Wacom’s New Pen & Touch Tablet

Working with a mouse, as a designer, is not the most fluid and creative way to input to your computer. I used the Wacom Intuos tablet a few years ago when I worked in an Ad agency, and really missed the feeling of drawing and navigating with a pen. It was so much more like using a sketchbook rather than the dull point and click experience you get with a mouse. Mice are great for quick repetitive tasks such as data and text input, but quickly become bothersome when trying to retouch photo’s or draw organic shapes.

I really wanted to buy the new Wacom Intuos tablet, but the hefty price tag put me off. A recent trawl around my local Curry’s looking for printer ink introduced me to a brand new offering from Wacom at a third of the price. Tablets have come a long way since I last used one. The Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch is the same spec as my old Wacom Intuos, but now comes with touch sensitive tablet. This means you can also use your fingers on the surface of the tablet just as you would on a laptop touch pad. Multi touch input means it acts just like the new generation MacBook Pro’s. If you have an iPhone you’ll like this; as you can rotate, pinch zoom, 2 finger scroll and much more. You obviously also get the pen for drawing, retouching and handwriting recognition. If you set it up properly you’d actually never need to use your keyboard for text input – simply write with the pen.

I’m loving having a tablet again. It took me a few days to get used to it again. The addition of the touch interface is what sets it apart from other tablets. It isn’t as feature rich, or powerful as the new Intuos 4, but if you’re on a budget but still need a good all round performer, you can’t go wrong.