OT: Graphics tablets ..

[T i m]

Ok ..

Nor the fancy pens / air brushes etc ..

Nor me, still, in spite of speaking to Wacom sales (and their English was better than my German) ;-)

Handy ..

All looks good but I'm not sure I know what the real world impact is re having twice as many dpi in this instance? Could it be like putting

200 mph rated tyres on a car that only does 100 mph?

Now 'tilt' could be handy, to an 'artist' ..?

Sounds like the touch strips could be useful ..

Ok ..

I don't think we are likely to get a Mac but you never know .. ;-)

That could be handy ..

Ok ..

Indeed .. not! ;-)

So, I'm still not sure if the Graphire supports tilt (but know the Intuos does), but I think it's one of those expressive things that could be worth it's weight.

The Intuos allows extra pens but they start at £50 ..!

The A6 and A5 Intuos's come with a matching mouse but the mouse might be rarely used?

So if we want those features it looks like we will have to go for the Intuos and they now do an A6 'Wide' (widescreen format). This would give us nearly the same width as an A5 but I'm not sure how well the aspect ratio mismatch (her 19" TFT is 3.4) would 'work'? (I believe the IA6W doesn't come with a mouse so better vfm if you don't need one).

Then there's the thought that a Graphire4 XL (A5) could be seen as a stepping stone to maybe an IA4 tablet (@ £275)[1] later on (it was suggested that A4 might be better for cartoonists / sketching artists etc)? But would a second hand Intuos have a higher resale value should we want to sell it

What to do ...

All the best ..

T i m

[1] and we are starting to get towards the price of a second hand Tablet PC .. would they have as good a 'tablet' as the latest stand-alone tablets?

[John Rumm]

They do seem to have rather too many products in such a small feature space!

Lots of DPI let you drive the pointer further with smaller movements of the pen without skipping pixels. Might be handy having more if you want to use the pen as your main pointing device, but probably not an issue for creating artwork.

It could, although pressure sensitivity is more important - since plenty of software will understand that. To make useful use of tilt data you may find yourself more restricted in software.

Yup... not got them on mine... (although I have got 20 touch pads!)

So volito is supposed to be the cheap and chearful option then by the sounds of it...

They seem to be importing different subsets of the intuos feature set...

Depends on how much you want to integrate it into the workflow, and also how much desk space you have. I find that I reach for the tablet for specific jobs only, and don't try to use is for normal work. As a mouse it does not do a very satisfactory job I find - but that is mainly due to what I am accustomed to.

A4 is probably overkill. My A4 oversize (i.e. it is A4 length in both axis - almost 1' square) is really too big for any application other than perhaps tracing a large original.

For drawing, you can configure most tablets to behave like a mouse, such that when you lift the pen from the tablet and replace it somewhere else the mouse pointer does not jump to the new location. This way you can make use of a smaller area by re-using it over and over in the same way you do a mouse.

Well my tablet has lasted many PCs...

(in fact it is being a PITA trying to get it working on the latest one...!)

[T i m]

If they just had one product it would be so much easier ;-)

Understood .. but could one tell at those dpi's ?

Ok ..

Ah, good point .. I always think these features will work in anything (but as you say, it's likely also to do with the app)

Seems so ..

I suppose that's bound to happen .. difficult to keep a good idea back ;-)

Good, that was sorta the usage I thought my daughter would put a tablet to.

Hmm, interesting .. so A5 it is then ... or A6 Wide .. Doh!

Ah, understood .. thanks ..

lol

All the best and thanks again John ..

T i m

[John Rumm]

IIRC my tablet came with some plugin tools for photoshop that understood tilt for some activities (bearing in mind we are talking back in photoshop 5 probably here). The default photoshop tools only understand pressure (at least up to version CS - I have not got CS2 but I don't think it is different in that respect)

Old Intuos II tablet with RS232 interface. No serial port on the ATX back plane. There is one header connector on the MB, but that seems to use a different pinout from the cable I have. Not had much luck getting it working on the USB->serial convertor I have either. Next time I can be bothered to open the box I will see if I can sort the header cable.

[T i m]

Hmm, so real world, tilt may not be that desirable ? ;-(

Bless ..

You normally get 'one' ? ;-(

What is the Mobo John, in case I have one spare to suit?

No, they do seem to be a bit unpredictable .. 'gps compatible' indeed ;-(

Or get a real serial I/O PCI card .. eBay etc (disable the on-board one(s))?

So if 'tilt' is unlikely to be available to the majority of packages and we are unlikely to buy any extra pens for an Intious (cost) we could be back to a Graphire .. ;-(

One supplier is doing the A5 with a few Coral progs for £149 inc?

All the best ..

T i m

[John Rumm]

Well, its nice to have the capability, just you may not find that much software that uses it. Mot sure if the later tablets come with more plugin software...

No space (too many USB and ethernet ports!). Just the one header connector on the board itself.

Asus A8V-E SE

(I can probably rewire the one I have when I can be bothered to pull it appart and fiddle with it!)

I may order another flavour to try....

Yup, they have made an appearance again. For a while serial seemed to drop from favour on plug in cards... (unless you want a ISA one - gots lots of those!)

To be honest, she will probably be more than pleased with any of them! ;-)

[djc]

I have an old Wacom A6 tablet/pen with a serial interface, havn't used it for years. Happy to give it awway to a good home if you can use it.

[T i m]

That's very kind of you fella.

I'd be happy to swap it for some drinking vouchers (at least to cover yer postage etc) or put some cash in the local charity shop etc?

Would you know if there are XP drivers for it etc?

I'll drop you a line etc (my addy is also valid).

All the best, and thanks again .. this might help us decide ;-)

T i m

[T i m]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:38:25 +0100, John Rumm

John,

Can you see how I can get back to djc please .. he says his e-mail addy is correct but I can't make any sense of it?

All the best ..

T i m

[John Rumm]

Note his "from" and "reply to" addresses are different. Have you tried the latter one?