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RE: Graphic apps with tablet (was RE: What graphics tasks do you perform?
Subject:RE: Graphic apps with tablet (was RE: What graphics tasks do you perform? From:Gregory P Sweet <gps03 -at- health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us> To:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> Date:Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:25:10 -0500
I'm with Tony on the Cintiq. I use a 21UX and am trying to justify 24HD.
Aside from your graphics software, don't forget:
â A pen-enabled version of your OS or at least something like Ritepen to
give you handwriting rec and pen shortcuts. You may think you don't want or
need this, but once you start working with the pen, you'll hate putting it
down to do keyboard tasks.
â to that end a good on-screen keyboard, if not included in the OS.
â A beefy graphics card to keep up with the tablet. You want to well exceed
the minimum specs for best performance. It sucks to miss out on features
(like scrubby zoom in Photoshop) because the graphics card isn't up for it.
â Reading up on the Intuos, it wears nibs incredibly fast so buy extra
right at the start. I love to sketch with mine and stongly prefer the hard
felt nibs for a real pencil feel. You might not need the felt ans the
friction on an Intuos is probably better than the glass on a Cintiq.
â For anyone lucky enough to work on a Cintiq or simmilar display a
smudgeguard is essential equipement that should really come in the box with
the display.
When Sketching I especially like to load a photo of what I want to skecth
into the base layer and create skecth layers on top of it. I use Corel
Painter Sketch Pad (came with the wacom) and Autodesk Sketchbook Express
(free), though the nicest skecth app I've used is Autodesk Skecthbook Pro,
I'm just too cheap to buy it.
In answer to the original question, I make really nice hand-drawn call outs
and annotations using Sketch Pad. Even more awsome I can add the callouts
on the fly during my webinar courses where students can drive the
discussion and get customized materials (they can save the annotations) as
part of the lessons. I hate trying to annotate in SnagIt and photoshop
where lines are not as natural. Try writing in Snagit when it immediately
converts strokes to individual elements as soon as the pen loses contact
with the screen. You end up with a bunch of wierd strokes instead of letter
forms.
Cheers!
-Greg
techwr-l-bounces+gps03=health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com wrote on
02/19/2013 04:02:17 PM:
> From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
> To: Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca>
> Cc: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: 02/19/2013 04:02 PM
> Subject: RE: Graphic apps with tablet (was RE: What graphics tasks
> do you perform?
> Sent by: techwr-l-bounces+gps03=health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> I was just at the Wacom site a couple of weeks ago. Unless there's
> a really big sale on, I recall the midlin' Intuos being in the
> multi-hundred-dollar range (that's the "I can just barely justify
> this as a present to myself" range), while the Cintiqs were in the
> coupla-thousand-dollar "... the wife would justifiably kill me" range.
>
> I did drool over them.... Ok, I looked AT them and drooled ON my
> keyboard, but you get my drift. :)
>
>
>
> From: Tony Chung [mailto:tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca]
> Sent: February-19-13 3:57 PM
> To: McLauchlan, Kevin
> Cc: Nancy Allison; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Graphic apps with tablet (was RE: What graphics tasks
> do you perform?
>
> Kevin,
>
> I used to own a consumer Wacom tablet at home, and I inherited the
> Intuos tablet at my new desk. However, after playing with tablet pcs
> for years, and my friend loaned me his Wacom Cintiq 21UX tablet
> screen, I will NEVER recommend a disjointed digitizing tablet again.
> I'm looking into a Cintiq 24H Touch.
>
> Yes, I've been spoiled. But the pairing of my friend's tablet and
> Manga Studio was addictive.
>
> But as for general purpose software, GIMP is great for bitmaps, and
> Inkscape is my go to vector tool.
>
> -Tony
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