Archive for the ‘Design Tools’ Category

I like toys. So sue me. And since I like toys so much, I finally got my hands on an intuos4, even though the upgrade was seemingly frivolous and unnecessary. Let’s just say I didn’t have to invest much to experience the upgrade (and no, there aren’t any scratched off serial numbers in this story). As I posted back in March, my intuos3 had become a complete and utter addiction since I made the initial purchase – it had become an extension of my G5 – as necessary to my workflow as my monitors and my keyboard.  Like with any technology addict, I wasn’t in need of this new piece of hardware, but the “latest and greatest” got the best of me and ultimately caused the upgrade fever.  So now that I’ve gotten my hands on this fancy, shiny, incredibly well engineered piece of fun, I’m ready to deliver the good news and I’m sure Wacom fans will not be disappointed.

With the new intuos4, Wacom promised upgrades to existing functionality as well as innovative new features yet to be seen. New levels of sensitivity in the existing pen technology, a TouchRing (seemingly similar to Apple’s ClickWheel), an ambidextrous design, all new sizes, and the pièce de résistance: the illuminated display. So now my seemingly perfect tool had a bunch of brand new bells and whistles that quickly became a necessity in my mind. I’m ridiculous, but at least I can admit it to myself.

Upon unpacking the sleek matte-finished black box dripping in tantalizing, shadowy images of the intuos4, I’m greeted with the thinnest tablet I’ve seen yet. Continue Reading »

Another post I made recently on creativebits.org made me want to quickly share my thoughts on my longtime addiction to the Wacom Intuos3 tablet. I must say, that when I first got it, I was convinced that it was a bit frivolous and that it was something I would use strictly for retouching and Adobe Illustrator. Let me say this bluntly: I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

The Wacom tablet (I have the 6″x11″, which is essential for my dual monitor setup) has become a complete replacement for the standard mouse. In fact, I’ve removed myself so far from the mouse, that it’s become awkward to use at this point—like trying to draw with my fingers taped together.  I don’t mean to make this too much of a sales pitch for Wacom, since I’m getting nothing for this, but I want to share my thoughts with other designers that may begin to read this blog.  There seems to be some wonder and apprehension associated with using a tablet as the main form of manipulation for just photoshop, let alone the rest of everyday activities on your computer, but let me tell you that after a day or two of using the tablet strictly, you will realize that it has become an extension of your hand. It’s astonishing how fluid and organic all my processes become on my machine—everything from using exposé to writing code becomes quicker, easier, and generally more natural of a process. Anything that brings more of a human touch to a generally restricting computer architecture is OK in my book.

Give it a shot, and if you decide you don’t like it, I think you’re doing something wrong.