Review rated by 15 Ciao members on average: very helpful
This review received a counterstatement by a party concernedRead Comment
------------------------------------------------- BASIC FACTS ABOUT THIS GRAPHIC TABLET
This USB graphic tablet comprise of a pen (no wire, dont need power) and a A6 board to write on. Some packages also got a free mouse (no wire), but I think it is rather useless. It acts like the pen (but without pressure sensitive level).
The square board is matched to your monitor screen, and by moving the pen in air over the board, the mouse cursor on the screen also moves. When the tip of your pen touches the board, it acts like a left-click (of course you can customise this to your needs). The pressure the tip applies on the board is also taken accounted of in supported software. i.e. when you draw, the harder you press the deeper/darker the line is.
On the pen itself there is a side button which acts as the right mouse button. There is also a "eraser" button on the opposite tip. For supported software like Photoshop and illustrator,
this will function as an eraser when you draws. ------------------------------------------------- DETAIL USAGE
OK, I admit it does sound like a nice gadget- But for those who use it only as a mouse replacement, they will save money by getting a cheaper & non pressure sensitive board. Usually, those boards will be 50% cheaper.
However for illustrators, this board is a very good entry level board.
---pressure sensitivity--- It got 512 level of pressure sensitivity. Some more expensive boards have over 1k level (like WACOM intuos), but I could never tell the difference.
If you are one of those people who once upon a time played with microsoft paint trying to draw something with your mouse, you will realised not only it is hard to draw with a mouse in any precision, the colour of lines are also annoyingly uniformed.
Pressure sensitivity allows different shades of one colour on a continuous line. The result is like a real life pen drawing. In fact thats how digital illustrator draws directly on computer(they usually use a program called Painter, the board I brought came with a free older-version Painter)
Painter emulates many "real medium", ie. oil colour, water colour, colour pencil, pastel, Gouge,ink etc. For those people who hates messy medium like oil colour, painting it digitally might be the only option. Without pressure sensitivity, real medium emulation will not be possible. I personally do plenty of comic "inking" (the thick black outer lines of figures). The varying thickness of the blackline is only possible through this function.
---board size--- Beside pressure sensitivity, the other main factor setting this board apart from the more expensive board is the area of the board.
This board is A6, and the larger the board, the more expensive it is. I know there are some boards as big as A1, A2, and those cost a stupid amount of money.
However as a personal advice (for illustrator), size does not matters (sorry for the pun)
It is because: If you imagine drawing a curve. You line will be relatively smooth if u draw a short line. If your same line is drawn 3 times the length, it is liable to have more kinks in it.
the trick is to use the zoom fucntion on the drawing program. there is nothing that could be drawn in a A1 board, which cannot be drawn in a A6 board (equally well and precise) if you know how to use the zoom in/out effectively. if u need to draw details, zoom in and draw it. dont be lazy.
In addition, if you imagine the A1 board is your screen- to travel from one end of the screen to the other, had just increases 10 folds compare to A6 board. i.e. you must have plenty of hand movement just to travel short screen distance. Again I find it decrease my drawing precision.
Big board size will be useful for CAD drawing when there are plenty of information to click and go through. But I doubt many people uses it for that purpose, so for the average illustrator/mouse replacer, you do not need a bigger board (even tho it is impressive to have an A1 board, I admit).
---resolution--- The other factor is resolution. i.e. how detailed will movements be recorded. this board is 1000dpi while some other high-end board is usually 2000+dpi (while some inferior ones are 300-500 dpi). For average users, this is sufficient. Unless you are looking for extreme precision otherwise this factor should not be much of a concern.
---software supported--- There are many boards out there, as cheap as £15+ (those with a wire attached between the board and pen) to excess of £1000+
The industry leader is Wacom, of which many software company had supported. It includes Procreate's Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Expression etc.
The advantage of Wacom is that all the functions of the pen is supported by these companies. Hence all the buttons will work as intended.
If you are interested in drawing or painting in computer, buy this as your first board and you wont be disappointed.
But if you simply want a board for writing or mouse replacement, you should opt for a cheaper board, since they will perform equally well for those functions.
This product has not yet been reviewed.
27.08.2003 13:40
I love using my graphc tablet! Paul
23.08.2003 23:59
An excellent review! This product sounds to be very decent indeed to have! Steve
22.08.2003 23:02
Great OP excellent attention to detail. Regards Jonathan.