PWP and graphics tablets

[greglovern]

I've been using PWP 5.0 to repair badly-preserved century-old children's illustrations; some from old books, some from old newspapers. For that work I mostly use PWP's clone and paint tools.

I'm tired of doing that work with the mouse and I'm looking at entry-level graphics tablets. I've never used one before. Would any tablet do, or are there particular features it would need to work well with those PWP features?

I've got my eye on this model. Is there any reason it would not be a good choice for working with PWP?
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Bamboo-Spla ... 7D9XZUQSU5

What about pens -- are there particular pen features that would make them work better with PWP?

Thanks,

Greg

[ksinkel]

Sorry, but Picture Window does not have any explicit support for tablets.

Kiril

[mjdl]

I briefly tried PWP 5.0 with a small graphics tablet a few years ago (I'm relying on my memory, which may be inaccurate!). Once I had installed the operating system level tablet drivers, I could use the tablet & pen as a basic point and cursor movement mouse-like device in any program (and the barrel of the pen had buttons for the L & R clicks). If I recall correctly, the pressure switch at the tip of the pen also functioned as a primary click as well.

But as Kiril says, in order for PWP's editing tools to take advantage real-time to the full range of tablet and stylus features (e.g. the pressure of the stylus could control either the size and/or intensity of the paint brush), there has to be explicit support for tablet devices in the graphics program. The tablet manufacturer's Windows drivers usually provide an interface to the generic tablet "Wintab" programming quasi-standard that any program can attempt to use to communicate with the tablet.

If you can get a money-back guarantee, the Wacom tablet might be worth trying nevertheless, since the basic pointing & clicking support may be all you need to achieve finer editing control. In any case, Wacom probably bundle a basic graphics program that supports all the tablet's features, e.g. ArtRage with the Wacom Bamboo Splash, see the link to a feature comparison PDF at http://www.artrage.com/artrage2-features.html Perhaps you could continue to do all your photo-restoration work in PWP except the clone/paint stage...

[Lorin]

I've used a basic Wacom tablet with Picture Window, and it works well enough,though it wouldn't for instance be pressure sensitive. On Windows Vista or 7 there is an odd difficulty (having to do with Windows not PWP ) where every time the pen touches the tablet it makes little circles. Supposedly there are ways to work around this. I've recently been using a "Penclic" mouse which is a mouse with a small base and a handle shaped like a pen and have found this to be a more comfortable and accurate way to do things like cloning.

--Lorin

[jsachs]

In my experience, using a tablet for photo editing is less intuitive that one might think. Tablet/Displays that work as a pressure-sensitive touch screen so you can use a stylus directly on the image, are much better idea (e.g. the Wacom Cintiq), but these are really expensive. I find that a tablet off to the side of the screen and in a different plane is no better than a mouse, although admittedly it could use pressure sensitivity to control another parameter such as brush radius or transparency if PWP supported it. I did experiment with WinTab a number of years ago, but it was really buggy and not well supported so I finally gave up and ripped out the code. It's unfortunate that Microsoft never extended Windows to support tablets or other non-mouse input devices (like Space Navigator) through a universal driver mechanism.

[MikeG]

Perhaps Windows 8 will be more tablet friendly?

[Marpel]

Greg,

I have used a Wacom (Intous 3, I believe) tablet and pen for years with PWP. While, as already mentioned, it does not allow many of the capabilities with PWP, I find it invaluable. I do a lot of masking and cloning (I mean a lot!) and use the pen for probably 90% of these tasks. It took a bit getting used to, but after a couple sessions, I found it very easy. Now, I find the mouse (the tablet also came with it's own cordless mouse which is used on the tablet) to do hand masking and cloning, far to difficult and would not go back. I use Windows XP, Home so don't see any of the issues noted in another post.

If you decide to get a tablet, give consideration (sorry, did not look at your link before posting this) to the surface size of the tablet as many of the negative comments I have read are related to getting a tablet that is too large. When I was looking, the recommended size was 6 X 9, which is what I purchased and I agree it is the best size to use (however, I also got it prior to the widescreen monitors so don't know how that would apply).

Marv

[mjdl]

In my experience, using a tablet for photo editing is less intuitive that one might think. [...] I find that a tablet off to the side of the screen and in a different plane is no better than a mouse [...]

That's exactly why I gave up on graphics tablets--there was a kind of physical/sensory mismatch that I couldn't get over after several weeks (even with applications that fully supported tablets) and the "direct manipulation" via a mouse (if you can call it that!) proved simpler. However, pressure sensitivity is a nice kind of editing enhancement to have in graphics programs... maybe if there was a mouse with pressure-sensitive buttons...

[HanSch]

Interesting to read the various experiences ;-)

I use a Wacom Graphire 3 with PWP and prefer it over using the mouse.
I find the odd difficulty that Lorin mentions (with Windows 7) most annoying, however. If anyone knows a way to switch it off, please tell me. There are more issues with the tablet with W-7 that I never encountered with W-XP. The latest driver offers no solution.

[Lorin]

Interesting to read the various experiences ;-)

I use a Wacom Graphire 3 with PWP and prefer it over using the mouse.
I find the odd difficulty that Lorin mentions (with Windows 7) most annoying, however. If anyone knows a way to switch it off, please tell me. There are more issues with the tablet with W-7 that I never encountered with W-XP. The latest driver offers no solution.

Though I haven't tried it myself,Viziblr.com "Fix my Pen!" seems like a good possibility.