Aiptek / Wacom with Painter 7

[silicore designs]

Hey guys.

Just wanted to ask is the aiptek tablet as good as wacom tablets , what are the trade off for getting inexpensive aiptek, and can aiptek work with painter 7?

My second question is when I get painter7 do I also have to get the upgrade or is that included?

Finally my third question is what type PC would support Painter 7 with or without Photoshop?

Thanks :)

[Jin]

Hi,

I don't know anything about Aiptek, but if I did want to learn about their tablets, I'd probably contact the company as well as ask other artists as you've done.

It's generally agreed that Wacom makes the best tablets and they vary in size, price, resolution, and levels of pressure sensitivity.

The lower end Wacom tablets are the Graphires, higher end the Intuos tablets.

Graphire's have 512 levels of pressure sensitivity (don't know what the resolution is).

Intuos tablets have 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity (again, don't know what the resolution is).

You can read the specifications at http://www.wacom.com

Call Corel Corporation at 1-800-772-6735 and follow the prompts to Procreate Painter Customer Service, then ask them if the Painter 7 Update is now included in new purchases of Painter 7. I think it is, but it's best to make sure.

A lot of PC's support Painter 7 with Photoshop. The best places to ask, though, are on the following e-mail list and newsgroups as they have a large readership and you'll get a wider array of user experience:

Painter list at Topica.com
http://www.topica.com/lists/painter-list/

Corel Painter Support Newsgroup
Add Server: cnews.corel.ca
Subscribe to: corel.graphic_apps.painter

and...

alt.fractal-design.painter

The only real life example I can give you is my own PC which is old and not nearly as powerful as I'd like it to be:

Pentium III
500 mHz
128 MB RAM
20 GB hard drive with about 8.3 GB free
NVIDIA RIVA TNT with 8 MB video RAM
Samsung SyncMaster 191T LCD 19" Monitor (the only new thing I own.. yippee!)

I currently have, among others, the following software apps installed...

Painter 7.1.357
Painter 6.1
Painter 5.0.3
Procreate Painter Classic 2
Metacreations Painter Classic 1
Photoshop 5.5
Acrobat 4.0
InDesign
Dreamweaver
Fireworks 2.0
Netscape
MS Internet Explorer

.. and frequently have two or three Painter versions all running at the same time or both Painter 7 and Photoshop running at the same time, along with being connected to the Net using either Netscape or MS IExplorer.

It takes regular housekeeping, both general system and Painter, to keep things running smoothly and if I push it too far, I know I'll have trouble, but nothing insurmountable.

Painter 7 is processor and memory intensive so if you're painting, especially with the more complex brush variants like Water Colors, Liquid Ink, and Impasto, and/or using a lot of Layers, it's probably a good idea not to have other programs running.

Good luck, :)

[sandman]

Originally posted by silicore designs
Hey guys.

Just wanted to ask is the aiptek tablet as good as wacom tablets , what are the trade off for getting inexpensive aiptek, and can aiptek work with painter 7?

Thanks :)

Click here (http://products.consumerguide.com/cp/electronics/review/index.cfm/id/23746) for a review of the Aiptek Hyperpen 12000u as compared to an Intuos 2. I believe the Intuos 2 also has more levels of pressure sensitivity and supports stylus tilt. For the price though, it may be a good deal, although it would be advisable to e-mail the manufacturer first to ensure the latest versions of Painter and Photoshop are supported.

Also check out the links in this thread (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=34937#post34937)

David

[silicore designs]

:D Thanks so much you guys really answered my questions.:D