Impressions of the tablet Wacom Intuos4 L
Hello!
In a recent review of the Wacom Bamboo P & T tablet by Denis Kortunov, a couple of people were interested in the capabilities of the more expensive Wacom professional-class tablet - Intuos. I have the flagship of the latest line Intuos4 L appeared in June last year at home and a month later - in the workplace. And I would like to share the facts of our life together, as well as a comparison with my "former" - Intuos2 and 3, while not focusing on any nonsense that affects the process, such as technical characteristics.
I will not pay much attention to the packaging (it is very beautiful) and all the nonsense out of the box, like papers, instructions and wires. But I will say that I caught the thrill when unpacking :)
By the way, in the cardboard part of the box there is a cutout under the mouse, but it is not included in the set. Long live justice: we were deprived of the most useless accessory ever.
Of the little things that safely rest in the box, it is worth mentioning two.
The first is a plump pen holder. I must say that in the hand with him the pen is really more convenient, but the lack of a cutout for the buttons makes it useless for me. And for comrades who do not use buttons, I highly recommend it.
And the second - funny rings on the pen.
')
It would seem that the thing is meaningless, but they found it on my desk quite quickly - Wacom stopped using frightening colors in the production of tablets and in conditions of not strong illumination a black pen on a black table / tablet / cabinet is difficult to see, but with such a thing simpler. I hope that in Intuos5, Wacom engineers will be able to place a light bulb and a gps receiver in the re, because unfortunately this ring does not solve the problem of a pen that is forgotten in your pocket or in the kitchen: (
Feather with gray rim:
It is also worth mentioning a nice find to hide all the ever-worn leads in the pen holder. Truth is now I lose it.
Now actually our hero:
If you are left-handed, turn the picture on 180 - mini-usb allows you to connect both options for the orientation of the buttons equally conveniently, the driver himself will understand how you deployed the tablet.
On the left he has 2 blocks of 4 buttons, slightly to the right of them are small screens, about them a bit later.
Between the blocks is a new Touch Ring control, which replaced the Intuos 3 Touch Strip.
By the way, the smallest S-model of buttons 6 and the small screen are missing. To be honest, I never really understood why Wacom still produces such a small Intuos.
About the size. All new Intuos (like new Bamboo) have a 16/10 form factor - like most modern widescreen monitors. Therefore, they are no longer called consonant with the size of a sheet of paper A6 / A5 / A4 / A3, now they are respectively S / M / L / XL. You can look at specific figures on the official website , and if the dimensions are not accurate, then L is a little less in width and a little more in length of a regular A4 sheet.
Now the differences from other tablets. For those who are not very familiar with the difference between the “adult” Intuos series and the “children's” Bamboo series, I will briefly formulate it.
In addition to no one’s uninteresting tsiferok in the characteristics and the fact that Bamboo is never large, there are two differences:
a) for Intuos there is a bunch of almost for the most part useless extra feathers
b) Intuos are able to understand pen inclination relative to the surface
I don’t really want to talk about additional feathers : in my opinion, perhaps the Art Pen is worthy of attention (it is also capable of catching a turn around the axis - good for calligraphy) and a thinner analog of the standard Pen Classic Pen. The rest is crap.
With the slope more interesting. If you are a designer, then you probably never need it, but for draftsmen it is a very useful thing.
This picture will help answer the question “uh?” This is the same brush, the angle is different, at which I drew a line.
About buttons ExpressKeys.
Unique selling proposition of new Intuos was, among other things, a modified approach to the interface of tablet buttons - small screens with a description of the function and a new Touch Ring
Artists from around the world in commercials told us last spring about the incredible convenience of new buttons. What really?
About the good: the screen looks very technologically; Touch Ring is much harder to click on randomly than Touch Strip on Intuos3.
In truth: this is all crap. Well, that is for sure there are people who will be 8-12 enough (if you count with the touch ring on the whole head) hot keys, probably there are people who do not use them at all. For the rest, it is really small and the fact that the buttons are spaced vertically along two halves of the tablet does not add convenience (well, at least not on opposite sides, as in 3).
Ekranchiki? And who looks at the tablet while working?
Touch Strip? The idea is good, but in practice it did not happen. You can hang up to 4 actions on it and switch between them in different circles in the middle of the Strip. This is very inconvenient and it is very easy to confuse the modes / just forget which one is responsible for what, so out of harm after several unsuccessful experiments, I left only one Ring mode for rotating the canvas in Photoshop. Yes, and I do not use that.
About the surface.
That's a moot point. In the latest generation of tablets, Wacom began to change the surface from smooth to more close to the feel of the paper - a little rough. In addition to this, Intuos4 uses softer leads. Many artists criticize Intuos4 because of these innovations - individual painters use their pencils to grind off in 3-4 weeks. Wacom promised to think and change the surface in the next revision. What I have to say, I don’t know, because I like the surface, and I didn’t see any problems with the leads: for the moment I have only changed the stylus on the worktable, I don’t plan to do this at home in the coming months. Perhaps this is also due to the fact that I use a small hack in the drivers, which I will write about at the end.
About build quality.
Squeaks
Quite a lot of complaints from people who often move with the tablet began to appear - the mini-usb port is loosening and breaking. So if you're used to carrying a tablet with you, then it makes sense to wait for Intuos4 Wireless to be released in March.
About drivers.
The new mode is Precision Mode and at first I had high hopes for it. The bottom line is that clicking on a given ExpressKey tablet projects the work surface onto a smaller part of the screen. That is, waving a pen across the surface of the tablet, the cursor moves 200-250 pixels. In theory, it is convenient to edit the fine details of the image without approximation, in practice it is faster to approach + the transition between the usual and exact mode is quite sharp.
There was also another innovation, because of which I would not trade my four for any other tablet (I'll add it just in case: in the price category up to $ 1500 :))
In Intuos4, the rather useless Pop up menu has been replaced by the Radial Menu.
For those who are familiar with Maya or Modo, it is not necessary to explain what Radial Menu is - this is an analogue of Marking Menu / Pie Menu
For the rest of the picture:
Radial Menu is a menu with any combination of keys, special functions, as well as a submenu , the commands in which are located around the circumference. Remembering the location of commands, you can call them in a split second just by pointing in the right direction. In the screenshot, my lazy Radial Menu for Photoshop - the circle switches the Opacity for the brush, below is the mode for the Clear brush. Very comfortably.
So what is the result?
Of all the tablets I used, Intuos4 causes the most controversial emotions.
The new ExpressKeys and Touch Ring were obviously invested a lot of work, as few people used Intuos3 buttons. But the situation has not changed.
For me, the ideal modern Intuos would be like wide-Intuos2 - thin and without any nonsense like extra buttons.
There is a lot of controversy about the new surface.
If you are not very impressed with my story about the Radial Menu and you are actively using the keyboard with Intuos3, then I would not recommend switching to 4.
If you are not very impressed with my story about the Radial Menu and you are actively using the keyboard with any other tablet, then I would recommend taking a used or a new Intuos3 A5 wide / A4 — they are very much cheaper.
If you buy the first tablet for a design, I would not show off and take the Bambo Pen & Touch M (or the cheaper Pen)
If you are buying the first drawing tablet, I would recommend finding friends from 3 and 4 to try, because there is no consensus on what is better.
So it goes.
Sorry that so much happened and for some confusion, I hope it will help someone with a choice.
ps about the hack with the driver, maybe someone does not know.
Two thousand years ago, in the days of Intuos1 and 2, the drivers had the ability to limit the maximum threshold. At some point, for some reason, this setting was removed, and in order to achieve 100% depression, it was necessary to PRESS on the pen, which squeaked all around.
But the clever girls found in the registry how to make any pressure curve at all. All descriptions of this process that I met were for Windows. For OSX, everything turned out to be a bit more complicated - the com.wacom.wacomtablet.prefs file in the Library does not contain data on PressureCurveControlPoint. Here either the OSX file system experts or the new Wacom drivers will come to the rescue, where you can save and load profiles.
Save the profile (Remove Wacom Tablet.app> backup)> right-click, show contents. We edit com.wacom.wacomtablet.prefs as it should (for example, I have 3/4 of the maximum value) and load it via the Restore option of the same Remove Wacom Tablet. TA-dah!
Now everything is exactly)
In a recent review of the Wacom Bamboo P & T tablet by Denis Kortunov, a couple of people were interested in the capabilities of the more expensive Wacom professional-class tablet - Intuos. I have the flagship of the latest line Intuos4 L appeared in June last year at home and a month later - in the workplace. And I would like to share the facts of our life together, as well as a comparison with my "former" - Intuos2 and 3, while not focusing on any nonsense that affects the process, such as technical characteristics.
I will not pay much attention to the packaging (it is very beautiful) and all the nonsense out of the box, like papers, instructions and wires. But I will say that I caught the thrill when unpacking :)
By the way, in the cardboard part of the box there is a cutout under the mouse, but it is not included in the set. Long live justice: we were deprived of the most useless accessory ever.
Of the little things that safely rest in the box, it is worth mentioning two.
The first is a plump pen holder. I must say that in the hand with him the pen is really more convenient, but the lack of a cutout for the buttons makes it useless for me. And for comrades who do not use buttons, I highly recommend it.
And the second - funny rings on the pen.
')
It would seem that the thing is meaningless, but they found it on my desk quite quickly - Wacom stopped using frightening colors in the production of tablets and in conditions of not strong illumination a black pen on a black table / tablet / cabinet is difficult to see, but with such a thing simpler. I hope that in Intuos5, Wacom engineers will be able to place a light bulb and a gps receiver in the re, because unfortunately this ring does not solve the problem of a pen that is forgotten in your pocket or in the kitchen: (
Feather with gray rim:
It is also worth mentioning a nice find to hide all the ever-worn leads in the pen holder. Truth is now I lose it.
Now actually our hero:
If you are left-handed, turn the picture on 180 - mini-usb allows you to connect both options for the orientation of the buttons equally conveniently, the driver himself will understand how you deployed the tablet.
On the left he has 2 blocks of 4 buttons, slightly to the right of them are small screens, about them a bit later.
Between the blocks is a new Touch Ring control, which replaced the Intuos 3 Touch Strip.
By the way, the smallest S-model of buttons 6 and the small screen are missing. To be honest, I never really understood why Wacom still produces such a small Intuos.
About the size. All new Intuos (like new Bamboo) have a 16/10 form factor - like most modern widescreen monitors. Therefore, they are no longer called consonant with the size of a sheet of paper A6 / A5 / A4 / A3, now they are respectively S / M / L / XL. You can look at specific figures on the official website , and if the dimensions are not accurate, then L is a little less in width and a little more in length of a regular A4 sheet.
Now the differences from other tablets. For those who are not very familiar with the difference between the “adult” Intuos series and the “children's” Bamboo series, I will briefly formulate it.
In addition to no one’s uninteresting tsiferok in the characteristics and the fact that Bamboo is never large, there are two differences:
a) for Intuos there is a bunch of almost for the most part useless extra feathers
b) Intuos are able to understand pen inclination relative to the surface
I don’t really want to talk about additional feathers : in my opinion, perhaps the Art Pen is worthy of attention (it is also capable of catching a turn around the axis - good for calligraphy) and a thinner analog of the standard Pen Classic Pen. The rest is crap.
With the slope more interesting. If you are a designer, then you probably never need it, but for draftsmen it is a very useful thing.
This picture will help answer the question “uh?” This is the same brush, the angle is different, at which I drew a line.
About buttons ExpressKeys.
Unique selling proposition of new Intuos was, among other things, a modified approach to the interface of tablet buttons - small screens with a description of the function and a new Touch Ring
Artists from around the world in commercials told us last spring about the incredible convenience of new buttons. What really?
About the good: the screen looks very technologically; Touch Ring is much harder to click on randomly than Touch Strip on Intuos3.
In truth: this is all crap. Well, that is for sure there are people who will be 8-12 enough (if you count with the touch ring on the whole head) hot keys, probably there are people who do not use them at all. For the rest, it is really small and the fact that the buttons are spaced vertically along two halves of the tablet does not add convenience (well, at least not on opposite sides, as in 3).
Ekranchiki? And who looks at the tablet while working?
Touch Strip? The idea is good, but in practice it did not happen. You can hang up to 4 actions on it and switch between them in different circles in the middle of the Strip. This is very inconvenient and it is very easy to confuse the modes / just forget which one is responsible for what, so out of harm after several unsuccessful experiments, I left only one Ring mode for rotating the canvas in Photoshop. Yes, and I do not use that.
About the surface.
That's a moot point. In the latest generation of tablets, Wacom began to change the surface from smooth to more close to the feel of the paper - a little rough. In addition to this, Intuos4 uses softer leads. Many artists criticize Intuos4 because of these innovations - individual painters use their pencils to grind off in 3-4 weeks. Wacom promised to think and change the surface in the next revision. What I have to say, I don’t know, because I like the surface, and I didn’t see any problems with the leads: for the moment I have only changed the stylus on the worktable, I don’t plan to do this at home in the coming months. Perhaps this is also due to the fact that I use a small hack in the drivers, which I will write about at the end.
About build quality.
Squeaks
Quite a lot of complaints from people who often move with the tablet began to appear - the mini-usb port is loosening and breaking. So if you're used to carrying a tablet with you, then it makes sense to wait for Intuos4 Wireless to be released in March.
About drivers.
The new mode is Precision Mode and at first I had high hopes for it. The bottom line is that clicking on a given ExpressKey tablet projects the work surface onto a smaller part of the screen. That is, waving a pen across the surface of the tablet, the cursor moves 200-250 pixels. In theory, it is convenient to edit the fine details of the image without approximation, in practice it is faster to approach + the transition between the usual and exact mode is quite sharp.
There was also another innovation, because of which I would not trade my four for any other tablet (I'll add it just in case: in the price category up to $ 1500 :))
In Intuos4, the rather useless Pop up menu has been replaced by the Radial Menu.
For those who are familiar with Maya or Modo, it is not necessary to explain what Radial Menu is - this is an analogue of Marking Menu / Pie Menu
For the rest of the picture:
Radial Menu is a menu with any combination of keys, special functions, as well as a submenu , the commands in which are located around the circumference. Remembering the location of commands, you can call them in a split second just by pointing in the right direction. In the screenshot, my lazy Radial Menu for Photoshop - the circle switches the Opacity for the brush, below is the mode for the Clear brush. Very comfortably.
So what is the result?
Of all the tablets I used, Intuos4 causes the most controversial emotions.
The new ExpressKeys and Touch Ring were obviously invested a lot of work, as few people used Intuos3 buttons. But the situation has not changed.
For me, the ideal modern Intuos would be like wide-Intuos2 - thin and without any nonsense like extra buttons.
There is a lot of controversy about the new surface.
If you are not very impressed with my story about the Radial Menu and you are actively using the keyboard with Intuos3, then I would not recommend switching to 4.
If you are not very impressed with my story about the Radial Menu and you are actively using the keyboard with any other tablet, then I would recommend taking a used or a new Intuos3 A5 wide / A4 — they are very much cheaper.
If you buy the first tablet for a design, I would not show off and take the Bambo Pen & Touch M (or the cheaper Pen)
If you are buying the first drawing tablet, I would recommend finding friends from 3 and 4 to try, because there is no consensus on what is better.
So it goes.
Sorry that so much happened and for some confusion, I hope it will help someone with a choice.
ps about the hack with the driver, maybe someone does not know.
Two thousand years ago, in the days of Intuos1 and 2, the drivers had the ability to limit the maximum threshold. At some point, for some reason, this setting was removed, and in order to achieve 100% depression, it was necessary to PRESS on the pen, which squeaked all around.
But the clever girls found in the registry how to make any pressure curve at all. All descriptions of this process that I met were for Windows. For OSX, everything turned out to be a bit more complicated - the com.wacom.wacomtablet.prefs file in the Library does not contain data on PressureCurveControlPoint. Here either the OSX file system experts or the new Wacom drivers will come to the rescue, where you can save and load profiles.
Save the profile (Remove Wacom Tablet.app> backup)> right-click, show contents. We edit com.wacom.wacomtablet.prefs as it should (for example, I have 3/4 of the maximum value) and load it via the Restore option of the same Remove Wacom Tablet. TA-dah!
Now everything is exactly)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/83546/
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