Wacom

[Webmaster Gabe]

just bought me a shiny new Wacom tablet. I love it! Here's my first ever drawing with it:



it's little Hamlet Swine. isn't he cute. this thing is definitely going to inspire some great future comics and artwork from me.

[Fighter X]

What's better about your new tablet? Eh?

[Webmaster Gabe]

oh lord lets see, it's smoother, has better pressure sensitivity, better controls, more custom options, it doesn't freeze up like my other one, the pen has an eraser and a little stand to sit in, and the whole thing just looks sleek and sexy. it's awesome. i can do way better now

[Atomic Sita]

pretty cool.
im still using my shitty tablet PC that cant run CS3 for shit. its cool because its all in one and everything, but seriously outdated. i have become accustomed to drawing with a mouse anyways. i find i have almost more control that way. but everyone has their preference.

[Webmaster Gabe]

yeah although it is quite near impossible to get the variance in line width and that hand-drawn fluidity with a mouse. just depends on the look you're going for though.
if i had a couple thousand to drop i'd get one of these babys: Cintiq

[Fighter X]

Holy shit! That Cintiq thing is awesome!! Too bad they're a couple grand or I would get one for sure. I've always wanted something like that. It would be nice to have one about half the size so you could take it wherever. Does it have to be hooked up to a computer with certain software? (like photoshop or MSPaint? ) Hardware like that Cintiq, but half the size, and built in Photoshop would be a dream come true.

[Atomic Sita]

yeah that looks pretty slick. having something like that would be awesome.

and Nick, i think what your describing sounds like the Macbook touch. which im not sure if thats still just rumor or not. the problem with that is you would have to pay for a shnazy stylus if you wanted to use it like a regular tablet. but who knows, maybe it will come with one. something like that would be fun to run Ableton Live on. you would probably look really cool too.

[Webmaster Gabe]

the Cintiq actually does come in three different sizes. the smallest one is a 12.1" display area so it's pretty damn small. the only problem is that if you're wanting portability, you would still need to bring around a computer to hook it up to because it's just a peripheral, not a computer by itself. from my understanding it can be used with any software on your pc, but doesn't have built in software of it's own.

that macbook and other such tablet pcs are pretty cool, but those aren't going to give you the pressure sensitivity and versatility of a real drawing tablet. if only they could make a device that combined the best of both worlds.

[emptythought]

i dont know why i would want a tablet bigger than 12.1 inches. atom has a tabletpc that size, and i always thought it was more than big enough(if anything, too big. i'm a fan of 10in screen laptops honestly).

and for nick, and other interested people; there are already wacom-equiped tabletpcs on the market. and they've been out for a while, i think from the pentium M/centrino 1 days, and could probably be picked up cheap on ebay. i don't remember the exact models, but i'm pretty sure they were toshibas. they licensed wacom tech to a few companies though.

[Webmaster Gabe]

yea i like working small. i want to get like a 12" laptop or smaller.

i wonder how these 'wacom-equiped' tablets would compare to an actual wacom product like the cintiq though. for some reason i just kind of doubt it would have the same functionality and versatility, otherwise wouldn't they be more known and better marketed?

[emptythought]

they use the older generation like 90's wacom technology i think. i know that they do have the pressure sensitivity/etc though. check here. unfortunately, most ebayers and such don't even know that the tablet they're selling has this, and you need to google around to find specific models to search for on there.

the cintiq however, is an entirely different thing than any other wacom product from what i've seen. i think wacom themselves plan on selling a laptop soon though.

toshiba is the only company i can think of off the top of my head that both had the "penabled" wacom tech, and made really small tablets. or even very many 12in tablets. i think they even made 10in ones in the portege series. the trick is finding one. i doubt it would be more than $300 or so if you did, but they just don't seem like they sold that great because there aren't a lot used.

that, or everyone who has them loves them and wont sell them :\

[Webmaster Gabe]

ooh that would be pretty killer to get a little "penabled" lenovo tablet. probably hard to find though.

[emptythought]

o woah, EVERY lenovo/ibm tablet is penabled. even the old(er) x41.

and you can grab those for around $300, maybe less. they're pretty common too. i found out, more common than the non-tablet x41 when i was trying to buy one D:

[Webmaster Gabe]

$300!? from where? can't be that great of a system if it's that cheap

[emptythought]

ebay.

and idk, it has pretty solid specs. about as good as my current laptop, which runs photoshop cs3/4, ableton live 7, and various other relatively "intense" apps better than tolerably. just max out the ram. despite the fact that were on to dual core cpus now in general, the single core pentium m's weren't really all that lame.