need advice on drawing tablet

[Judy Doherty]

I am hoping someone can help me with this question.

I want to get a digital drawing table to use with Illustrator. Is this possible? And if so, which tablet would you recommend?

Thanks so much!!

Judy

[Mandi]

This is the one I've been longing for:

http://www.wacom.com/productinfo/intuos.cfm

...not that I'm an Illustrator user, so I can't comment on that aspect.

[Jeff]

I love my Wacom tablet - couldn't live without it.

So count that as another strong recommendation for Wacom.

First I had a 12 x 18 I bought used and it was pretty nice, but I found I never used all that space. Now I have a 9 x 12 Intuos and I love both the pen and the 4d mouse, though the newer 5-button+wheel optical mice finally give the 4dmouse a run for the money. I still much prefer the absolute positining with the 4D mouse (in additon to the pen) to using a normal mouse though, and I simply cannot work on graphics or photoshop without the wacom pen.

[chilihorse]

I have a 12 x 18 Wacom tablet that I use with Illustrator and Photoshop on a regular basis. I agree with Jeff that I have never used all that space and, at times, it is way too much.

My business partner has a 6 x8?, smaller anyway, and uses it constantly. If she can use it instead of the mouse, she does. We do not have the 4-D mouse but find the pen very accurate and much easier to use to pinpoint the points on the paths within Illustrator. It is so much easier to work with the detail within enlarged images using the tablet that we cannot image doing without one.

One of the neat things with a Wacom tablet is that you can program certain functions to correspond with routine Photoshop and Illustrator activities. This may also be true with other tablets or programs. Just one more thing to let you focus on the fun stuff instead of reacting to hardware/software limitaions.

For what it is worth, coming from a guy, do not do the guy thing and think bigger is better. Unless you are working with CAD or architectural type images I do not see much point in using a bigger tablet. Besides the fact that a smaller one leaves more room for your coffee or cat.

[Judy Doherty]

Thanks to all of you. I am watching several good deals on ebay!!

Judy

[Rich]

See if you can find one of these cool Wacom Cintiq's:

http://www.wacom.com/popup/18sx_info.cfm

[Jeff]

Those look soooooo cool, except for the price!

Since you mention buying one used, I should mention that while the tablets themselves go on forever, there is some wear on the "accessories". The worst is the 4D Mouse which I use all the time - I've been through four of them at $80/each because the buttons break (actually the buttons lose their spring and misalign so it gets harder to click after a while.) Also the rubber used for the wheel on the side (Intuos not the newer Intuos 2 with it on the top) gets less "tactile" and the bottom picks up anything if you don't work in a cleanroom - keeps the surface of the tablet clean, but after a while the bottom of the mouse looks horrible. I've only been through one pen (with my original 12 x 18) when the button on the side stopped springing. And one mylar surface replacement at $20 or $25 because you tend to wear off the coating and then it gets less smooth and so you get uneven movement with the point of the pen. Anyway, just something to keep in mind that if you buy used at least one of these things is likely to die sooner and need to be replaced. But on the other hand the one I purchased used, other than needing a new pen after a year of use, was still a good deal.