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Curious about Graphic Tablets... or some such item

Team Valhalla

Team Valhalla

New Member
I'm going to really show a lack of knowledge... but I guess that's one of the purposes of the forum... glean knowledge.

I've been trying my hand at doing some photo editing lately - product images mostly. Removing backgrounds, putting items together, etc.

Using the generic mouse for these types of things leads me to believe that there has to be a better way! Is this where a graphics tablets come into play? Can it be done with a specific type of mouse?

Are there different "levels" of hardware depending on how fine of work you want to do?

Thanks in advance.

SP
 
Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
There are lots of options but the two primary ones are both made by Wacom. There is the Intuos line of tablets and the Cintiq line of tablet monitors. The tablets take some getting used to because you're working the tablet but looking at your regular monitor ... but they're a lot less money. The Cintiq is obviously an easier product to use and the time savings is significant.
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
I can't say enough good things about the Wacom Cintiq line of products and to me worth every penny of what I paid. I don't do much work in Ps, most of my workflow is in Ai and then Wilcom. It makes doing digital sketches much more natural. Same thing with the vectorizing and/or digitizing of those sketches (or whatever I happen to have as a template in the bottom layer).

Products that I use are the 21UX, 12WX and the Cintiq Companion (tablet that runs a full Win OS, so I'm able to run all my programs on it). The first two have been replaced with different models, the last one was their first foray into the tablet world. I got it about this time last year. I was worried for it being their first product of this type, but it's been a joy to work with.
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
David Wright said:
Cheaper yet
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cp_id=11314&cs_id=1131401&p_id=10707&seq=1&format=2
Click to expand...


Take note on that one, if running a Windows OS, you have to use it in mirrored mode, not extended. You can extend it on a Mac, but for whatever reason, it's limited for Windows users.


Back to the OP, there is a wacom stylus that I do like for the little bit of Ps work that I do (personal stuff mainly) and that is the airbrush pen (which works for the Intuos line or the Cintiq line, just have to make sure that you get the correct one. The same one will work for both the tablet and the Cintiq, but if you have a newer generation pen, it won't work with an older generation tablet/cintiq and vice versa, that's what you have to be careful about). It does a very good job of simulating the behaviors of a true airbrush, however, unlike the other pens, this one has to be supported within the software (Ps CS5 on up for sure does support it).
 
dypinc

dypinc

New Member
I have used a table for so long I find it very difficult to use a mouse. Don't know how you guys do it that design with a mouse.

I have used the large Intuos 4 large (18 x24) on a two screen MacPro every since it was released. One that size is no longer listed as available by Wacom so if it fails not sure what I would use. The new Intuos Pro Large is a lot smaller and not that practical for two screens. Two Intuos Pen & Touch mediums might be usable now that you can assign one to each screen. The Pros seem to have way too much edge past the active area to make them practical to use two of them.
 
jtinker

jtinker

Owner
I got an old intuos 2 from a cartooning company in new york when i was still in college. The thing still went with serial ports, it worked pretty well and made me a decent chunk of change right out of college. I would love to try out one of the monitor tablets they have out now though. For quality I would go straight for wacom. As old as that tablet is I could hook it up to a machine that still runs windows xp and it would work like a dream.
 
ChrisN

ChrisN

New Member
I use a Huion H580. It doesn't have quite all the features of a Wacom, but it is far less of an outlay if you just want to try it out. The main differences between it and a Wacom are a pen with batteries, and no tilt/rotation sensing. It works quite well on Windows 7 and it also works (with a little bit of messing around) on Linux.
 
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
David Wright said:
I guess we do get what we pay for. Duly noted.
Click to expand...

The Huion GT220 is very good, works in extended mode and has multiple available pens that work very well. There is also a YiYinova brand one that is the same size that is awesome and only a few hundred more. Ive used the huion one and will be purchasing and I've demo'd the yiyinova and although I love it, I think the Huion is a better buy for what I do.
 
L

LeLuni

New Member
I researched this in-depth recently. Your best bet is the new Surface Pro 3. It is really an incredible piece of equipment - Microsoft surprisingly hit this one out of the park.
It is expensive, but if you're on a budget the Surface Pro 2 should also be able to keep up with some pretty heavy photo editing, but the aspect ratio of the screen is a not as ideal as the 3.
 
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
LeLuni said:
I researched this in-depth recently. Your best bet is the new Surface Pro 3. It is really an incredible piece of equipment - Microsoft surprisingly hit this one out of the park.
It is expensive, but if you're on a budget the Surface Pro 2 should also be able to keep up with some pretty heavy photo editing, but the aspect ratio of the screen is a not as ideal as the 3.
Click to expand...

I have the surface pro original and I can't wait to upgrade to the 3... Waiting to justify the i7 version so I can better replace my desktop. The Surface Pro line is very very good, has changed the way I measure and survey jobs forever, I don't think I can go back to paper and pen.
 
David Wright

David Wright

New Member
2CT Media said:
I have the surface pro original and I can't wait to upgrade to the 3... Waiting to justify the i7 version so I can better replace my desktop. The Surface Pro line is very very good, has changed the way I measure and survey jobs forever, I don't think I can go back to paper and pen.
Click to expand...

I have the surface pro 3 and it's pen and digitizer functions are top notch. But...
Programs such as Photoshop have very small toolbars with no touch functions like pinch to zoom etc.
Hard to work in that environment. You can scale windows to display larger but Adobe doesn't play nice in that.

I hear those with CC versions maybe can get an update to help in this but not in my boxed version. Adobe and others surely will follow with versions that maximize this.
 
P

player

New Member
Is it not feasible to use a laptop with the removable touchscreen monitor and some type of special pen...
 
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