Graphics tablets

[Mike]

How much does that thing cost ?

If i need to ask, i suppose i cant' afford it:-(

Just got a Graphire Tablet (USB), absolutley fantastic. Don't know how i managed this long without one.

M.

[Mark (theKeeper)]

Well i've tried the Graphire pad/mouse... and my final thoughts are that the pad/pen part is very functional. The mouse on the other hand... bites!

Even at the fastest setting it's slow as molasses! I have to pick it up and move it just to move the cursor across my entire screen; and i only have 1024 res! Aaaagh! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

I see no real functionality with that mouse at all... i like the attempt made with the wireless part, very cool, but the "mechanics" of it need some more work. Good luck Wacom!

BTW: i have a Logitec Optical; just came out recently. VERY cool, especially compared to MS's clunky optical mice. They ALWAYS make those damn pads on the bottom WAYWAYWAAAY too big! Aaaagh! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]
Logitec makes theirs VERY tiny, and it looks like they even use a different type of plastic (a harder one), so there's much less friction and a smoother 'ride' on the pad - which for doing minute movements creating selections, etc is a 'must have' if you ask me. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
I've had both the MS opticals and just don't like 'em. Owell!

Mark...

[caraman1]

and you won't have to pick up the mouse to get from one side to the other.

I really like my MS optical mouse, it's an extremely smooth ride and has worked flawlessly!

Dennis [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

<a href=http://www.inconnect.com/~dennisco/>Carillus Design</a>

[mgeduld]

No one has mentioned a fantastic feature of Wacom tablets. You can buy multiple pens and customize each one so that it has a specific functionality in a specific application. For instance, you could make pen #1 be the paintbrush in Photoshop and pen #2 be the airbrush and pen #3 be the pencil. (Or you can assign a specific color to each pen--whatever...)

I saw this demonstrated once, and it really felt like traditional artists tools. The Wacom guy had a bunch of pens laid out on the table, and instead of clicking various buttons in the application, he picked up different pens to do different tasks.

I realize that this sort of thing is not for everybody, but if you're a bit of a luddite at heart, it's pretty cool.

As far as I know, it only works with the Intuos--unless I am missing something about my Graphire.

Marcus Geduld
{ email me } { visit me }

[Sean Sedwards]

<blockquote>Graphire mouse is "Cheezy"</blockquote>

Thank you to everyone that gave me the benefit of their experience. It's a pity you didn't post your comments a couple of days earlier, Mark, because I placed an order on the strength of all the previous glowing reports :-( It seems like I'll have to use my ingenuity to find a workaround, although Dennis may have already done that. I'll report back when it arrives next week.

Regards - Sean

[Mike]

Sean,

The mouse on the graphire is OK.

PLus you can still use your normal mouse as well :-)
(not on the tablet, thought i should note that. Just in case people think it can be. But I'am sure people would.nt. I think I'll shut up now.. ;-) ))

Both seem to co-exist happily on my machine.

Regs.

M.

[Robin Gilmor]

I also bought the Graphire on the strength of the comments here.I feel like I'm drawing with a broken straw in sand. The 3 programs I've tried it with-PSP6,Adobe LiveMotion,& Xara 2 don't support pressure sensitivity & don't seem to integrate with the Pen Tools,either.
Does anyone have any suggestions to get some enjoyment out of this expenditure?
Like some pen exercises or something that will help me get ready for Xara X?
P.S.-I'm not an artist like you guys

[athena]

Robin,

You caused me a brief moment of distress when you said PSP didn't have pressure sensitivity. I thought, "It doesn't, how could they do that? I thought the users had begged for pressure sensitivity"

I remember reading here at I-US the PSP 5 users begged and for and then they cheered when JASC PaintShopPro 6 came out with pressure sensitivity.

I don't know if they have an international version that is different from my version 6 but here is what the help section had to say: (by the way, I found it under "tablet" I didn't even look under "pen")

Paint Shop Pro allows you to use a pressure-sensitive tablet with a digitizing pen or other input device. The preferences for a tablet are changed on the Cursors and Tablet tab of the Tool Options palette.

Select the "Vary opacity" check box to have the pressure of the input device control opacity of the brush. Select the "Vary color" check box to have the pressure of the input device determine whether to apply the foreground or background color. Select the "Vary width" check box to have the pressure of the input device control the width. The width will vary from 1 pixel up to the value you have selected for that brush in the Tool Options palette.

Virginia See, Jasc Software, Inc.

I went and tried it out -- it worked very well, actually. I hope you can find it too.

Athena

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[caraman1]

I don't know what people expect in a $99 tablet....an Intuos? I spent $350 on my Wacom 9 X 12 four years ago. The last time I bought a cheaper tablet was a CalComp at a closeout and it needed to be closed out. It needed batteries and a 120v connection.

What is so terribly wrong with the Graphire? For what I do, it was a God-send!

Dennis

<a href=http://www.inconnect.com/~dennisco/>Carillus Design</a>

[Sean Sedwards]

There's a page here which lists software compatible with Wacom pressure sensitivity and other features (specifically Intuos, but I assume it applies to the Graphire as well) . According to that and the help file, PSP 5 should work too, however I'm looking forward to trying the Graphire with Satori and Painter.

Satori is a very sophisticated and responsive paint program with vector-like resolution independence and editability. Painter is a program I always wanted but didn't think was worth the money until I got a tablet. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it since it comes with the tablet and presumably works well with it.

Regards - Sean