Recommendations on Graphic Tablets-?

In news:BuZzY typed:

Hello–

I’m about to make the move and get a tablet–the only brand I’m aware of is Wacom; unsure about which size to get, etc.

What’s the favorite among Pho’shop users-? Any to avoid-? Any known conflicts with mac G4 /933 mz / machines, and is memory an issue with tablets-? Is the use of a stylus an advantage with Illustrator-?
Money’s tight; I wanna get the right tablet–

I would suggest to go try them then. I have a Graphire3 and the size is perfect for my needs but my needs are limited; Also, the pen feel a bit cheap (it’s too light), altough I’ve never had any problem with it, and I have to put a piece of paper on top of the drawing area when drawing because I don’t like the feel of it. Intuos line give you tilt control, a much better pen and a general quality feel and look, at a price premium of course. Most peoples I know who use bigger Intuos map the screen to a smaller area of the pad otherwise it induce too much arm movement; the advantage is that if they need the bigger area for, as an exemple, tracing something, it’s there. As far as Illustrator goes, I’ve never used my tablet in it; I find the pick points already too small and volatile as it is with a mouse, trying to use the pen would drive me to insanity 🙂

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In article <cfpgqj$ says…

Hello–

I’m about to make the move and get a tablet–the only brand I’m aware of is Wacom; unsure about which size to get, etc.

What’s the favorite among Pho’shop users-? Any to avoid-? Any known conflicts with mac G4 /933 mz / machines, and is memory an issue with tablets-? Is the use of a stylus an advantage with Illustrator-?
Money’s tight; I wanna get the right tablet–

Thanks,

BuZzY

I’ve used Wacom for about 12 years and love the mid-large (9×12+/-) sizes. I’ve 2 ARTZII’s still in use and even use the 4×6 (?) little guy sometimes, though greatly prefer my 12×12. The IntuosI had some major RF problems when close to my 21" monitors. I tried all sorts of shielding, but nothing helped. I had the monitors teetering on the back edge of the desk, with the pad as far forward and away, as was possible, but the cursor still jittered too much. IntuosII fixed all that, and the I is now on my laptop. Because of this, I’d shy away from I’s and look to the II’s, unless you have lots of real estate on your desk.

Don’t know MAC’s but have used many of my tablets with some old Win machines (state o’ the art way back when they were new, but laughable now) with no problems with any machine/tablet combination, so I think your MAC will not miss a beat.

I use the large pads full and suffer no problems. I love the precision that they allow in PS. Actually, for AI, I use the mouse more than the tablet, because I’m trying to nab a tiny handle, usually, and a good mouse suits me better. Along those lines, I like my MS mice better than the Wacom ones, but have not even taken my 4-D out of its box for the IntuosII, so I can’t comment on it.

If you like a pad in your lap, you might want one of the smaller ones. Here, it becomes totally personal preference.

Just my $0.02 (US, in this case)
Hunt

Hunt wrote:

In article <cfpgqj$ says…

Hello–

I’m about to make the move and get a tablet–the only brand I’m aware of is Wacom; unsure about which size to get, etc.

What’s the favorite among Pho’shop users-? Any to avoid-? Any known conflicts with mac G4 /933 mz / machines, and is memory an issue with tablets-? Is the use of a stylus an advantage with Illustrator-?
Money’s tight; I wanna get the right tablet–

Thanks,

BuZzY

I’ve used Wacom for about 12 years and love the mid-large (9×12+/-) sizes. I’ve 2 ARTZII’s still in use and even use the 4×6 (?) little guy sometimes, though greatly prefer my 12×12. The IntuosI had some major RF problems when close to my 21" monitors. I tried all sorts of shielding, but nothing helped. I had the monitors teetering on the back edge of the desk, with the pad as far forward and away, as was possible, but the cursor still jittered too much. IntuosII fixed all that, and the I is now on my laptop. Because of this, I’d shy away from I’s and look to the II’s, unless you have lots of real estate on your desk.

Don’t know MAC’s but have used many of my tablets with some old Win machines (state o’ the art way back when they were new, but laughable now) with no problems with any machine/tablet combination, so I think your MAC will not miss a beat.

I use the large pads full and suffer no problems. I love the precision that they allow in PS. Actually, for AI, I use the mouse more than the tablet, because I’m trying to nab a tiny handle, usually, and a good mouse suits me better. Along those lines, I like my MS mice better than the Wacom ones, but have not even taken my 4-D out of its box for the IntuosII, so I can’t comment on it.

If you like a pad in your lap, you might want one of the smaller ones. Here, it becomes totally personal preference.

Just my $0.02 (US, in this case)

I’ve used the entry level Wacom for 3-4 years on my G-3 under OS 9 and osX, and with my G-4 under both, and never had a problem with Wacom drivers. Restarts, tho, require my unplugging and replugging the USB cord to activate it.

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John McWilliams

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 00:31:24 -0500, BuZzY
wrote:

Hello–

I’m about to make the move and get a tablet–the only brand I’m aware of is Wacom; unsure about which size to get, etc.

What’s the favorite among Pho’shop users-? Any to avoid-? Any known conflicts with mac G4 /933 mz / machines, and is memory an issue with tablets-? Is the use of a stylus an advantage with Illustrator-?
Money’s tight; I wanna get the right tablet–

Thanks,

I’ve used the old Artpad II for years at A6 size. That was fine (It’s equivalent is the Graphire 3). I also had an A5 Intuous, but have just moved to an A4 Intuos2 (which I got as a used model direct from Wacom and saved a large amount of money <g>).

Unless you do a lot of architectural work, CAD and so forth, you probably don’t need anything larger than an A5 tablet, and an A6 is perfectly adequate. The only reason I moved to an A4 was because of my increasing use of Painter and the larger size does make a difference. Anything larger than that and you’re having to make a lot of arm movements to get anything done.

There’s no reason why an Wacom product shouldn’t work perfectly happily to a Mac. If you want to save money go to the Wacom site and see what they have used. They are usually demo models and are as good as new when purchased with full guarantee.

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