Drawing tablet purchase - any recommendations for Designer Pro X9?

So I'm thinking about getting a drawing tablet but the options are, like always, kind of overwhelming. One of my sons has a Monoprice TWA60 drawing tablet that we got him for xmas a couple of years ago. I hooked it up and it felt super jittery/touchy to me while I was doodling a bit. I did not like it at all. I am sure it is not the highest quality tablet out there but maybe I just needed to configure Xara to make it smoother maybe??

So who is using what tablet (if any) and what are your likes and dislikes about drawing with a tablet instead of a mouse only?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/recommendations.

you can adjust the smoothing slider to see if it helps, but....

because xara is a vector program the line you are drawing is constantly being recreated in entirety as you draw, unlike a pixel program such as photoshop where the line stays put as you draw;

this is because vector lines are defined mathematically and need to be recalculated all the time whilst drawing

I think this is more noticable in xara than in illustrator or inkscape, but I draw fast and that does not help either

[ I use a wacom tablet ]

You might want to check out the Yiynova-MSP19U for something that won't break the back.

Hi Frogula,

I've been using a Pen & Tablet with Xara P&GD for a number of years & I find it's easier drawing than with a Mouse.
I'm a hobbyist so I'm using a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch CTH-460 medium size (older version) & it works great.
Although I still find that I use the Mouse wheel in Xara for controlling the Zoom.

My Bamboo version now appears to have been merged into their Inturos range...
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/intuos-m

If I was considering an upgrade, then it would be to a Inturos Pro (small version)
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/intuos-pro-s

HTH, Colin

Hi
I've been using tablets for twenty years plus. I'm a fan of Wacom. I've had three or four over the years and now have the Intuos Pro Medium. I have used them mainly with Corel Painter which I've had longer than Corel have but also use it with Xara pro and have no problem with that. The vector graphics on Xara work as quickly as I draw, whether in the freehand mode or not and with or without the pressure sensitivity being used.
All these things take some getting used to but are worth the effort but once you master the pen on the tablet, the mouse feels very clumsy for drawing.


I decided on the new Intuos range because the resolution is double what I had on the one before that. It is now 2048.

I use Painter more, simply because before the digital revolution I used an airbrush for most things and Painter has for me the most control over this brush variation. I was a designer and illustrator, trained in a Fleet Street studio sixty-five years ago.
One of the great delights with this Intuos is the way that the buttons on the pen can be set. I set one of them to open up the Wacom 'radial' menu which is something like a dartboard with as many places as you want which can be set to mimic the keyboard shortcuts etc. with a tap of the pen.
As well as settings made this way there is also a range of 'touch' settings to the left of the drawing area which can be set as required.

Good luck with it all
David

Bear in mind that many new tablet computers come with styluses ("styli?") and some, such as the Surface Pro and Pro 2, even use Wacom technology. So if you're considering upgrading your computer in the near future, a dedicated graphics tablet might be a waste of money.

In theory drawing on a tablet computer with a stylus should be better than using a separate pointer device (assuming the computer, the operating system and the apps all work properly...) because what you draw will appear directly under where you draw it - there's no offset for your brain to process while drawing.

Note: I haven't had the opportunity to try such a device with Xara Designer yet, so please carry out your own tests before committing yourself.

Phil

Thanks everyone. Very good info to have.