Tablet for Newbies

[ninjaferret]

Hello again everyone.

I've been using a mouse for my xara work for the last couple of years, and I'm considering upgrading to a tablet. Clearly you get what you pay for with these things, but since I'll be a first time user I'm wondering if a high end tablet would really offer me performance vs. cost value. Can anyone suggest a solid tablet set that would work with xara, for around $150? From my research I'm thinking maybe a small Wacom Graphire3...anyone had a good experience with that one? Thanks in advance,

Chris

Ninja Ferret Graphics

[ninjaferret]

Hello again everyone.

I've been using a mouse for my xara work for the last couple of years, and I'm considering upgrading to a tablet. Clearly you get what you pay for with these things, but since I'll be a first time user I'm wondering if a high end tablet would really offer me performance vs. cost value. Can anyone suggest a solid tablet set that would work with xara, for around $150? From my research I'm thinking maybe a small Wacom Graphire3...anyone had a good experience with that one? Thanks in advance,

Chris

Ninja Ferret Graphics

[gnurf]

I have a Wacom ArtZII (almost 10 years old today) and I'm still happy with. If I'm not mistaken you "upgrade" your Wacom pens to one that suits you better - that is what I did, the first pen I had had just one "mouse" button and now I have one with two buttons.

-Paul

[wW]

I use a graphire. It works fine. To save money you could get a refurbished one with Painter7 or 8 thrown in. That's what I did. Works great.

I switched from serial port to usb but other than the software and options there is not much difference in how one tablet works from another.

wALDO

[Albacore]

When you talk about buying a graphics tablet do think before you buy what you will use it for. If you are using PS and Painter alot then go big. If you think that you will use it to trace line drawings that you have done in pencil the tablet size will need to be at least A5 not A6 as it is too small.

Wacom make great tablets which are a joy to use and now they have some great software as well. But please try and go for the bigest you can afford do not waste your money on a A6 it is just too small or you may end up just using your tablet for your laptop control which is a waste.

Also please give the tablet time and keep on using it, do not revert back to the mouse. In a while you will find that if you are righthanded you will have the pen in your right hand and the mouse in the lefthand and your drawing speed will increase. Go big.

[mwgphilipse]

I went for the one I couldn´t really afford (Intuos 2 A5), and I can´t tell you how glad I am I did! It completely changed my way of using the PC, not only in graphics (Photoshop, Xara), but generally. I rarely use my mouse nowadays. So I fully agree with the previous response. Don´t give in to false economy unless you really have no other choice.

[Egg Bramhill]

Welcome to the forums. If you do a search for 'tablets' you will find a fund of advice on this subject over the years. I second Albacore and Martins advice.
Egg

[Sheff]

Intuos 9 x 12 inch. I used to use the old serial wacom 6 x 8 inch. To be honest, I prefer the smaller 6 x 8 to the 9 x 12. I can draw with either my wrist or my arm. It's a lot easier with my wrist. With the 6 x 8 you can always zoom in on your work.

I wouldn't skimp on the tablet though. I would like to get a cintiq, but they're too expensive.

At some point, I might make my own...

Sheffield Abella
www.sheff.com

[Horatio]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Albacore:
If you are using PS and Painter alot then go big.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Most people prefer the smaller ones though, at least that's what I read most of the time.
It seems that a small tablet is very well suited for drawing in programs like Photoshop. It seems that people don't prefer the larger ones, because of the larger arm movements.
I had a large one and sold it to buy a smaller one. It turned out that those people were right.

[qmr]

yes a wacom tablet really makes xara fun and even more useful. Small tablets are great as you can carry them in a laptop bag, the sketchpad you can take most anywhere.

Tablet I want to buy next is only 480x320 pixels and it comes on a tiny Palm T3. Trouble is, the freehand drawing lines are crinkly due to the low res of current PDA screens but thatll be fixed pretty soon Im sure. Sketchpad in a pocket and digital...

When will Xara be ported to a PDA I wonder? there already are a couple of useful vector drawing apps available for Palm OS (leonardo) and the files can be imported via Illustrator to Xara for line smoothing and further editing.

Q