Wacom drawing tablet/pen which to choose ???

[catlover]

Hi, all

I'm contemplating buying a Wacom drawing tablet/pen, but I don't know which one would be best for AFP & AFD.

I have read some of the comments already posted, but it only makes me more conbfused.

I'm running an i-Mac, 27"

Could anyone please give me advice ?

Thanks a million,

C.L.

 

PS : To all who contribute so much to this forum :

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Very Happy New year in the best of health !!! 

[v_kyr]

Which size S/M/L (active area size ~ A6, A5, A4)?  - Further does money/budget play a role here, how much do you want to spend max?

[catlover]

That would be A4 format, budget is around 200 Euros, max. 250.

I looked at Wacom Intuos, but the comments in the forum speak of may problems...

Maybe there are other brands ?

Thanks

C.L.

[v_kyr]

From the actual Wacom tablet model lines, only the Intuos Pro models support a bigger L size here, in contrast to that the plain Intuos line only supports S and M sizes. Further from the cheaper Intuos line only the models Art and 3D are available in M sizes. - This limits the model decisions a) size wise and b) price wise, since the cheaper models which fall into your max budget category aren't available with an active A4 area size (L size), these are just available to max A5 active area sizes (M size).

I have an older Wacom ONE M size model which works Ok so far, but it's used mostly on Macs here (thus OSX drivers) and might behave differently under Win with Win drivers.

Of course there are also tablets from other brands available, often cheaper here, but can't tell which one would work fine here with the Affinity products on Win/Mac and also be of similar quality and thus a good alternative.

[catlover]

Thank you, V_Kyr.

I guess I'll do some more shopping around !

C.L.

[Merde]

@catlover, make sure you really need tablet this big...

[lmirante]

I've been using a Wacom Bamboo tablet literally for years.  It's cheap, small and has no pen pressure sensitivity.  Unlike the larger, more expensive tablets, it can be set so that it DOESN'T "map" the screen (top, left of tablet = top, left of screen).  If you use it in mouse mode (I think?), you kind of hover over the tablet and can scroll the screen.  Anyway, for basic photo editing it works great.  If you need pressure sensitivity and fancy graphic designer stuff, probably not.  My daughter has an Intuos Pro, medium, as she's an artist and she really likes it, but I only do photo editing and I tried the Intuos Pro for a while but preferred the cheaper one because of the ability to use their mouse mode.  I think they still sell something similar for around the $100 range.

 

[catlover]

Hello, All:

 

I'd like to thank all of you who took the trouble to post me about this subject.

My main concern was not to have too small a tablet so that using it will be a comfortable experience

(I've never used a tablet before..)

I'll go and look at some actual tablet in the shops and decide thereafte which one to get.

Thanks all

C.L.

[qiulong]

It takes time to adapt to looking at the screen while drawing on a tablet, but it can be done. One advice that I've heard is to completely remove your mouse for a week and use nothing but your tablet to move the cursor. Eventually, you'll come to develop much better hand-eye coordination to effectively use a tablet like the XP-Pen DECO 01 . For me, I just kept drawing with the tablet until I got better. A lot of disconnected lines were made.

That being said, I personally use a XP-Pen Artist 12 monitor tablet after using an DECO 01 for a long time.both buy from their offical site . I would say that the switch has made a dramatic difference to my workflow, for the better. I can't see myself going back.

[SrPx]

Deco 03 is battery-free, much better in every aspect ( a champion in quality/price ratio among all brands), although you usually can buy older tablets, specially in Amazon. For the price, I usually recommend buying the modern ones, at least in these cheap alternatives (Wacom is a totally different story).

How's that for very long sessions, Quiulong ? like 8 -10 hours a day (I'd recommend never go over 8, no matter what device, pen-display or pen-tablet...).

In my experience with even a cintiq, is  more tiring for eyesight (I set my monitor at certain distance, I have a regular Intuos now) and neck/body/back/arms/wrist than using a "traditional" pen-tablet.... But this varies a lot from one person to another. Some people needed to made the switch by doctor prescription, even....

My favs keep being tho, Wacom intuos L (middle/high end price) , Deco 03 (low price but very nice quality, Wacom L is superior, but for some ppl the Deco03 size is better), Huion...almost always their latest higher-end (more expensive) of their gamma pen-monitor (higher cost, but a equivalent cintiq is aprox. 2x the price, or more), in that kind of thing. Even in that order of preference.

Anyway I also keep my conclusions on how usage determines a lot of this : Pixel art, you are fine even with a Wacom small, if are just doing that. Photography, maybe also, it depends in the user case, though. I doubt a Wacom L is a good fit for a photographer tho (yet great for line-art based illustrators, or like me, people that need inking often). A digital painter who does not do line art, is totally fine in many cases with a Wacom Intuos Medium, but today, you perfectly get that with a  Deco03 for way less money. Inkers....doing professional inking... I guess paper and regular inks, lol. But if not, the Wacom L, probably with the Paper option, even if only for some styles and uses. For those might be very useful too a pen-monitor ( interactive monitor-tablet, Cintiq alternative, however you call it), as you get somewhat more control of the line. A well trained Wacom Intuos user can get perfect lines with some slight stabilizer by software, tho. My very personal take of a perfect setup : Two PCs, having one with a cintiq alternative for certain usage (inking, some illustration work, etc) but another machine with a regular wacom L or the Deco03 (depending on if you already ink with the cintiq alternative, and that's enough, then no reason to go higher than the 100 bucks of the Deco 03).

EDIT: When I say highest of the line of Huion (but yep,  XP-PEN or Artisul come close in my own preference. Specially their 16" PRO offerings, as for now, they count on 92 and 94% of Adobe RGB color space support, very different to the 22" models, sadly. Still, I have a hard time to accept 16 inches for my use), I'm already thinking of 22 or + inches size. But again, I am an illustrator, digital painter and comic artist. That's varied, but are 3 of the profiles that get benefit from physical canvas size due to electronics (yet very far from offering a "equal" control that we have on regular pencil and paper, no matter if pen-display or pen-tablet) and stuff, and actual monitor size no matter what (for complex compositions, etc). As opposed specially to pixel art, and till some extent, photography. Even for basic vector work (few nodes, no extreme detailing)  a Small "could" be fine.

 

[xcsfkuxk005]

I had a small wacom intuos draw and just upgraded to the XP-Pen DECO 03. It is amazingly nice. I researched it prior to purchase and it was highly recommended even by XP-Pen DECO 03 users for new purchasers. Huge surface area and intuos pro level specs, the stylus is battery-free and wireless which recognize 8192 pressure levels . Plus it was only $100 shipped. I can definitely vouch for it being on par, myself. 10x5.62 active area is very nice, plus it has programmable hot keys. The wacom intuos draw isn't as big.

 

 

[aherntz]

On 12/14/2017 at 9:19 PM, catlover said:

Hi, all

I'm contemplating buying a Wacom drawing tablet/pen, but I don't know which one would be best for AFP & AFD.

I have read some of the comments already posted, but it only makes me more conbfused.

I'm running an i-Mac, 27"

Could anyone please give me advice ?

Thanks a million,

C.L.

 

PS : To all who contribute so much to this forum :

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Very Happy New year in the best of health !!! 

Hey, there is no need to just stick with wacom. There are many other popular drawing tablet brands like Huion and XP-Pen. You can either go with wacom intuos or you can have one from huion and xp-pen. And if you have a budget of up to 200 euros, you can even get a good drawing tablet with screen. Thanks.

[Ron P.]

3 hours ago, aherntz said:

Hey, there is no need to just stick with wacom. There are many other popular drawing tablet brands like Huion and XP-Pen. You can either go with wacom intuos or you can have one from huion and xp-pen. And if you have a budget of up to 200 euros, you can even get a good drawing tablet with screen. Thanks.

You do realize you replied to a post from 3 years ago? I think the OP may have purchased one by now. 😉