WACOm intuos 2

I have to admit, that I bought this tablet because I couldn't afford the newer Intuos 3. But have I regretted it? Not at all.

The Intuos 2 (6x8) offers 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity, a resolution of 2540 lpi (100 lpmm), accuracy of +/-0.01 inches and tilt range of +/-60 degrees. There is also this nifty menu bar on top of the screen which allows you to swap modes and pressures. I can't imagine a tablet without it... which is one of the reasons I prefer this one over the Intuos 3.

So, I plugged my tablet into the USB port, and amazed was I. The computer recognised it straight away. After installing the driver, the tablet was ready to use on my favourite program in the whole world, Adobe Photoshop.

It took a little getting used to. The tablet was super-sensitive, and it was after a few more minutes before i realised that you didn't actually have to touch the tablet to have it work - not to mention the battery-free stylus (pen, whatever) that was provided also has this cool 2 button feature, which allowed me to left and right click without making contact with the tablet working space.

It was like magic. It was freedom with writing like I have never experienced before. Instead of the jerky, uneven movement of the mouse, it was just exactly like using a ink-well pen. It even offered something a normal pencil or pen wouldn't allow. After deciding that in some places the tablet surfaces were too slippery, I placed a piece of paper on it and it worked fine. Did I mention that you can slip a drawing underneath the tablet's screen and trace around it? It isn't exactly like real tracing, but it almost works :D. The pen also has a rubber on the other side, and you can actually just flip the pen over to rub out in photoshop, it is truly amazing.

Any graphics person would be truly mad without a graphics tablet. This is just the model I prefer.