An Exceptional Value
Written: Jun 15 '00 (Updated Jun 25 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact Size, Inexpensive; Easy to Use; Good Software Bundle
Cons: The Mouse is Questionable; Windows Drivers Can Be Flaky
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| phrop's Full Review: Wacom Graphire Pen & Mouse Set |
The newest line of inexpensive drawing tablets from Wacom is a real winner. The Graphire tablets have a 4 X 5 inch drawing area and the entire unit is compact enough to travel with a laptop, which is how I use it.
If you are just beginning to get creative on your computer, the software bundled with the tablet can give you a huge jumpstart. MetaCreations Painter Classic is a great natural-medium drawing program. If you have the patients to learn how to use all of its features you will be rewarded with illustrations that look like they were painted on natural materials with real mediums.
I use the tablet with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe PhotoShop, and Macromedia Flash to create designs and artwork for web sites and for print. The tablet really shows its worth when retouching photos, drawing masks, and making motion paths.
My first drawing tablet was a SummaGrpahics SummaSketch II 12 X 12 inch drawing tablet with puck and corded pen. This tablet takes a lot of getting used to and requires a lot of desk space. My next tablet was a Wacom ArtZ II 4 X 5. I found this tablet much easier to use and more attuned to my style of use. And of course my newest tablet is a blue Wacom Graphire.
The Pen
I love this pen. It is not as solid as the pens that come with Wacom’s other tablets, but is lighter and more than responsive enough for illustration, animation, and photo retouching. The eraser even works in many word processors and the pen drawing tip works as expected in most applications.
The Mouse
I have found no real use for the mouse yet. It’s too much like dragging a wooden block over sand paper. The texture that makes the pen feel like you’re writing on paper makes the mouse awkward to use.
USB Connectivity
I definitely prefer the USB version to the serial port version. USB is much more convenient than using SCSI for a scanner, a serial port for a drawing tablet, and a PS/2 port for a mouse, especially when plugging into a laptop.
I have used the drawing tablet, scanner, and mouse plugged into a four port powered Belkin hub everything worked flawlessly.
Gaming
For card games and games that require a lot of drag and drop, a tablet can be very handy. But in my experience, drawing tablets are not very good input for action games. Trying to use the tablet with Diablo II (stress test) has proven futile.
Drivers
On the PC the Wacom drivers may cause conflicts that can lead to general protection faults and weird temporary hangs, especially if you frequently use the computer without the tablet plugged in. But there is a way around this. You can use one of the many registry-editing tools to stop the drivers from loading on start-up, and then make a shortcut on your desktop to load the drivers when you want to use the tablet.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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Epinions.com ID:
phrop
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Member: Dave Nelson
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 8 members
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