What size Wacom tablet?

[Belmondo]

This is not a DSLR subject, I know, but you are the folks whose opinions I truly value most, so here goes:

I'm going to buy a Wacom tablet, and I'm torn on the subject of size. The two I'm considering are the 9X12 Intuos2 Platinum, or the 6X8 Intuos2 Platinum.

Having never worked with a tablet before, I'm not sure how important the size really is. The 9X12 uses a lot of real estate on the desktop, of which I already have precious little. I think the footprint is 18 X 14.2 inches. the 6X8 is a little more reasonable at only 13.5 X 12.2.

Right off the top of my head, it seems like the 6X8 should be enough, but I hate to spend approximately $300.00 only to find that I'd be much happier with the larger one. Unfortunately, there are no stores near where I live that stock them, so I'm really shopping blind here.

Appreciate your opinions.

Tom

[CyberDyneSystems]

Tom,..

My first experience with a tablet was with a large one.. a 9X12 if i rememebr correctly.

The truth is,. that the larger ones,. the more expensive ones.. SUCK!

I now have a $99.00 Wacom Graphire and it is much easier to use than the 9X12 Intuos which costs several times more.

The problem with the large ones is hand movement... the hand movements you need to make are much to large to be in any way ergonomic.

With the smaller boards,. your hand - eye coordination adjusts to the smaller drawing surface in seconds and leaves you in much better control.

I can only imagine that the large tablets are good for drafting... but the first time you use a small tablet to dodge, burn, smudge, select, and crop... you will be astonished!

I highly recomend the graphire. The little extras the Intous adds are not remotely worth the premium that they charge for them.

[slin100]

I have a 6x8 on the way. From my research, it's the most recommended size. 4x5 is too small and 9x12 is too large.

[SWPhotoImaging]

I have the 6x8 Intuos Platinum,and love it. Even at this size, both the mouse and the pen seem like you are moving them reeaallllyyy faaar to get from one place to another. I can't imaging how sweeping the hand movements would need to be with the 9x12. I'd suggest the 6x8.

[PacAce]

belmondo wrote:
This is not a DSLR subject, I know, but you are the folks whose opinions I truly value most, so here goes:

I'm going to buy a Wacom tablet, and I'm torn on the subject of size. The two I'm considering are the 9X12 Intuos2 Platinum, or the 6X8 Intuos2 Platinum.

Having never worked with a tablet before, I'm not sure how important the size really is. The 9X12 uses a lot of real estate on the desktop, of which I already have precious little. I think the footprint is 18 X 14.2 inches. the 6X8 is a little more reasonable at only 13.5 X 12.2.

Right off the top of my head, it seems like the 6X8 should be enough, but I hate to spend approximately $300.00 only to find that I'd be much happier with the larger one. Unfortunately, there are no stores near where I live that stock them, so I'm really shopping blind here.

Appreciate your opinions.

Tom

Tom,

I guess the answer to your question would depend on what your primary purpose for the tablet is going to be for. If you're going to be doing a lot of graphics art type stuff dealing with a lot of fine details, then you probably want one of the bigger tablets but a 9x12 might be too big.

For just photo editing stuff and just plain using the tablet as a replacement for the mouse, then the smaller one will be just fine. I have a 3.5 x 5 tablet and I find even that to be on the large size so I have it configured to only use a small portion (2 x 3) of it as I want to be able to cover the whole screen without much movement of the wrist. And I find it perfectly suitable for any photo editing work I do.

(BTW, the tablet I have is the Wacom Graphire 2 which is listed as a 4x5 tablet although my measurements make it more a 3.5 x 5 tablet.)

[CyberDyneSystems]

fyi,

I was using a 9X12 for graphics work,. cgi,. and drawing directly into the applications using fractal design's painter (yes it used to be fractal design back then) and illustrator...

...and even for that application the 9X12 was poop! You couldn't use it for more than an hour without going crazy and your arm falling off. :)

[Belmondo]

CDS: 'Poop?' Sounds messy. No wonder you didn't like it.

Well, I'm starting to see a trend here.

Actually, it stands to reason that you don't need a terribly large area to work in. Thinking about the small distances we move a mouse to effect our editing, it probably holds true with a tablet as well.

Thanks for all the opinions---it looks like the 6X8 is the front runner right now.

Tom

[iwatkins]

Spooky !

Yesterday afternoon I was trying to mask a few images I was working on and came to the decision that using the mouse was not the way to do it. Popped down into town and picked up the Wacom Graphire 3 Studio XL. This is an A5 sized tablet ( which I think is 6x8 ).

Plugged it in and off I went. Installed the driver and that is that. You get a Control Panel applet to change settings, but otherwise not a lot happens. It works like a mouse in all applications but you can continue to use your normal mouse as well if necessary.

In CS you need to do nothing, it just works. Brush size etc. is linked to pressure (this is configurable to other parameters). The eraser on the other end of the pen works fine as well. No batteries required so the pen is light to use.

However, the control it gives is amazing and feels a lot more natural.

OK, only used it a couple of hours but I love it. Painting using Quick Mask is a dream.

6x8 feels about right. I certainly wouldn't want it to be any bigger for Photoshop work. It is light enough to rest on your lap while you work and I simply stow it down the side of the desk while not using it.

Should have done this months ago. :)

Cheers

Ian

[RichardtheSane]

I have the 4x5 graphire, just a tad too small IMHO. I would rather have a 6x8 to work with. :)

[PPi-]

May I add my share for this? Well, I will anyway.

Tom, it depends quite much on what you are going to do with it. I've used Wacoms from Graphire to Cintiq (yes, that's a fancy toy) so I know how they feel.

As for drawing, first I found it to be very hard to control your hand as you are not looking the pen but the monitor (assuming that you are NOT working with Cintiq..). For me small tablets works best as you can just move your wrist to move the cursor from side to side instead of moving your whole hand.

However, the size of Graphire and tiniest Intuos is little too small for my taste. I'd prefer more the 'A5' sized Intuos (6x8?). You don't have to move your hand too much and you still get very good accuracy.

If you have no previous experience on tablets and feel unsure which model you should get, I think it would be best to get Graphire. That's darn cheap and pretty good device. For drawing I prefer Intuos more but Graphire does the job ok.

[Belmondo]

Many thanks to all of you. There certainly seems to be a concensus building here as to the most useful size. Consequently I went ahead and ordered the 6X8 just before I went to bed last night. I should have it by mid-week. I'll give you my own feedback after I've played with it a little.

Thanks again.

Tom

[SheriG]

Hi I have a larger older Wacom and I agree, the even with all these years of using it, the eye hand thing still gets me. I do love the actual "drawing" feel-pen to paper type thing-but it does trip up especially in the select mode.

Good luck!

SheriG

[Motorsports Photo]

One more vote for the 4x5.

I bought 2 art Pads (4x5) when they first came out. They quickly erased all my carpal tunnel symptoms that I had mousing around.

As others described "excessive movement" with the larger pads, and while I havent used a BIG pad regularly, I did have a Kurta monster for learning CAD. The autocad templates broke that up into smaller usable areas. so you effectively worked in a small areas for drawing anyway.

You cant go wrong with $99 or less for a graphire. (got mine for $70 on ebay)

The old Art Pads have less "resolution" but are still very competent AND reliable.

-Pete

[Derek Smith]

I have used the A4 - much too large.
The A5 - OK but still just a bit too large,
and the A6 (4"x5") which I find to be just perfect.

I spend a large proportion of my day working in PS and find the A6 Wacom to be the ideal tool. My colleague in the office however (who happens to be considerably faster than me in PS) swears by the A5.

[ashforth]

Tom-

I started with the Wacom Graphire a few years ago to use with Photoshop and quickly moved to the Intuous. Both were 4 X 5 and I've found them comfortable to use without excessive hand movement. The Intuous has move levels of pressure sensitivity than the Graphire; however, it doesn't seem to make that much difference in real life situations. I feel smaller is better in this instance. Also, the Graphire is the better deal since it also comes with a wireless mouse.

Herb

[duke]

portrait retouching :
My Favor is try to retouching a photo like a Pro , so which one we need to buy and easy to used:
Graphire
Intuos
Cintiq
Tablet PC

I have a intruction tip from Photo911 website but I don't know which one is ez to used....
to retouching beauty portrait photo People I have taught in the past have found it difficult to distinguish where to start with the clone tool when retouching someone's face.
Step 1:
I came up with a different way of seeing the imperfections, which should help you think differently about the process of retouching. It allows you to ignore color momentarily and concentrate on shading, similar to the old Hollywood black and white style of portrait retouching.
First open an image of a person, preferably female. Then choose windows --documents-- new window. You will now have two versions of the same file on screen.
Step 2:
Choose the document on the right.
Go to your channels palette and turn off the eyeball on the red and blue channels so that you are only viewing the green.
Most of the skin imperfections on light to medium colored skin will show up in this channel and you will be able to see these imperfections more clearly by just viewing the green channel on its own.
Step 3:
Create a new layer called "retouch".
Begin with a large clone stamp at around 20%-25% and begin to smooth the skin. Use the color version on the left to monitor your work as you go along, and to make sure you are getting the desired result.
I tend to be quite heavy at this point and really remove all texture.
Step 4:
Once I have a smooth even skin tone, then I close the b&w version and go to the retouching layer and reduce the opacity.
It really depends on the image but I average around 50% opacity. This allows some of the texture of the skin to come back through.

[KelliShaver]

You'll love the 6x8. It's a good size, not too small, not too big.

I used a graphire when I was in school and it was great. There were times when it was a bit too small, but it was still dozens of times better than a mouse and definitely worth the money. I liked the small size at that time, too, because of the portability factor. I coudl carry it back and forth between home and the lab on campus.

That said, I have a 9x12 now and I love it... woudln't give it up for anything smaller at this point. I do a lot of digital painting, though, and that's what I use the tablet for. When I work non-digital, it's at least 18x24in, and usually 20x30, so the large size for me is great. I also work on a 21in monitor.

The extra real estate isn't needed for simple photo retouching, though. I think 6x8 is a happy medium that will give you great flexibility to do either.

[RoB_m]

i have a 4x5 graphire2 and pretty much ise it as a coaster for drinks because i feel too cramped using it and to be honest i've developed some pretty good freehand mouse skills. using a tablet is NOT just like picking up a pen and paper, you have to get the hang of it and it can be frustrating.

[mvonditter]

That's all good if you don't have a cat that feeds your pen to the dog who then chews it up outside. I'm on number ? pen. 6X8 is the way to go in my book.

[elbirth]

I was about to add my input but realized that this thread was started in December 2003, lol.

Anyway... I personally use a 9x12 Intuos2, but I also do design work, so it helps out sometimes. Also keep in mind that it has a "quick point" mode that lets you move around the entire screen from a corner of the tablet that's just a couple inches, and also reduces the size of the tablet as a whole, so you're not sweeping over the entire thing. I find that I like this mode sometimes, but I do a lot of zooming to do work, so the motions aren't that big anyway... more accurate, if anything

[shiningstardv]

I just saw this thread, and now I have ordered a 6x8 Intuos3. Thanks a lot guys... $300 spent because of one thread...

Well at least it sounds really cool and it will help a lot with my photo editing in Photoshop. And I have been looking at and considering these things for about 2 years now. I guess this thread just pushed me over the edge.

[richpix]

For those of you who may be considering a Wacom tablet, but aren't sure what size or model to choose, Wacom has a Tablet Wizard (http://www.wacom.com/tabletwizard/index.cfm) on their site which may help you out.

[Persian-Rice]

From personal expereince, I like the smaller 6x8 intuos. I have the older one, but it works perfectly. Eitherway, being a good at drawing is important, if you arent, you will need to develop your hand control before editing becomes easy.

[Johnny V]

6x8 is the way to go. Any larger and your hand and arm will be doing a lot of moving.

[duke]

Kelli
does the Graphire help when you need to draw or touch up detail on hairs /or eyelashes of the Portrait images ? somebody said used mouse better, pen just good for drawing ?