Graphics Tablet

[Cigaro]

I'm a 3rd year product design student.

 

Obviously I do a fair bit of drawing and was wondering if a graphics tablet would be beneficial or useful to me.

 

Anyone any info/opinions?

[BoJack Horseman]

You're 3rd year product and don't have yourself a tablet? C'mon now. lol.

[Cigaro]

You're 3rd year product and don't have yourself a tablet? C'mon now. lol.

Unless I've missed a joke then no

[BoJack Horseman]

Pretty much a necessity up my end. Right enough only a handful of product had them to begin, I imagine most of them will now. I don't know the ins and out of what they do, but i'm guessing it's common to have one? Most of your class not?

[Cigaro]

Pretty much a necessity up my end. Right enough only a handful of product had them to begin, I imagine most of them will now. I don't know the ins and out of what they do, but i'm guessing it's common to have one? Most of your class not?

I am the whole of the 3rd year product design class at HW.

 

I'm not sure either, thats why I'm asking.

[Tazio]

I am the whole of the 3rd year product design class at HW.

 

I'm not sure either, thats why I'm asking.

 

The guy at my work who does design and marketing uses his constantly. So without knowing anything about design I would say, yes, you need one.

[BoJack Horseman]

I am the whole of the 3rd year product design class at HW.

 

I'm not sure either, thats why I'm asking.

 

Ah, then yes.

[Cigaro]

Considering one for a while.

 

What are the benefits of it?

 

And how exactly does it work?

[BoJack Horseman]

Benefits are great. Allows you to draw, freehand, straight onto the computer screen. Great for rough sketches, or in your case, design development. Just saves drawing on paper and scanning in really.

 

It works by giving a tablet that is relevant to the screen, you draw on that as you would paper and you're pen strokes show on the screen.

 

I'd reccommend looking at the Wacom range. I don't think you'd one too outstanding.

[Cigaro]

Benefits are great. Allows you to draw, freehand, straight onto the computer screen. Great for rough sketches, or in your case, design development. Just saves drawing on paper and scanning in really.

 

It works by giving a tablet that is relevant to the screen, you draw on that as you would paper and you're pen strokes show on the screen.

 

I'd reccommend looking at the Wacom range. I don't think you'd one too outstanding.

Does the screen appear on the tablet?

 

Strange, I asked on another forum too and Wacom was recommended there as well.

 

What size is most appropriate?

[BoJack Horseman]

You can get ones with the screen showing on the tablet, but they're very expensive. I've had Wacom for years, apparently they've got patented technology that makes them superior. Mine is a small A5, i'd maybe prefer it to be bigger, but it does the job.

[Tazio]

Does the screen appear on the tablet?

 

 

Nope, but you tend to look at the screen, not the tablet.

[Cigaro]

You can get ones with the screen showing on the tablet, but they're very expensive. I've had Wacom for years, apparently they've got patented technology that makes them superior. Mine is a small A5, i'd maybe prefer it to be bigger, but it does the job.

 

Nope, but you tend to look at the screen, not the tablet.

 

Cheers. Just thought it would be easier if it did.

 

So maybe an A4 one? I was looking at A4 or A5.

 

How much roughly would I be looking at?

[Tazio]

How much roughly would I be looking at?

 

Google?

[Cigaro]

Google?

?30-?900

 

[Tazio]

?30-?900

 

 

The balls in your court

[Cigaro]

The balls in your court

 

Might need to lose a finger at work I think.

 

[kjc2006]

Used graphics tablets last year in my multimedia course hated the things. I dont hav clue who made them but the ones i used were terrible, the fact im not the best at drawing was highlighted about 200% with these things.

[Commander Harris]

as it is for design I'd say A5 was big enough for your needs - if it was for artistic work and you required full motion of your arm then A4 would make sense but it's probably not worth the extra cost for your purposes.

[Cigaro]

Used graphics tablets last year in my multimedia course hated the things. I dont hav clue who made them but the ones i used were terrible, the fact im not the best at drawing was highlighted about 200% with these things.

I've been doing a lot more sketching as mine wasnt great. I tended to always manipulate images and model stuff on the computer instead which is time consuming.

 

Its come on leaps and bounds since I was given exercises.

[Cigaro]

as it is for design I'd say A5 was big enough for your needs - if it was for artistic work and you required full motion of your arm then A4 would make sense but it's probably not worth the extra cost for your purposes.

Thats been my main problem, choosing the most suitabe size.

 

Dont want to spend ?50+ on something thats too small.

[kjc2006]

The biggest problem i had with the was looking at the screen to see what i had drawn and then restarting drawing and it would start on a different part of the screen.

[BoJack Horseman]

Thats been my main problem, choosing the most suitabe size.

 

Dont want to spend ?50+ on something thats too small.

 

We can loan them from the department for a week at a time, top notch ones too. Do you not have a similar facility? Just to get a feel for it?

[Cigaro]

We can loan them from the department for a week at a time, top notch ones too. Do you not have a similar facility? Just to get a feel for it?

Not as far as I know.

 

I may enquire about that though.

[Moriarty]

I have used one a few times ( I am second year graphic design at RGU) they are really nifty wee things. If I could get one cheap I would consider it, but we can loan them from our department so not desperate to get one just now.

 

If you do a lot of freehand drawing then it could be of real use to you.

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

Wacom are pretty much industry standard (I'm a packaging designer)

 

To be honest they're a bit marmite (either love em or hate em)

 

Personally they're not for me. I'm a confirmed mouse monkey

 

Size wise, thats down solely to your budget. I have an A6 one that i use on a 22" monitor but to be honest it's been sat in a drawer for donkeys (I'll use it once in a while for photo retouching stuff and thats it)

[Craig R]

I'm a 3rd year product design student.

 

Obviously I do a fair bit of drawing and was wondering if a graphics tablet would be beneficial or useful to me.

 

Anyone any info/opinions?

 

I use a WACOM tablet for graphic design/illustration work and would be lost without it. Highly recommend getting one.

[I P Knightley]

I've used WACOM screens, tablets and also the Toshiba laptop tablet for presentations.

 

Having used the Tosh and the screen, I wouldn't recommend the tablet at all. The concept sounds like a keyboard/monitor relationship (you input on the desk and see it on the screen) but when you're doing it, the disconnect between your "pencil" and the drawing is weird.

 

Using the WACOM screen ('Cintiq', I think, was the model name) was great. A 17" monitor that you can anotate & draw on. These were installed permanently in the presentation rooms that we used and I could anotate PowerPoint slides or write/draw on white screen using Paint. I'm sure that there are more sophisticated applications for the technology. The touch screen is also useful for editing documents & spreadsheets.

 

At the time of buying, they were ?1100 a screen. I'll bet that technology and time have moved on to give you bigger and better for less. The downside is lack of portability but it makes a great monitor for your desk!

 

The Tosh (Portege) is great for portability but the screen size was a bit annoying for me - probably, again, because I'd tried something better.

 

This was all over 3 years ago that I was buying so the choice within laptops may well have come on.