Wacom has been a household name in the creative community for years, making it a leader in graphic tablets. Wacom is as synonymous with pen-tablet design as Xerox is with photocopying. Their patented pen and touch input technology has made many a designer -- from various industry verticals -- a loyal user of its products. Right from their revolutionary entry level Bamboo to their high end Cintiq which is a touch-enabled monitor. The Intuos series figures in the middle of this range -- but slightly on the higher side. It is reasonable enough for those who do not want to invest a lot of money into a graphic tablet but still want to be able to do extremely professional work.
I have owned two Wacoms -- the Graphire and the Intuos 3 (which I still own and is still going strong). Both of them served me well for more than two years. I have also used a Wacom Bamboo, Cintq and non-Wacom tablets. What I have found is that as a designer one has to consider a lot of factors before owning a graphic tablet. A designer must consider durability, the feel, build quality, pressure sensitivity and ergonomics (the most important aspect) while choosing a graphic tablet. I stress on these factors simply because the investment on a graphic tablet is usually for long-term, and it must be ergonomic, sturdy and capable of detecting varying levels of pressure. These are the very things I looked for in the new Intuos 4. Let us take a look at what I found.
Package Contents Apart from the tablet and pen, package contents included a USB cable, manuals, driver CDs, pen stands and grips (very practical), along with an assortment of nib types and a nib extractor. The pen comes bundled with five standard nibs, one flex nib, one stroke nib, and three hard felt nibs -- all inter-changeable. However, it feels quite odd removing the nibs with the nib remover, as the pull needed is more like a soft wrench. The purpose of these nibs is the feel -- which means that they all do the same thing but the feel of the nib on the surface varies. It is quite helpful for hardcore digital painters who want a more natural feel.
The Wacom Intuos 4 pen stand and accompanying nibs
This Intuos 4 did not come with a mouse packaged, though Wacom normally does include one. However, it was not sorely missed because it is hardly ever used. You will primarily use the pen as your pointing device (mouse) and the surface of the Intuos 4 tablet doubles up as a really good mousepad. If you really want the mouse, you can buy the mouse online along with several specialty pens, like an Airbrush gyro pen, or a Art Pen with more sensitivity for extended usability.
In continuation to Part 2 of this series "How to Take Your Biz Online and Beyond", Abhishek M. Gupta, VP (Technology) of Lime Spot Technology, in Part 3, discusses how to increase traffic by by "affiliate marketing". Read on...
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