Looking for a good pen tablet / graphic tablet or interactive screen tablet.

**imaginalex** · July 31st, 2011, 04:28 AM

Well, since i do my coloring with my mouse under illustrator and it takes AGES because you allways have to do multiple manipulations / moves with the mouse and it takes often two, three, or even four tries to make the lines i would do so much easier with a pen, i'm looking for a good graphic tablet or even a screen tablet with a pen. (because i already tried cheap graphic tablet and it was very frustrating / not recreating my handdrawing with fidelity. )

I have a budget of 1000 to 1450 euros max ( 1,439.68 USD to 2,087.53 USD )

to put into this, and i kind of never used that material but i think i can adapt very fast if it's really giving a good representation of the traits / lines it may be 1000 times faster to have a tactile / interactive screen than my stupid mouse.

Any advice for a good one to a reasonable price ?

Thank you very much, and if you want to check what i'm drawing to give a better choice about a tablet or screen tablet, here is my "sketch'o'book where i put some random things i do" here :

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=224998

Thank you in advance ! i'm also looking for this to accelerate my colouring productivity, being very slow with a mouse of course, any advice about how to use it, best programs to use with that kind of equipment would be much appreciated too.

Sorry for asking and i hope you has good holydays, sorry for the bad english too.

**Raoul Duke** · July 31st, 2011, 04:40 AM

The Asus Ep121 is the best on the market at the moment. I'm holding my breath for something with better battery life like an ipad, but I'm affraid my face is just going to turn blue.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...ptopsaleoff-20

**imaginalex** · July 31st, 2011, 04:54 AM

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

The Asus Ep121 is the best on the market at the moment. I'm holding my breath for something with better battery life like an ipad, but I'm affraid my face is just going to turn blue.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...ptopsaleoff-20

Thanks, it looks affordable, but i'm wondering if it's really made for "drawing" ? or is more focused to be a wearing / portable P.C. with little to no options for traits / lines, reproducing drawing calligraphy etc etc ?

32 Gb of hard drive space and 2GB of ram sound small when you work under photoshop and illustrator and importing / exporting very complex and hundreds / thousands of vectors that even make my 4GB of ram on my static / desk computer go slow and sometime even LOOSE my drawings in the process of copy / pasting lines from illustrator to photoshop ^^ (memory leaks, not enough virtual memory and happens that, if you haven't saved for 20 min that you loose much work :p )

so, the question is, is it really made for this, is it easy to use ? i should get my hand on some equipment and try myself but i'm afraid i can't find any of this close enough to me in belgium <.<

**Raoul Duke** · July 31st, 2011, 05:15 AM

it has a wacom digitized pen. The horse power is fine. I wouldn't expect it to run any high end video games or 3d modeling. Exporting vectors isn't that big of a deal, Just take it easy. Do it layer by layer if you have to. I've done my research and this is the best option for now.
EDIT
I scrolled through your work and I get it now. You should switch to flash if your going to use vectors like that. Maybe you shouldn't use vectors like that period. The bottom line is you can adjust. I know alot of people that adjusted fine to the ipad and use sketchbook pro.

**imaginalex** · July 31st, 2011, 05:52 AM

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

it has a wacom digitized pen. The horse power is fine. I wouldn't expect it to run any high end video games or 3d modeling. Exporting vectors isn't that big of a deal, Just take it easy. Do it layer by layer if you have to. I've done my research and this is the best option for now.
EDIT
I scrolled through your work and I get it now. You should switch to flash if your going to use vectors like that. Maybe you shouldn't use vectors like that period. The bottom line is you can adjust. I know alot of people that adjusted fine to the ipad and use sketchbook pro.

Yeah but if i can learn and masterize any better program to colour and draw my comics, less heavier than using illustrator and photoshop simultaneously it would be fine, thinking about artrage or maybe, another program i may not know, heard something about sketchbook pro or something like that ?

Anyway, i'd'say it again, thanks a ton, i was looking to spend almost more than 1500 usd in an interactive big/enormous, encumbering screen tablet but it would be never as ergonomic as this tablet, plus, i can wear it everywhere and it doesn"t weight much, i should get out of my autistic closed artistic bubble sometimes ^^

**Erayo** · July 31st, 2011, 08:49 AM

The obvious answer would be Wacom. An Intuos 4 easily satisfies most of the artists on the forum I believe and is less than half your budget... You can spend the rest on upgrading the computer's hardware. In any case, if you are having lag issues with the pen input it is most likely because of outdated hardware other then the tablet.
If you find it hard not drawing on the actual screen you can try a Cintiq which still fits your budget and also function as a high quality screen (a bit small tho).

As for tablet pc's such as the Asus, their main advantage is portability. Pen input is worse then Wacom tablets and is not tilt sensitive (might be crucial for inking and line art). Hardware is also an issue as they are not strong as a desktop or regular notebooks.
There are other options beside the model mentioned but again, I think they are mostly suited for on-location sketching...

**tehmeh** · July 31st, 2011, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by imaginalex

Thanks, it looks affordable, but i'm wondering if it's really made for "drawing" ? or is more focused to be a wearing / portable P.C. with little to no options for traits / lines, reproducing drawing calligraphy etc etc ?

It is made for drawing, I made a post about using it on my blog, but it is a serious investment for digital artists who want to paint outside, and probably not what you are looking for (your budget doesn't cover it + a battery anyway)

You really just want a screenless graphics tablet, the intuos 3 or 4 with that kind of budget. You get used to the screenless divide soon enough.

Originally Posted by Erayo

As for tablet pc's such as the Asus, their main advantage is portability. Pen input is worse then Wacom tablets and is not tilt sensitive (might be crucial for inking and line art). Hardware is also an issue as they are not strong as a desktop or regular notebooks.
There are other options beside the model mentioned but again, I think they are mostly suited for on-location sketching...

This is not true, the Asus ep121 has the same sensitivity as my intuos 3 and the hardware handles CS4 flawlessly as well as all my other programs...where are you reading this from?