Graphics Tablets

[ajohnw]

Anyone any idea how these work out in respect to resolution. There seems to be various types available from figures like 1/2mm to several thousand lines per inch. What I am curious about is the relationship between movement of the pen to movement on the screen. I did use one a long time ago where the movement was effectively scaled down allowing more precise control than a high dpi mouse but have no idea what it's resolution was.

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[Donald]

I had no idea that questions of resolution came into play in the use of Tablets. For all everyday, practical purposes and insofar as I can tell, my pen movements on the now out-of-date Wacom Babmoo Tablet that I have, are precisely and exactly mirrored to movement on the monitor screen.

I do use quite small brushes for such things as selective content sharpening on images and find that my control with the Bamboo is as exact as I want or need it to be.

[ajohnw]

Thanks Donald. My last use of a tablet is probably over 15 years ago while using 3Dstudio. The tablet was a mouse replacement of some sort and offered scaling.

I was selecting something the other day and thought a tablet might make it more easy to do. Only problem is that the package I use most often uses a scroll wheel for magnification around the area where the pointer is. Pens don't seem to offer a scroll wheel equivalent but it may be possible to use the wheel on the mouse that comes with some of them. The usual answer is left hand on the keyboard but I'm a bit cramped for space.

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[Manfred M]

I'm with Donald on this one; I use the equally out of date Wacom Intuos 3 tablet, it's surface doesn't even match the shape of my monitor any more. Each of the corners of the tablet correspond the the four corners of the monitor, and the stylus gives so much more control than a mouse ever can. It is probably the best investment I ever made with regards to image editing.

[darknight]

I love my wacom, but i use it for graphics as well, you can set most wacoms to work on the size of your screen, i use an a4 and as manfred says you wouldnt regret the investment, they are so much easyer to control and edit.

[Mark von Kanel]

I use a wacom intous 4 and despite all the hype about nib wear i havnt found it a problem, makes editing much more simple, the surface of the tablet adjusts to that of your screen so if you put your pen in the bottom RH corner of the tablet the cursor appears in the bottom RH corner of the screen. i love it!. but dont buy a blue tooth version it just doesnt work with windows 7 and is intermittent with Lion.

[Daisy Mae]

I use a cheaper version..made by Trust and it works a treat.

[ajohnw]

I use a cheaper version..made by Trust and it works a treat.

I have used a lot of Trust gear over the years and never had any problems with it. Support is usually ok too. My 1st thoughts on a tablet actually thanks for the reassurance.

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[Daisy Mae]

I have used a lot of Trust gear over the years and never had any problems with it. Support is usually ok too. My 1st thoughts on a tablet actually thanks for the reassurance.

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[Colin Southern]

It usually becomes a moot point because if one needs finer control in certain areas then all one needs to do is simply zoom the image (my Intuos 4 XL has a touch ring for that) - and in that respect the same can be done quite easily for a mouse too.

Where a tablet wins out big time over a mouse though is in the pressure sensitivity; 2048 levels for the tablet -v- 2 for a mouse.

[Brocken]

Hi John,

the Wacom Bamboo Create has a resolution of 2540 lines per inch, and 1024 pressure levels,

Christopher.

[ajohnw]

I can't make my mind up yet but at the moment either the Trust eBrush, 2058 steps, tilt sensitive or the Trust widescreen look favourite but there are others.

I have used a tablet in the past. The ebrush looks to have adequate space around the work areas to support the hand. The widescreen has a larger area and has been made "ultra thin" to help with that problem. They did do one earlier that had both a large working area and support.

Looking at it logically my mouse covers a 22in diagonal with about 30mm of movement with some acceleration and about 60mm without so either should do really as I can manage with that.. On the other hand when I played with 3D studio and various graphics art packages for a hobby/amusement I would have loved to get my hands on a full featured one like the eBrush.

As far as resolution goes there doesn't seem to be much difference between makes. In fact from amazon user reviews sometimes the cheaper graphics tablets have exceeded Wacom's products at under 1/2 the price. Yes I could spend a lot on one of Wacom's professional products but frankly I don't think it's justified. At the cheaper end these days the name can attract much higher prices for little if any gain really.

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[ajohnw]

After some web searching I've ordered a Hanvon Artmaster I. The latest version is too expensive as this version was and still often is. Main difference is 1024 pressure steps rather than 2048. It has a battery free pen and 5080 lpi. I did feel that I wanted an A4 size but have settled on 6x5in. The other one I used was much smaller than that and I can't recall that it was a problem really. Did think about a Rollick model but I don't like where they have put the scroll/zoom wheel on that. Being a cheap skate I have bought B grade from Germany (ebay eu) from a seller that does pay return postage. Very substantial saving. As it's B grade it's pre tested too so hopefully there will be no need to return it.

Running Linux needs a bit of care in areas like this. Fortunately a nice person from Germany produces drivers for most of their tablets. Wacom drivers are also available as are ones for many of the others.

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[ajohnw]

The tablet arrived yesterday and I have just set it up. On Linux as well without any problems. There is a German site that keeps code up to date for them and so far covers all of them apart from the Artmaster 2. He even gives instructions on how to install the driver which actually is a rather simple thing to do. He doesn't mention typing the make instruction as root but that's all really. The mouse carries on working normally. It adjusted to my screen aspect ratio automatically even though it's has a different different aspect.

The tablet is rather well and solidly made and it's nice to have a pen that doesn't use a battery. The artmaster 1 has a touch scroll slot and 4 touch buttons. Gimp picked it up but didn't enable it so had to do that manually and not sure if it will load automatically every time Gimp starts yet. The driver provided Gimp with info for the x and y axis, pressure and tilt but none of the buttons. I assume that the touch scroll functions as a mouse wheel so that option is shown as none. Windows and Mac users would get the usual gui's for setting up the pen much like the Wacom.

The B grade tablet from a seller on ebay.de turned out to be new and sealed in it's box. No wonder he is sure that people will be pleased. I am. It comes with 2 pens, a sleeve, holder and a number of spare tips. The pens don't feel cheap.

My ancient Compaq keyboard finally packed up so to make more space for the tablet I have replaced it with a compact Cherry one that lacks the numeric keypad. It's smaller than the tablet. The layout is well thought out. It clicks but that doesn't worry me. I'm glad of the 50,000,000 keystroke life of each key and the fact that I am unlikely to wear the letters off the buttons. I did that on several keyboards before buying the Compaq server keyboard. The button pitch on the Cherry is slightly smaller than standard. About 18mm instead of 19. No real problem using it so far. More or less typing without looking after maybe 1/2 hr use.

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