Does size matter?

**Numenorian9** · July 10th, 2011, 01:11 AM

I'm going to buy my first Wacom tablet and I was wondering if I could get by with saving a little money by going with the Intuos 4 small size. It's roughly the size of a 3x5 card but my led monitor is huge at 23" on the diagonal. Will I be able to draw nice long graceful lines on the smaller tablet? Also, I don't want to have to keep zooming in and out while roughing in the basic shapes and masses.

I could go even cheaper with a Bamboo tablet but I might be losing a lot of cool features that the Intuos has. I don't know, I'm new at this stuff. What are your thoughts, anybody?

**ikken** · July 10th, 2011, 01:51 AM

23" + small intuos = nononono
unless you're going to use it in mouse mode, which, I believe, is gonna kill some of cool features such as tilt recognition
small one is fine if you're painting on a 13" laptop and need portability for example
I've been painting with large intuos 3 for a couple of years, and was especially happy upon getting a full-HD screen
getting smooth strokes on a big screen is a breeze. it would be a big deal with a small tablet.

**Numenorian9** · July 10th, 2011, 02:59 AM

Why is tilt recognition important when you have a pressure sensitive tip? The Bamboo has 512 levels of sensitivity and that seems like all I'll need at the moment. I've really never painted much anyways; I'm more of a pen and ink artist. The small tablet size is really going to hamper my style if I just sketch with it? I thought I could just change the pointer speed of the pen so I can draw with more precision. Of course, I'm going to experiment with colors a bit and see if I can manage to paint with GIMP but it's not my main goal. I just want a really precise pen for drawing comics and stuff.

**Jie Kageshinzo** · July 10th, 2011, 04:31 AM

I managed to get by on a small Graphire4 tablet while on a 19" LCD monitor. I didn't really have any problems. The Bamboo should work for you if you'll just be doing pen and ink illustration.

As for size, I'm now on a medium Intuos4. Is it a great improvement over the small one? For me, it is. But like I said, I managed to get by on full digital illustration using the small Graphire4 for about 4 years. I really don't see any reason why you shouldn't, as well.

**Numenorian9** · July 10th, 2011, 05:15 AM

Thanks Ikken and Jie for the replies! That's very helpful. Although I would really like to have an Intuos4 large tablet because I like the freedom of doing longer pen strokes and not having to zoom in for really detailed work, I'm going to save some money and try the Bamboo pen first. If I like it I'll upgrade to the Intuos later.

I hear the Intuos is even more responsive than the Bamboo and I was wondering if this was really true.

**Arshes Nei** · July 10th, 2011, 12:31 PM

It is more responsive. I also say it also depends on how much drawing you get done. If you don't use it a lot then it's a waste of money. The more you spend time drawing on it, the more you'll realize what you need in terms of drawing.

**Spazzin** · July 13th, 2011, 04:01 PM

Tilt sensitivity is simply just more freedom for expressing creativity (different strokes) Other than that, even the best of all artists have used very down to earth 'pencils' and such, and have come up with amazing works. I had a medium bamboo for 2 years, and loved it.

I moved onto an intuos4 large because I prefer using more of my arm than my wrist, to really get into my painting. I like to feel like my work has more of a flow from the heart, and I find it is difficult to accomplish that when your drawing space is very limited, and you spend more time zooming in and out.

To ME, the smalls more of as toys, than tools.

**darkmagistric** · July 14th, 2011, 01:36 AM

The Bamboo and the Intuos Small have petty much the same active area. And even though the Bamboo has fewer express keys and no scroll wheel....with the Bamboo (pen and touch model) you do have multi-touch options for zooming and scrolling which does help compensate.

The difference in Pressure....trust me, you won't even notice it. Same with the Tilt control.

I have the Bamboo Small and the Intuos 4 large....I greatly prefer the Intuos4 ...but more so for its size since I have a big monitor. I think drawing works better with bigger tablets, and painting/coloring is more adaptable to a smaller tablet.

I have noticed though that while the Intuos4 is infamous for how quickly it devours nibs, the Bamboo is even worse.

If you want to do drawing, I'd recommend going with at least a Medium Sized tablet. Both the Bamboo and Intuos4 have Medium options. And if you go to Staples, they usually have the bamboos and Intuos4 small on display so you can get a feel for them.

**Konstruktion** · August 1st, 2011, 05:46 PM

Hm. I hope you don't mind me hijacking the thread of yours for a question of mine. I have this tablet, and very time I try get do some serious studying on it in order to get better I get frustrated on its size. Perhaps it's not even a question, perhaps it's just me realizing I need a bigger tablet in order to do something worthwhile. This one is like drawing on your palm, and I have what I would refer to as a medium sized screen, I guess that is not helping. So I better get a bigger one. Thanks!

**M_Oreilly** · August 1st, 2011, 07:38 PM

I have several sizes of wacom in the household. The smallest 5x7 is a little restrictive. I much prefer my Intuous2 9X11.

**Arshes Nei** · August 1st, 2011, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by Konstruktion

Hm. I hope you don't mind me hijacking the thread of yours for a question of mine. I have this tablet, and very time I try get do some serious studying on it in order to get better I get frustrated on its size. Perhaps it's not even a question, perhaps it's just me realizing I need a bigger tablet in order to do something worthwhile. This one is like drawing on your palm, and I have what I would refer to as a medium sized screen, I guess that is not helping. So I better get a bigger one. Thanks!

Get at least a 6x8/medium. I have used a small size and while I found them great for inking, full works were a little more frustrating. I also liked the small ones for the laptop to carry around.