area you will be mapping. If you don’t, you can still use the tablet but you will need to restrict a portion of the screen or tablet if linearity is important to you.

The 6×11 tablet has an aspect ratio of 1.83:1 which is wider than many widescreen monitors. The 9×12 has an aspect ratio of 1.25:1 which is narrower than the typical wide screen. If you use default mapping, you will get distortion with each — the 6×11 will squeeze while the 9×12 will stretch. You will need to adjust the mapping for either to maintain linearity.

5. what are the cons of buying a widescreen monitor(apart from price)?

Other than price, the biggest disadvantage is that you will need to get a bigger screen than you would ordinarily think you would need in order to preserve the height of the display. Like television sets, the size of a monitor refers to the diagonal measurement. You will need to step up to a larger size in order to maintain the height. Height makes a bigger differance on how the monitor is perceived than you might think. I know a number of people you returned their wide screen monitors and went back to a standard monitor because the height was smaller than they were used to and didn’t want to spend the extra money to get a larger widescreen.

You also will need to make sure your video card supports the required resolution.

Also, Wacom now has a small wide screen tablet for such monitors.

R

wrote in message

Hi,

i’m new to widescreen monitors so i have some questions about it:.
1. Does images on widescreen monitors only appear ‘stretched’ when u set it to fill screen?

2. At normal times, the images are mapped by pixel basis, so a widescreen monitor will not affect the correct ratio of photos?

3. im thinking whether to buy the WACOM intuos3 6×11(wide) or 9×12. If 9×12 isn’t made for widescreens and i use it with a wide screen monitor.
3.1 what are the consequences?

3.2 will it cause my strokes to appear more horizontal as VS a normal monitor? since the tablet work area would be mapped to the monitor’s resolution

3.3 can i restrict the tablet’s work area to say only a portion of the screen(i will navigate the remaining portion with my mouse)
4. Are there any advantages of using a 6 x 11 (wide) for wide screen monitors as compared to 9 x 12? im mostly doing character illustations, digital painting & photo-editing.

5. what are the cons of buying a widescreen monitor(apart from price)?
Thanks

While we’re talking tablets and screens, does anyone have experience with a tablet and two monitors?

How do you map the tablet to both screens? (Can it even be done?)

Mine just "did it" from the first time I loaded the Wacom driver.

I didn’t have to do a thing.

The cursor just slides from one screen to the other and you can drag application windows across in the same way.

And I only have the small tablet.

thank u all for the replies.

To RobertHJones:

1. If i were to restrict the tablet’s work area to a portion of the screen, does it also mean i won’t be able to use the wacom mouse to navigate that area? so that unmapped portion is only accessible by my normal mouse?

2. Is the aspect ratio of the monitor calculated by the Resolution settings or the hardware constraints of the monitor screen? How did you calculate the aspect ratio of the tablet ‘The 9×12 has an aspect ratio of 1.25:1’ i calculated the dimensions 12/9 & got 1.33:1

3. your current ‘1.25:1 aspect ratio tablet with a 1.6:1 monitor’, is the distortion quite visible?

To all:
1 . do you people have any experience with the airbrush pen accessory? does the airbrush tool in the PS,painter setting suffice for most cases, or is the airbrush pen very useful and maybe even quite necessary?

Yah, works just fine. The mouse is a mouse and the pen is a pen. Moves between them just fine.

Robert

1. If i were to restrict the tablet’s work area to a portion of the
screen, does it also mean i won’t be able to use the wacom mouse to navigate that area? so that unmapped portion is only accessible by my normal mouse?

That is correct.

You can use either the Wacom mouse or the normal mouse and switch between them as desired. Just don’t leave the pen or the Wacom mouse on the active tablet area when you are using the normal mouse, it will interfere.

If you want the full screen accessible so you can use the Wacom mouse everywhere and yet have no distortion in the mapping, you can set the driver to use the full screen area and set the tablet area to use a smaller area that has the same aspect ratio as the screen. The trade off is that a portion of the tablet area will not be usable.

2. Is the aspect ratio of the monitor calculated by the Resolution settings or the hardware constraints of the monitor screen? How did you calculate the aspect ratio of the tablet ‘The 9×12 has an aspect ratio of
1.25:1′ i calculated the dimensions 12/9 & got 1.33:1

LCDs display images using a fixed grid of cells built into the monitor. The arrangement and number of these cells define the monitor’s native hardware resolution and aspect ratio. Everything that gets displayed on an LCD monitor has to eventually be mapped to this grid of cells.

The display resolution that your computer and applications see is determined by the resolution that you enter into your computer’s display properties settings. That may or may not match the hardware resolution of the LCD monitor. If your setting exactly matches the native monitor hardware resolution, the image does not have to be resized to fit the monitor. If it doesn’t match the hardware resolution, the image will typically be scaled to match the monitor hardware resolution and this will introduce distortion.

1.33:1 is correct. I made a mistake and wrote down the wrong number for the 9×12 and didn’t catch the error.

3. your current ‘1.25:1 aspect ratio tablet with a 1.6:1 monitor’, is the distortion quite visible?

Yes and No. If I place artwork over the tablet and trace the artwork, the distortion is clearly visible — especially if it contains circular objects. However, I find that when I am drawing freehand, looking at the screen as I draw, my hand/eye coordination compensates — I draw round circles and the lines go where I want. I don’t recall it taking all that long to get used to and it hasn’t been a problem — I almost never do tracing. Currently, I’m using the default mapping and a conventional mouse and I’ve been quite satisfied.

I have not used the airbrush pen.

I’m confused! I recently purchased a 22" widescreen LCD monitor and am getting that "stretched" look on my desktop as well as in Adobe PhotoShop CS2. The settings’ recommended screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 pixels…which looks fine to me (Control Panel…Display…Settings). My choices for Desktop (Control Panel…Display…Desktop) is stretch, tile and center. Tile and Center don’t look correct at all! Stretch encompasses the entire image, only stretching it. The other two cut off the desktop image. What am I doing incorrectly? How can I get my images to appear the right dimensions?
Thanks!

IME, setting the resolution for an LCD means dragging the resolution slider all the way to the right.

What’s the make and model?

Bob

Hi Bob. It’s a Samsung Syncmaster 225BW with MagicTune 3.6 (which is supposed to allow me to readjust anything but gamma since my CPU won’t allow for it). You started your response with IME. What’s that? And what slider are you referring to?
Thank you,
Cara

In my experience.

The slider is the screen resolution slider found under the display properties>settings tab.

A quick google for that monitor shows the resolution should be set to 1680×1050.

Bob

5 choices for screen resolution: 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024 (mine), 1600 x 1200, and 1920 x 1440. Bits:16 or 32 (mine). But even if I change resolution, it only changes the size of the desktop icons, and doesn’t "unstretch" the image on the desktop…
Cara

Sounds like your video card (what card is it?) doesn’t support widescreen monitors.

Bob

Stretching the image on the Windows Desktop in Display Properties should not have any effect on images in applications like Photoshop.

It is just to make the wallpaper fit.

With the wrong resolution settings everything is going to be stretched. Based on the info she’s provided I’d say she needs a new video card.

Bob

Suggestions?

oh…joy. I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before. Should I take out the video card, check to see what kind it is, then call a local tech supply place and ask what kind I need? That’s the only thing that makes sense to me at the moment.
Cara

Start>Control Panel(classic view)>System>Hardwar>Device Manager.

What do you have under display adapters?

Bob

wrote:

I’m confused! I recently purchased a 22" widescreen LCD monitor and am getting that "stretched" look on my desktop as well as in Adobe PhotoShop CS2. The settings’ recommended screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 pixels…which looks fine to me (Control Panel…Display…Settings). My choices for Desktop (Control Panel…Display…Desktop) is stretch, tile and center. Tile and Center don’t look correct at all! Stretch encompasses the entire image, only stretching it. The other two cut off the desktop image. What am I doing incorrectly? How can I get my images to appear the right dimensions?
Thanks!

1280 x 1024 is for a regular 4:3 ratio monitor, not a wide screen 16:9 ratio.
That’s why your images are distorted.
You need to set it at 1680 x 1050.
Frank

Just got off the phone with my local computer techie guy. He said it sounds as tho it’s the video card…just like you said! I’m taking it in tomorrow a.m. to see what can be done. You’re a genius! Thank you,
Cara

BTW: It’s an Intel graphics controller.
Wish me luck!
Cara

That means there is no video card. It’s onboard video.

Bob

wrote:

BTW: It’s an Intel graphics controller.
Wish me luck!
Cara

It’s on board video which means it’s built into the mother board and is not psychically removable. You don’t have a separate video card. Hope your mother board has either an AGP or PCI slot where you can install one. Frank

Intel releases graphics driver updates occasionally, but not as often as nVidia or ATI. You definitely want to get the display driver updated (if not have a separate graphics card installed, which I would highly recommend if you are using Photoshop, which can make good use of the memory this will free up) so that you can set your display driver to the display’s native resolution.

Once you have done that, you can make up a new version of the desktop background that is 1680 x 1050 pixels, which will display properly under any of the checkbox options, since it is the same as the display resolution.

Turns out that my video card is an older version (let’s face it…anything that is 6 months old now-days is old!). Anyway, I’m getting a new card that is not only up-to-date, but also allows for 2 monitors!
Thank you,
Cara

wrote:

Turns out that my video card is an older version (let’s face it…anything that is 6 months old now-days is old!). Anyway, I’m getting a new card that is not only up-to-date, but also allows for 2 monitors!
Thank you,
Cara

Well, be sure and load the correct drivers for your monitor. Frank