Graphic tablet

InsideInsurance

Dont know what they are properly called these days, looking to get a graphics tablet for the Mrs for helping with using Illustrator on Mac computers.

Have no idea about these things, I see Apple seem to exclusive push Wacom's offerings but no idea if this is a decent brand or just one that gives good commission. Want something that ideally is "semi-pro" and relatively robust for taking on the road as well as home use

patman99

Wacom are just one of many graphics tablet makers.

Whatever you buy, make sure it has Mac drivers and software.

Mr_Toad

I've got a Wacom tablet, the Bamboo, and they come with both Windows and Mac software. I use it with Photoshop as well as other applications including drawing packages.

The Bamboo is a smallish tablet. I had an A4 sized one previously and found that as the tablet surface maps to the screen it involved a lot of moving about with the pen. With the smaller tablet it still maps to the screen but the movement required is a lot less, something that I prefer.

As for semi-pro the Wacom Bamboo is about £50 or you can get the Wacom Cintiq range that goes up to £2500 and there are models at all points in between

clangnuts

Wacom are the best. From the cheaper Bamboo, to the £700 Cintiq, and beyond. They are all excellent.

InsideInsurance

patman99 wrote: »

Wacom are just one of many graphics tablet makers.

I realise they are one of many but no idea where they sit on the spectrum in terms of quality/value. Willing to spend up to c£300 which seems to put it at the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (PTH-651) at £235 but no idea about these things

paddyrg

Wacom are good but you may get bettr deals with other brands - check out the range from Trust for instance, they're very decent.

neilwoods

Yes you do get better deals on other graphic tablets, but you also get far inferior product as well. This may be a money saving site, but on this occasion, the old adage of you get what you pay for is true.

Compare it to football, wacom are the premier league winners in every aspect.

InsideInsurance

neilwoods wrote: »

Yes you do get better deals on other graphic tablets, but you also get far inferior product as well. This may be a money saving site, but on this occasion, the old adage of you get what you pay for is true.

Compare it to football, wacom are the premier league winners in every aspect.

Money saving can be to buy the best value which is not always the cheapest.

As the Mrs is semi-pro and hopes to become pro in the future its probably more money saving to buy something now that will suitable both now and in the future rather than a budget item that then has to be sold and a more expensive one bought in the future which probably together will be more costly than just getting the better one up front.

patman99

It's all down to the dpi range of the tablet. Take 2 tablets with a dpi resolution of, say, 2,600 dpi. There will be no difference in performance between a £5 and a £250 tablet.

You just need to make sure that the tablet has pressure-sensitive points if you are working with photos.

cookie365

I wouldn't even look past Wacom to be frank.

The Intuos will be fine for semi pro work, and if she goes pro will also help her evaluate whether the work she'll be doing warrants the Cintiq

clangnuts

I had a Trust tablet a few years back. Found it very poor quality. Now use a Cintiq 12wx (draw directly on LCD screen type) and its excellent. Now replaced by cintiq 13hd, which is cheaper than the 12wx was 4 years ago.