INTRO/BACKGROUND
I finally took the plunge. Since I’ve been a proud Apple computer user for the past two years, I’ve finally decided to go all the way and get myself a Wacom digital tablet. The decision to get a tablet was fuelled by in part, wanting to use my very nice looking computer for more than geeky coding stuff and a curiosity of how liberating I may feel by using a pen based pointing device. My expectations are very well met in certain areas but also there are places where I know it will take some getting used to on my part.
PRODUCT INFO
The box presentation of my Intuos2 actually was somewhat disappointing. I personally think the Graphire3 (Wacom’s consumer line) is more presentable with a very flashy “cool” looking retail packaging. What was so disappointing? Well, Intuos2 was packaged in an old boring box. No cool graphics or even a window to show off the look of this professional grade tablet.
Had I not have played around with Graphire3 in the stores, I would have thought the Intuos2 was build quality is exceptional but alas, that is not the case. Wacom’s Graphire3 was released about a year after Intuos2 and it shows. New Graphire has comes in multiple colour choices and the drawing area is covered with a Plexiglas to match the look of ibooks. I suppose Intuos2 is targeted towards professionals and I guess the “pretty” look really isn’t for the pros but I can wish, can’t I?
On the brighter side is that the lack of prettiness is more than made up by the solid construction. I can’t complain about the titanium colour matches my Aluminum Powerbook very nicely.
Before I get too carried away with the looks, I must mention that in the package was a very comfortable pen and mouse meant to be used on the working area of the tablet. The pen is very ergonomic! Although, I am somewhat disappointed with the mouse. It’s not ergonomic enough or at all.
THE GOOD STUFF
The tablet it self is very similar size to my 15″ powerbook. It can easily be slipped into an average computer carrying case along with the notebook.
RANT & RAVES
The true power of this tablet comes out when used with programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. These two software supports the pressure sensitive operation of brushes and oh, boy are they ever so elegant! I don’t know how I could ever did photo touch up with just a plain old mouse!
Another neat feature this tablet introduced me to in combination with my powerbook was the hand writing recognition software Ink Well, which is shipped with mac os X. This fun software stayed dormant until I plugged in my new shinning tablet. Now, I have an option of writing a simple message to a friend when I don’t feel like typing. Sure, it takes a while to get used to but so was typing when I first started using a computer.
Addition: Since I had to go under a knife to repair an old injury on my left hand, I was forced to type one handed or use the hand writting recognition software. One never knows how important both hands are needed in even the most trivial task.
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Tuesday, June 1st, 2004, 11:27 pm | 
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