NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, July 2005
Wacom Graphire 3 4x5 Tablet
by Bill Moeller, Vice President
wmoeller@arkansasusa.com


For years I have griped and grumbled about the mouse as an input device when I am trying to draw a straight line, or any other kind of line for that matter. Friends told me about graphic tablets, but I just never got around to getting one. Rather just sit around and gripe, I guess.

Well events finally caught up with me. While working on some old images (from slides taken in the fifties), I had to do some image selection and masking work that was simply beyond my ability to use a mouse. I bit the bullet and took the advice my more knowledgeable friends had been giving me.

A graphic tablet is sort of like a thin notepad with a plastic surface you can write on using a special pen which comes with the tablet. When you write, or draw, you see the cursor on your monitor just like when you are using the mouse, and all of the effects are the same. The difference lies in how precisely you can control the pen, which should be no big surprise if you think about how long you have been using pens and pencils, and how long you have been using the mouse.

Before buying, I googled the question and turned up two key pieces of information: first, among professionals, Wacom is the name; and second, while large tablets are appropriate for graphic artists who swing from the shoulder when they draw, smaller tablets are appropriate for those of us who swing from the wrist. One excellent review, written by a British graphic-artist-turned-photographer, specifically recommended the least expensive, smallest Wacom tablet for most photographers. That is what I bought—for eighty-nine bucks including shipping.

The tablet I bought is about the size of a mousepad, and I frequently use it in place of the mousepad. It has its own mouse which can be used when needed, but for photo retouching and the like, the pen is much the better tool. (If you want to get a feel of what using the pen is like, first try drawing a nice, neat diagonal line across the screen with a mouse, then try drawing the same line across a sheet of paper using a pencil—that’s the difference.)

The tablet connects to and draws its power (0.2 watts) from a USB port. The pen draws its power from the tablet with no connecting cord or cable, even when hovering a short distance above the tablet. The driver software is good, installation was clean, with no problems, and learning to use it proficiently was simple-- I just picked a very-difficult-to-correct scan of a fifty-year old slide and got to work. By the time I had the slide corrected, I knew how to use the tablet and pen.

The one shortcoming I have discovered is that when retouching there is no way to control brush size as easily as using the wheel on a mouse. This turned out to be a minor inconvenience, easily overcome by keeping the mouse within easy reach while using the pen.

Bottom line? For those among us who need to retouch old photos, or do other graphic work, the graphic tablet is a very useful tool which can make the world a much nicer place to live in. Which model? That depends, I guess, on whether you swing from the shoulder or the wrist.

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