Adobe Illustrator for Windows - Graphic Tablet's and Illustrator

Author

Graphic Tablet's and Illustrator

BlackFlux@adobeforums.com

2006-12-06, 8:16 pm

I am really considering getting a graphic tablet to use with Illustrator. My designs are starting to get very complex with a lot of line detail. I basically only use the pen tool with a lot of bezier curves to get my artwork precise as possible. I am look
ing to get a Wacom or an Aiptek.

I heard tablets are good for tracing lines. Will a tablet speedup the tracing process?

How will the pen tool work with a graphic tablet? I'm worried that using a tablet would make it harder to use pen tool.

Philip_Peterson@adobeforums.com

2006-12-06, 8:16 pm

I think the Intuos 3 rocks, but that is only because I cannot afford a cintiq.

<http://www.wacom.com/index2.cfm>

LenHewitt@adobeforums.com

2006-12-06, 8:16 pm

You won't go wrong with a Wacom - the same unfortunately cannot be said
for other manufacturers' tablets.

BlackFlux@adobeforums.com

2006-12-06, 8:16 pm

But what about how it works while using the pen tool?

JerronSmith@adobeforums.com

2006-12-06, 8:16 pm

I use a wacom tablet with illustrator. I find that the stylus (pen) interface makes it a bit quicker for me to draw and trace images than I can with a mouse. But it is just a personal preference really I know plenty of people who use a mouse to great effe
ct. I also find that it is less stressful than the mouse on my wrist.

James_Talmage@adobeforums.com

2006-12-06, 8:16 pm

It's a personal thing, like whether you like driving a straight shift(which I do; but I very seldom use my Wacom).

You won't really know until you try it. You're curious about it, so no amount of answers on a user forum will satisfy that curiosity. You're just going to have to try it and find out if you like it.

To me, the primary purpose for a pen stylus/pad is pressure-sensitivity for "traditional media" effects in raster programs (especially Painter). By their nature, support for this and the effects achieved in vector programs are must more limited.

I've never had a problem with wrist-ache after using a mouse every day all day since the mid 80s. So that's never been an issue with me.

I bought (still have it, in the box; used very little) one of the first 6 x 9 Wacom tablet (Mac serial). I have an Intuos II now on my Windows box. (Have used it even less.)

I find the pen/tablet very cumbersome and inaccurate for drawing vector paths with the program's Pen. I find making general selections, menu commands, palette clicks, etc., less accurate and slow.

I find locating the tablet next to my keyboard or on my lap cumbersome, to little or no real gain. I find the need to constrain the stylus movement to the bounds of the tablet more constraing than using any decent optical mouse on my desktop with no bound
s. (I don't use a mousepad.)

I always work on two monitors; document window only resides on monitor 1; all palettes on monitor 2. Stylus tablets require mapping this to the tablet some how. I find all the mapping methods undesirable. To maintain proportional mapping of a decent table
t area for painting, I have to map the tablet to just monitor 1. This then requires extra clicks, or dropping the pen and grabbing the mouse to access palettes on monitor 2. If I map both monitors to the palette, I can cross monitors like I do with a mous
e, but now my drawing area is very small.

So all in all, I don't like it. For me, (obviously not for many others, since they sell quite popularly) it's a solution looking for a problem. But I find them limiting, cumbersome, and a hindrance to productivity. And I spend A LOT of time drawing paths
in vector programs.

JET

BlackFlux@adobeforums.com

2006-12-06, 8:16 pm

Well I went out last night to Circuit City and picked up a Wacom3 Intous3 4X5 ($210 out the door). The way I see it is, I have 30 days to return it if I decide that I didn’t like it. Plus my curiosity got the best of me.

Right off the back I had a problem with how the screen cursor movement corresponded with the position of the Intuos3 Grip Pen on the tablet. Good thing I actually followed the tutorial because I read about “Tablet to Screen Mapping.” The default setting w
as set to Pen mode. So I switched to Mouse mode, which moves the screen cursor with a “pick up and slide” motion, which is essentially how a traditional mouse works.

Changing that setting really made a difference for me. The only other setting that I changed was for one of the tool buttons on the Intuos3 Grip Pen. I just set it up simulate the Undo function within Illustrator. I use that function a lot.

In doing my research I really didn’t think that the Customizable ExpressKeys (CTRL, SHIFT, ALT, and SPACE) would be that big of a deal until I actually started using the tablet. Those ExressKeys are kind of essential as far as using the pen tool within Il
lustrator. They come in handy for modifying and converting Bezier curves, not to mention for creating Cusp points. I guess you can use the keyboard keys as well but it a little cumbersome.

The only other thing that I feel I should mention is that I have a 2 monitor setup and left the mapping of the tablet to span across both monitors. It would be too weird having to switch to the mouse just to move the cursor on the second monitor.

That’s as far as I got so far and I really haven’t had too much time to play with it (no more than an hour). Will post more once I get to play with it more.

Flux