Customer Reviews

Wacom Intuos3 6 x 8-Inch Pen Tablet

5 star:		(193)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I spend about 10 hours a day working in Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and other design related programs including 3D Studio Max. I've been using a Wacom tablet for about six years now, and I love it. It would be impossible for me to create the designs and illustrations that I do without my Wacom. As an artist and designer, I used traditional mediums for years, and then spent another couple of years trying to figure out how to use a mouse in a way that would permit me to create quality images and designs on the computer quickly and in a way that resembled traditional methods. The Wacom tablet has been my solution and the solution of dozens of my colleagues. I use the old Intuos at home, and I use the Intuos 3 at work. The new Intuos features a USB connection that permits hot-swappable, on-the-go design. Also, the new Intuos pens are much more comfortable to hold that the old plastic pens because of the rubber coated grip. The tip on the pen seem much more "springy" and responsive. The pressure sensitivity is amazing and allows me the complete control over the virtual medium that I am handling (airbrush, pencil, ink, paint, etc). Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash are all designed to work with the pressure sensitive pens, and the level of control is amazing. Photoshop's new custom brush palette, combined with the Wacom tablet, permit me to create custom brushes to simulate the appearance of color pencil, pastels, and chalk in such a realistic manner that it's difficult to discern what is real and what is digital. Both of the tablets I own have the 6x8 drawing surface, which I find to be an adequate size for me to accomplish all of my design-work and illustrations. It also is a convenient size to fit into my laptop bag (outer dimensions are about 10"x13"). I absolutely love my Wacom, and I'm ashamed that I didn't place a review for this superior product before now. Several of my coworkers and friends have purchased less expensive versions from competitors, but have regretted the purchase and have switched to Wacom. I was helping a coworker select a Wacom tablet for her desk this morning (as a replacement for another brand) when I decided to write this review for the Wacom tablet. Bottom line for the Wacom 6x8: convenient size, excellent pressure sensitivity, durable construction, excellent value for the price. I would consider this a must-have for any serious digital illustrator or designer.

My wife recently purchased an Intuos 3 6x8 for me as a gift, and I honestly can't imagine how I ever worked without one of these before.

I've been a comic artist and part-time graphic designer for years in the traditional media realm, and have longed to make the jump to digital media for some time. Anyone who has tried (like I have) to create original art in Photoshop, Painter, Illustrator, etc. all know how difficult it can be working with a mouse due to the lack of precise control. The Wacom tablet gives me the precision control I need to really create what I want to, and additional things like the eraser on the grip pen and the hot keys on the tablet itsself only make it easier to do this. The tablet itself is not near as bulky as I expected, and is actually quite light without seeming cheap or flimsy at all. It is aesthetically pleasing, having a clean, slick look that I don't think many of the other tablet offerings have. Working with it at my desk or in my lap is also easy and quite natural. In terms of size, I think the 6x8 allows for excellent control without being too small to work with or too large and overly expensive. Converting over to using a tablet does take getting used to, but experienced artists will feel at home in no time due to the similarity between a traditional pen & paper (or brush and canvas) and the Wacom tablet & grip pen. I am still getting used to the Intuos myself, but it hasn't been a difficult ordeal in the least and has been more pleasure than pain.

The documentation that physically comes in the box with the tablet is spartan, mainly just installation instructions and discount ads for third-party vendors. In addition to the driver disk, Wacom also includes a disk of demos and products like Corel Painter and Nik Multimedia Filters, which is pretty cool.

The only real drawback of this beautiful product is the price tag. $300 is definitely a lot to spend, especially if you have a limited budget to work with. But with this product, you definitely get what you pay for and I can say that in my case this was some of the best money spent on computer parts/accessories. For a hobbyist, this may be just an expensive toy; but for the professional (or aspiring one), this is an absolute must-have piece of equipment. Once you give in and make the purchase, like me you'll wonder how you ever worked without it and you'll certainly be glad you did.

**Update: I recently got together with two friends, both of which are up and coming digital designers like myself. Both of them tried out my Wacom and were so impressed that they each ordered their own the same day! The only difference being that one ordered the 'widescreen' version of my Intuos. This should speak volumes for a product that upon initial interaction they too would take the plunge and purchase one.***

Overall a great product. I thought I should mention something to anyone who may encounter the same problems I did. Firstly, do not use the driver version that ships with the tablet, go to Wacom.com and get the latest version. The version that shipped with mine left huge 'dead areas' in my tablet where it could not detect the pen (EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING) and caused occasional system hangs.

Even with the latest software, cccasionally when using Photoshop the tablet seems to lose its ability to detect pressure variation, this is resolved by restarting Photoshop, but it seems a problem that would be easily fixed in the software.

A simple pen test function would be nice to have in the configuration program (where you could paint in a little box and test pressure and sensitivity). The Graphire series had this feature and I wish it was built in to the Intuos software.

Quality of the product makes up for the few software flaws/inconveniences.

Great item, well made! It's a thick sturdy slab of what appears to be abs plastic which house the electronics inside. Somehow this thing detects pen tilt, pressure, and button clicks through the wonder of magnetics. How it does it, I have no clue. The pen itself has a nib, a rocker switch which can emulate 2 buttons, and an 'eraser'.

The install was snap. If you get problems with weird behaviour, uninstall any specialty software that comes with your mouse ( Such as AOpen's gaming center ). This gave me a few headaches till I found the problem.

The Wacom tablet manager makes customizing a snap. Just bring up the manager, and start the program you want customize mappings in. You can then test out changing systemwide defaults, or 'add' a running program to the manager, and customize settings just for that program. This makes it awesome to use in Silo3D.

One minor niggle, is be sure to doublecheck the box when done. I almost missed and threw away the extra nibs as they fell out of the Wacom pen packaging and into the box. The box comes with 1 felt nib ( pencil feel ), 4 replacement plastic nibs ( my least favorite ), and a 'brush' nib which has a internal spring and is silky smooth. It's easy to replace the nibs by gently gripping them with tweezers, and pulling them, and pushing another nib in.

The tablet and pen itself take some getting used to, as you draw on the tablet, but have to watch the screen. However, after doodling, I was turning out 'pencil' sketches in Corel Painter essentials.

One note, if you are planning on buying Photoshop, or Corel Painter, buy a WACOM first!

The Painter Essentials and Photoshop Elements software bundled with the tablet are eligible for the upgrade price for upgrading to the full versions!

So for the price of straight out buying Painter or Photoshop, you can get a Wacom, and then pay for the upgrade. This is the true bargin.

I bet you are sitting there wondering which size of WACOM tablet you want; it took me weeks before I bought mine because of the "bigger is better" logic, but I was worried about it being too big. The 6x8 is truely the perfect size. You already use that size... on your mousepad! The overall size of the unit helps it to sit comfortably in your lap. If you want the perfect size, your answer to your worries is this 6x8. I would only recomend the smaller size if you are cramped for space (I mean REALLY cramped). Only buy the larger one if you try it first, and see if that is what you need. Most users seem to prefer this 6x8.

I was a bit skeptical about buying this at first. I've always wanted to try out one of these, but never really had a solid excuse for buying one.

At my new job I've been increasingly doing more graphics work, and between that and my own dabblings in graphic design and photography, I decided to take the plunge and invest in one of these things. I don't regret it in the least.

I will say that it took some time to get used to using a pen instead of a mouse. But, you soon get used to it. I've been taking my tablet with me to work and using it at home as well, and now I prefer using the pen.

The tablet is completely customizable. I've found that the 6x8 drawing area is a little too big for me for normal browsing. But, it's easy to set your own boundaries for the drawing area. I've probably got mind configured to a 4x5 drawing area right now. Though, it's always nice to have the larger area for cleaner strokes when drawing.

I was trying to decide between the Wacom Intuos and the Aiptek HyperPen. The reason I went with the Wacom is because, 1) for every good review of the HyperPen, there were 10 bad reviews, 2) the HyperPen has half the pressure sensitivity of the Intuos, and 3) the Wacom pen doesn't require a battery in order to draw, the HyperPen does.

If cost is your selling point, then get what you can afford. But, if you're wanting the best quality tablet, I'd suggest that you spend the extra money and get this Wacom. If mine happened to break or get stolen, I would definitely buy another one without hesitation.

I used the small Wacom Graphire tablet for several years and was very pleased with it. I do a lot of work in Photoshop and can't imagine ever doing without a tablet. Being left handed also helps since I keep the tablet to the left of the keyboard and my regular Microsoft Mouse to the right of the keyboard (I don't care for the Wacom mouse.)

After reading the virtues of its big brother the Intuos3, I broke down and bought it. It's a good deal larger than my old tablet and takes up a bit more room than I'd like. I'm getting used to it but frankly at this point (about a month into using it)I am having difficulty seeing a major functional difference between the little Graphire and this one. Perhaps it's just something that I will learn to love over time. But right now I must say that I could have found better things to spend my $$$ on.

I had a Wacom Graphire 4x5, and I was hesistant to get this at first. I'm very glad I did end up buying it. The sensitivity is superb, and the larger space allows for more fluid art production. It even comes with extra nibs for the pen in case you ever need them. Even nibs you can use for different types of strokes! I never used my old tablet as much as I do this one. If you are having second thoughts, don't. Just get this, it's worth every penny.

I come from a traditional art background having done drawing and painting before computers were even considered viable for that sort of thing. I did a large amount of illustration work for the auto companies and you would think this form of art with its tight clean line work would be perfect for computers but it proved to be not so for the longest time.

Sure a computer program could create perfect straight lines and circles but there was a total lack of subtlety in the line work. Example: to denote space it was common to use thicker and thinner line work, to do this with a pencil or rapidograph pen was easy, you ran he pen lightly over the paper using a circle template or french curve and even let the pen skip to make faint thin lines. To make thick bold lines you would use a thin pen and by simple tilting the pen slightly and running over the line twice you could create a line that went from thin to thick and back to thin with very little effort. This is still something computer can't do very well, or it you try it take longer to achieve than any good illustrator can do with a few quick swipes of a pen or brush.

With that in mind the pressure sensitive tablets are a truly amazing advancement for digital art, and the key words here is PRESSURE SENSITIVE. To draw a line or paint stroke that can vary from thick to thin or light or dark by simple pressing harder or softer is a truly wonderful thing. I find it allows me to create art with a more natural organic look and feel unlike the overly tight and regimented digital look.

I do think there is a lot of hype being expounded about tablets. Lets face it the mouse is still the best and easiest to use method of navigating around a computer screen. Sure you can use the pen to navigate but for many it is more tiring for simple fact you have to keep hold of the pen, Tablet makers tend to stress their product as a cure for repetitive stress injuries, that is true to a degree but I think is only because using a pen is different and not necessarily better. Use a pen for 10 hours a day over several years and I think you would get a bad case of writers cramps which is form of repetitive stress injury in itself. I think it is more the idea you can switch from one to another that helps in this area. If you are like me keeping track of the pen is a big deal too, I tend to take it with me and leave it behind, I have found them in the car, the refrigerator and once the cats were using it as a puck in a quick game of carpet hockey, the mouse stays where it is. The mouse that comes with the Wacoms are in fact no better then your standard optical mouse so I which Wacom would make it an optional extra, and yes you can use your existing mouse with this tablet.

Accuracy is another over hyped issue with tablets. I have yet to see any of the large or small tablets I have owned to be any more accurate than a good optical mouse. The way you get accuracy is by zooming in on the subject and that has little to do with the input device and more to do with the resolution of the image and the screen you are working with. Like I said the key advantage the tablet has is it ability to sense how hard you press down on the pen, it is something so natural when using a pencil or brush or crayon but totally lacking in a mouse. To me a tablets levels of pressure sensitivity are far more important than its lines of resolution.

The biggest drawback to the tablets over traditional drawing is the obvious one, the fact you draw in one area and the image appears in another, it goes against the whole idea of hand to eye coordination. As well you can't twist and turn the tablet to get a more natural drawing angle and if you like to use things like circle templates, french curves and rulers you are out of luck there is no way to position them in relation to what you are drawing.

In the end a tablet like this will not make an artist out of a computer user who can not draw in the first place. It is not a magic push button "make some art" device. If your idea of digital art is to take a photo an apply filter X Y and Z, a tablet may not be for you but if your desire is to create digital art with expressive line and brush work and and have the painting skill already you will soon find your Wacom to be more important then the computer itself.

I have wanted to get a graphics tablet for a few years now, but being the starving artist that I am has prevented this, and I wasn't too sure of the pads themselves having never seen one first hand.

but now that i've taken the "plunge" and bought one (6x8) i'm happy to say that I just love the pad, I wasn't sure of the overall size either, not knowing if it would be too big or too small, but the 6x8 is the perfect size for absolutely anybody who wants a graphics pad.

and given tht it's not meant to be a mouse replacement, i've found it difficulft to put the pen down since I got it, as it's just as quick, and even easier on the hand than a mouse that you have to have a death grip on when working in quick succession or even at a slower pace for lengthy periods of time on anything, except during games when a traditional mouse is needed or more or less required for it's superior rapid movement and accuracy/tracking.

and to mention the pressure sensitivity, that alone is a feature worth the tablet itself, and I couldn't have even concidered having a pad without it, given my craft.

I could write sooo much more on this pad but it's best to experience it for yourself.

all in all it's a wonderful piece of equipment, and I highly recommend it to anyone willing or in need of a graphics tablet..:o)