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My New Tablet:
By William E. Steinman:
October 27, 2003:
It has been said, the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. I must acknowledge that there be some truth in that. Looking at it that way, I must confess I have recently purchase a new toy. This new toy did cost a great deal compared to a box of Tinker Toys® or an Erector Set®. In fact, it cost $469.99. That is the so-called street price of the Wacom® Intuos2® - 9x12 tablet.
Well, what in the world is a Wacom etcetera? In truth, when I first bought this thing, I was a bit worried about exactly that question. What was I actually buying? I knew what I wanted to do and I thought this would do it, but I was not at all sure. The Wacom website information, if we can call it that, was full of hype and void of any real information.
Let me rephrase that and say, I was unable to find any useful descriptive information about this device on the Wacom website. The sales companies simple offered the device without really describing it. So, I was left to guess and hope. My biggest fear was that I would have to deal with the rather arbitrary return policies of the sales company. Thank Minerva that turned out to be unnecessary. The tablet did what I had guessed and hoped it would do.
This tablet is really just a very sophisticated input device, similar to a mouse and pad but much more useful. The one I have is configured for a USB port, but they also offer a serial port version. Now, if this were only a replacement for a mouse, 470 bucks would be a bit steep, to say the least. It is a great deal more than that. Let me explain.
The tablet is a pressure sensitive 9 inch by 12 inch pad mounted in a sturdy frame. The pad's surface area matches the visual area of my computer monitor. The other essential part of this thing is a pen-like stylus. There is also a mouse which will probably be useless to me. Now, when the tablet is connected to the computer, with the proper drivers installed, the stylus can be used on the pad in much the same way we would use a mouse on a mouse pad. However, it does not end there.
The real strength of this setup is for use with graphics and paint programs, such as Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator®. What it does, is allow me to treat the tablet just as I would a canvas in real painting. The stylus then becomes the brush, pencil, pen, or charcoal, whatever I choose. I can then draw directly in the program with the stylus. The difference is, instead of watching what my hand does, I look at what is happening on the monitor.
This tablet is compatible with a number of graphics programs. The one I will most often use it with will be Adobe Photoshop. Its pressure sensitive feature can take advantage of a number of Photoshop tools that were designed with this tool in mind. For example, press harder to draw darker. I don't know how many folks out there have any experience with arts materials. I have done work in charcoal and in pencil with real drawing tools on a real easel.
Those of you who have tried this will understand. For the others, I cannot tell you how completely frustrating it is to try using a computer with a standard mouse or trackball to do anything artistic. Now I have a tool which is very much like the real medium I once used. It is a whole new game for me. I fully believe that doing cover design and book illustrations will become the pure pleasure that artistic work is meant to be. The inherent weakness of computer graphics has been largely overcome with this tool.
Another feature of this tablet is the transparent cover sheet. It seems I can throw out my light table now. The tablet has a transparent plastic cover over the pressure sensitive surface. This means I can slip a photo or a Van Gogh print under the cover sheet and trace it directly into Photoshop. I tried this with a photo and it works as advertised.
Another feature is a menu strip at the top of the tablet. It has items which match some of the features of our normal program menus like open, save, cut, copy, paste, etcetera. I invoke them by tapping on them with the pen. That, by the way is how the mouse click is done. I tap the pen and it acts the same as a mouse click. I am still learning to use this thing, but so far I like it very much.
It is not necessary to pay as much as I did for the tablet and it is possible to pay a great deal more. It comes in several sizes with different features. The smallest is a 4 inch by 5 inch tablet. The largest is a 12 inch by 18 inch job. The most elaborate is a pad that is also a flat screen monitor for those who want to go nuts. In that case, it is most like the real thing where the drawing takes place under the tool in your hand. I think it's for real artists or rich dudes.
On the left below is a traced sketch I made from a photo of
me. It is not intended to demonstrate my lack of skill, only
one use of the tablet. The other photos are self explanatory.
Now, if I only knew how to use Photoshop I would be golden. Of
course, that is the next step. I did buy a book called Photoshop
7, Classroom in a Book. I will be making notes from my study
of that.
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