Basically they're for architectural drafting but can be used in pait programs like paintshop pro or adobe photoshop for drawing anything. The better the tablet the ore refine a picture or achitectural drawing.
Put a pic on the tablet and select an art program then watch the screen come together as you draw an outline of a face. Search Utube for vids on drawing on the computer.
Most of them can be used in "pen" mode as a replacement for a mouse (some people prefer them for general use - but from a personal point of view, gimme a trackball any day!)
For art orientated stuff, many pads have a pressure sensitivity which can give you much greater control for editing - if you brush it lightly, you'll get a minimal effect, but applying a bit more pressure will heighten the effect of whatever you're doing (like blur / erase)
Most of the time, you can leave both plugged in and use what is most convenient at the time.
If you haven't got Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, try looking at Gimp (it's free)
Couple of options here - one you install "normally" from:
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for a version that doesn't need to be installed (can be put on a memory stick and moved between computers)
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can impress the missus with that one - a variant of Gimp was used to create the effects on the movie Titanic (tweaked for movies / motion)
OK, in the world of graphics tablets we have Wacom at the Makita / Festool end of the spectrum, and Trust bringing up the Power Devil end!
At its simplest it is a kind of mouse replacement when you move the pointer with a pen rather than a mouse. Some also accept puck style mice that have an accurate crosshair target mounted on them, that you can use for accurate digitising of points in 2D space (say capturing a diagram into a drawing or CAD package).
As a replacement for a mouse they generally feel a bit odd. However in a paint package used with freehand drawing tools they feel far more natural than trying to draw with a mouse. Activities like shading and tracing become far more natural feeling (e.g. trying to trace round an image in Photoshop so as to extract it from its background is usually far easier with a pen than a mouse). As is signing your name.
If you have Photoshop (or Elements) try that, failing that Paint Shop Pro or whatever your normal prog of choice for graphics retouching is.
They will usually work with any graphics software. The better software and the better tablets paired together (e.g. wacom and photoshop) should unleash a bunch of extra things that you can't get with a mouse.
Pressure sensitivity is the most basic. Here the program responds to not only where you draw, but also how hard you press on the "paper". Hence lines thicken with more pressure etc, or an airbrush will increase opacity.
The posher ones also recognise "tilt" in two axis. This allows the type of line drawn to accurately reflect how a real pen or pencil would react
- giving different line styles depending on the angle the stylus is held at.
Try it for freehand drawing in a graphics package. I find that I can write on screen just as badly as I can on paper with a tablet! ;-)
Note some tablets offer the options of mouse mode and absolute - the former allows you to lift the pen from the page move it and replace it at the same position you left off - rather like lifting and moving a mouse to get more usable roll space on a desk. Absolute mode maps an exact point on the tablet to one on the screen. Not as intuitive for some actions but better for tracing and digitising. (some of the larger tablets have a transparent lift up surface to allow a picture or diagram to be inserted for tracing over)
I do a lot of photo editing, often several hours a day. Before splashing out on a Wacom, I bought a cheap graphics tablet to try. I'm glad I did, because (like the OP) I just couldn't see the point of it. I would have been very cross if I had paid for a Wacom.
In case the cheapness was the problem, I did try a Wacom for a day, and while it was better made, I didn't find it any more useful for photo editing than a mouse and keyboard. My tablet went back into its box where it remains, three years later (it is not valuable enough to bother with eBay!).
I can see the value of a tablet in a drawing office (engineers and architects etc..) or for a graphic designer who can express him/herself better with a pen than with a mouse. But for photo editing, tablets don't seem to offer much of an advantage, if any.
To the OP, it is probably worth persevering with it to see if it works for you.
I use PhotoImpact for editing, and have barely scratched the surface of its capabilities. As John says, freehand selection can be very tedious with a mouse.
I don't find it tedious at all. But that's probably because I have been doing it for nearly 20 years - since 1989.
Graphics tablets were available then, but they were way outside my price range. I had just spent £2795 on an Apple Macintosh SE with a tiny 9" black and white screen, and £4295 on an Apple Laserwriter NT, a Postscript laser printer with a mere 300 dpi, so funds were scarce. I guess that if I had used a graphics tablet from the start, I would have been singing its praises now. As it is, with all that practice, the mouse works very well for me, so I see no need to change. ;-)
I use one in work - they're great for "normal" work, but a bit crap for gaming IMO - the ball on the marble mouse is too big, whereas the first one I had by Logitech (forget the name) was great - small central ball and two HUGE buttons either side.
I do mine every couple of weeks, and for the benefit of the op, while this might sound onerous, it's literally a sub-10 second job - the ball lifts out (no need to disassemble anything, it simply lifts out), and you simply knock any big lumps of "snot" off the three ball- bearing mounts.
Sadly, I can't find a picture of it on google (!) - it pre-dated the Trackman models, not sure what year I bought it, but it was from Escom before they went bust - it was a Logitech Pilot Trackball (and described in the only mention I can find of note that it "looks like a fried egg gone wrong" circa 1997)
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