Model: Intous4 L

Introduction

They say that when working with a graphics tablet for the first time, you may experience a love hate relationship with it. This Intous4 L (L=Large) is actually the 3rd tablet I have owned, and certainly the largest. As I have a little experience in using these, I am fortunate enough to be going through all the love, and due to the value of the product, none of the hate.

My first tablet was, what one might call, fun size. I think its drawing area was about 5” x 8”. The pen was attached to the tablet and I was additionally tied to the computer by a rather short usb cable. My second tablet was an Intuos3 with a 6” x 11” drawing area. I did enjoy the flexibility of the cordless pen, but, somehow, that tablet and I never became good friends. My experience thus far with the Intuos4 is more like a steamy love affair in the Capri islands. It truly is love at first sight, and feel. I can safely say, if you have long been pondering whether or not to buy a tablet, now is when you ought to satisfy that urge. In this article I am going to go over how Wacom has created a highly satisfied customer with its presentation, usability, and workflow improvement with its latest version of the Intous series tablets.

Presentation and Installation

Earlier, I embarrassingly likened the experience of this tablet to a steamy love affair. I say this because this tablet is damn sexy right out of the box. To be honest, even the box was beautifully designed. And the interior packaging presented the tablet nicely.

Once you get the tablet out of the box, even more deliciousness awaits. The tablet has an ambidextrous design and a new (I will talk about this later) wheel and eight programmable buttons. The feel of the pen has improved considerably from my previous tablet. Best of all, is the pen holder. Whoever at Wacom designed this feature needs a raise. The pen holder now unscrews at the base and holds all your nibs. With my old tablets, I could guarantee myself one thing, that after three months I would have lost all my nibs. This completely, to my satisfaction eradicates that problem.

Installation was painless as well, Vista recognized the tablet immediately and the installation CD installed the appropriate driver swiftly. Additionally, with your purchase of a Wacom Intuos4 tablet you get a valuable software bundle that includes the following:

• Nik® Color Efex Pro™ WE6

Color Efex Pro filters are the leading photographic filters for digital photography. They are widely used by today's professional photographers to save time and get professional level results. Traditional and stylizing filters offer hundreds of possibilities to enhance and transform images quickly and easily.

Well, these filters lead for a reason. BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME. These things make almost make you forget how much your tablet cost. This a tremendously valuable and powerful set of filters that are incredibly intuitive and easy to use.

• Wacom Brushes 3.0

Wacom Brushes 3.0 gives you even more brush choices for use in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. The brushes found here create some really fun and outstanding effects. These brushes are a definite plus if you have grown tired of Photoshop’s arsenal. Additionally, I think that overall Wacom has done a really good job at supplying brushes with a lot of use possibilities.

You may also choose from any two of the following:

• Photoshop Elements 7

A good choice if you do not have Photoshop CS4.

• Autodesk SketchBook Express® 2010

Designed for pen-based interaction, SketchBook Express has most of the features of Autodesk's popular SketchBook Pro application. It features an artist-friendly, gesture-based user interface that lets artists get to work immediately. SketchBook Express almost feels tailor-made for pen-input technology, and the application's one-flick tools work fluidly with a flick of your wrist.

I used this product after I tried the Corel Painter. And, well to be perfectly honest it resolidified my utter disdain for anything Corel. It had a very savy, modern, and user friendly interface that I was able to figure out immediately. Additionally, I liked how it gave me a much more natural feel with the way the pen tablet was interacting with my drawing strokes. I was able to get some very precise lines done with this program.

I like it when I can open up a piece of software that should be simple and it is. If you are a novice to the world of digital sketch drawing, this program may be a good first step.

• Corel Painter™ Sketch Pad

Corel Painter™ Sketch Pad is your first step in creating digital art. Designed to leverage the natural flow of a pen tablet like Intuos4, Sketch Pad helps you sketch, organize and share your creative ideas.

As stated above, I have a long history of dispassion for Corel products. This product has effectively continued that. Strangely, dollar for dollar this software is a better deal than the Autodesk product as it is a full version of the software rather than an “Express version”. However, I found the behaviors of some of the pens quite annoying and overly sensitive. Ctrl + Z was a good friend of my due to the amount of times that I inadvertently created a brush stroke across the canvas. If you look deep enough, you can see that there is some good functionality in this program that goes beyond the Autodesk software. If you are a seasoned veteran in the digital painting and drawing world, this product may be the one for you.

You will find value in all of these potential downloads.

Using the tablet

This tablet graces you with 2048 levels of pressure. I think that my previous tablet had half that many and the depth of pressure is immediately noticeable. This is especially true in some of the drawing programs that come with the bundled software. Furthermore, if you use a lot of the brush tool in either Illustrator or Photoshop you will be well served in getting yourself a tablet. Pen pressure sensitivity support in CS4 is well founded and is definitely an exciting option once you do have a pen.

For this version of the Intuos series from Wacom, they have really gone all out in comfort and usability. The latest version of the Large tablet comes equipped with 4 programmable buttons. For me this is where the fun began. However, I must admit that I had no need to change the button functionality. Possibly, as I get more familiar with using this pen as my pointing device of choice I will make some amendments. I do like the fact that this option is available to me. Looking through the control panel of the device, I found it very intuitive and simple to make changes to how the tablet and pen are programmed.

In regards to features, overall I am impressed with the look, feel, and comfort of this pen. I can safely say this is as satisfied as I have ever been when using a graphics tablet.

Now, the last thing I would like to wax poetic on is how this product feels overall for drawing. Being an OLD DOG, I always have had some difficulty adapting to working with a “digital” pen. This pen is the first to change my mind.

Lets look at a couple pieces of software and see how Wacom has made my life easier with both the comfort and sensitivity of this pen.

Photoshop:

Masking in Photoshop is probably the most tedious job you can do within that particular software. Additionally, masking a large area with the mouse is sometimes akin to drawing with a brick. In many ways, using a mouse on rounded objects was often a lesson in futility and frustration. This is all solved by the Wacom Pen. If you can make the jump from looking down at your hand while drawing, to looking up at your screen, then this will be a great time saving purchase for you. It has cut the time it takes me to draw out an extraction mask considerably.

Additionally, the tablets shortcut buttons and zoom wheel make zooming in and out of images a snap. That was always a time drainer for me. Now, the zoom is a finger whirl away. I LOVE THAT feature!

Illustrator

Well, Illustrator happens to be one of my all time favorite pieces of software. However, I have never really delved into the pencil or brush tools. This may change with my new favorite toy. And, while I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination this pen helps me to appear as such. My brush and pencil paths in Illustrator have been dodgy at best. With this pen, they look as natural as though I had put them on paper!

Summary

I think that if you have long been pondering the purchase of a pen, then now is the time. Intous4 is a remarkable piece of work. I have in just a few days been transferred to being a pen skeptic to a pen lover. With this product, you get a beautiful tablet, a great set of bundled software, as well as some great freebies like a year worth of free CafePress.com pro shop. That’s a great deal! Not only that, but with a little practice, you get a product that will greatly increase your productivity and reduce your potential for Carpal Tunnel.

Enjoy!