Wacom Intuos4 Medium Pen Tablet (Academic Version)

by Wacom

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 14.6 x 0.5 inches ; 2.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.9 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0023RT0QI
• Item model number: PTK640AC
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 19, 2005

Product Description

Wacom Intuos4 Medium Pen Graphics Tablet PTK640AC Graphic Tablets

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Tool, Fantastic Quality, August 12, 2009

By 

K. Groh (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wacom Intuos4 Medium Pen Tablet (Academic Version) (Personal Computers)

I have been a self-employed graphic designer since 1996. I bought my first Wacom tablet in 1997. I used it until I replaced it with a larger Intuos2 in 2001 (although the first one still worked well).
My Intuos2 still works great but it has a serial port plug (that I had to adapt to USB) and is no longer compatible to one of my computers. I hated to stop using it since it has been tried and true for so many years but I made the leap and bought the Intuos4.

I am not disappointed. This is a sleek tablet with plenty of room for moving around. Wacom has changed the aspect ratio to accommodate a 16:9 screen - although my older Intuos didn't do this, it was not really an issue.
It installed on Windows very easily, no glitches anywhere.

The tablet is thinner than previous models, very sleek and easy to rest your hand on. The pen has a nice weight and feel and I use the pen buttons for double click and right click. It is just second nature to me.
There is great set-up software that allows you to control every aspect of your pen from click speed to pressure sensitivity, pen angle, button controls, etc. You can adapt how it responds to many programs.

It is adaptable to left or right handedness. My old tablet needed a power supply and this is USB powered.
The USB cord is long enough that if you like to sit back to use your tablet, there is plenty of give.
The express keys on the side are not a big thrill to me but so far I do like the touch ring, especially for scrolling or zooming in or out.
I'm sure, given a little more time, I'll find good shortcuts for the express keys, which can be customized, but for now, my keyboard shortcuts are the quickest.

I use my tablet and pen exclusively. I can't stand using a mouse and find it hard to understand (with no offense to anyone!)why any graphic designer would use a mouse when the pen and tablet give so much precision and control. For me, having a pen in my hand is much more comfortable and my hand cramps up if I have to use a mouse. It is easier to grab one pixel at a time with a pen than to try and position a mouse cursor.
The bundled software is a bonus (you get Wacom Brushes, Color Efex Pro 3.0 and your choice of two of the following: Sketchbook Express 2010, Corel Sketch Pad, Adobe Photoshop Elements for Windows or Elements for Mac.

If you have never used a pen/tablet, you really need to give it plenty of time to get used to it. I believe that once you can get past that learning curve, you will love it. It is like learning a new control pad for a video game, you have to train your brain to move your hand the right way while not looking at it.

The last thing I need to add is that Wacom is a wonderful company to deal with. For me, the quality of product is top notch, the customer support is great, not that I've needed it!

*********
UPDATE FOR WINDOWS 7

I purchased a new computer running Windows 7. The Intuos4 works great. I had no installation problems or difficulties.

AND when running it on Windows 7, it starts up a Windows based program utilizing PC tablet input. PC tablet is resident on Windows 7 and automatically runs when a pen is installed. It has handwriting recognition and will fill in forms as you write on the tablet - a very natural thing since you are holding a pen. In other words, if you are somewhere (online or not) where a field is waiting for text - letters or numbers - a little keyboard icon shows up. If you tap on it, a yellow field opens up and is waiting for you to hand write, in script or print, what you want in that field. It is very forgiving for sloppy writing and if it makes a mistake there are buttons to click to correct the mistakes. In other words, you don't have to drop the pen to type in a field and then pick the pen back up.

Personally, I found the pull-out menu annoying after awhile so it can be turned off by going to Control Panel and choosing PC Tablet. The options for turning it off are in there.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really Good, but not perfect, August 14, 2009

By 

Shanky Jones (Oklahoma City, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wacom Intuos4 Medium Pen Tablet (Academic Version) (Personal Computers)

Okay Everyone,

I could ohhh and awww over this thing just like everybody else, but we all know it's an outstanding product. However, I was a little disappointed with Wacom's progress since the early versions of Intuos.

* It is still jumpy in Adobe Illustrator CS4 if you use quick motions. When you slow it down, it works well, but sometimes you want to be more expressive. I'm on a MacPro with 2x 3Ghz dual cores running 16 GB of memory, so it's probably not my machine that's lagging.

* Corel Painter 11 does some really funky stuff when you get a larger brush with a lot of effects on it. It doesn't jump, but it tries to catch up to your movements seconds after you're done painting. That's probably Corel. I've never been fully confident in their technology.

* Photoshop works like a charm. No complaints there.

* The size was a little misleading. They give you the dimensions of the whole thing or "48.5 square inches of working area." For the record, the medium is only 9.25" x 5.75" so if you have another hundred smackers, go for the large.

* I love the styling and removable USB cord. It works with a standard mini USB cable, so you can leave one at work and take it home and use the cord that came with that digital camera or old motorola phone or your child's outdated MP3 player that sits in the toybin collecting dust.

* Of course the scoll wheel is awesome. I've seen some complaints about it, but I don't think people are going in and programming it according to what they want to use it for. You can also adjust the speed/sensitivity if you have a heavy hand.

* The price is awesome. I don't know if I just wasn't paying attention before, but it seems as if they were more expensive in the past. The last time I bought one was in '99 and I could swear they were more pricey. I know I couldn't have bought the equivalent of a large tablet for $418 dollars, so GOOD JOB WACOM.

73 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Nice Tablet... Just not for me., May 7, 2009

By 

Doc V. "Designer" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wacom Intuos4 Medium Pen Tablet (Academic Version) (Personal Computers)

This is the subjective review and opinion of one person however, it's likely I'm not alone and therefore I hope others with similar needs will find it useful.

Before I chose the Intuos4 Medium I read just about every review there was at the time. From what I gathered the most significant differentiating features were the 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity, and the programmable OLED buttons.

For me, these became the two leading factors driving my decision. After that it was the size, the multiple pen tips, and the fact that being a brand new model means it should be some time before it becomes outdated.

However, now that I've had my tablet for about a month, I must admit, if I were to do it all over again, I'd likely chose differently.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that the tablet doesn't live up to the hype; I still feel the reviews I read singing it's praise were accurate. It's because this is my first tablet and as such the sensitivity doesn't seem to be as important as I initially expected. [At least not yet.]

Then there's the programmable OLED- Yes, the "OLED" is a nice feature however, it's a bit dim for my liking but more so, the actual buttons are rather disappointing. So much so that I don't even bother to use them; instead I find myself using the keyboard for shortcuts.

The problem is the keys are so small and so close together that I can only fit 3 fingers in the space of 4 buttons. Even with one finger, it's difficult to select the correct button without looking. They're also a bit too recessed and lack the tactile feel you'd expect from a component of this level. This makes using the tablet keys feel unnatural, or more importantly, no more convenient or faster than using the keyboard commands. In my opinion, you should be able to use the pen with one hand, and the shortcut keys with the other all while looking at the monitor. You shouldn't have to stop what you're doing, look down at the keys, choose which one you want, press it and then continue with your work. That's defeating the purpose. To me it should be a much more natural and fluid process, which the Intuos4 key design does not allow. I would almost prefer that Wacom went back to making the programmable functions an active area that respond to the tap of the pen; as was the case with past models.

So now my top-two reasons for choosing the Intuos4 M are moot. When you add to that the fact that additional tips are available as an accessory and suddenly the extra money becomes difficult to justify. I also feel at times that the size of the tablet is a bit awkward too. Perhaps it's because I'm so used to using a mouse that the smaller pad would be better for me. However, if you're someone who often draws freehand on paper, the larger pad may be more to your liking.

As for the other perks, I never even bothered to take the mouse out of the box and other than the additional Photoshop brushes, I found the free bundled software to be by and large of no use. They are bare-bones versions lacking the key features to make them useful. Lastly, the tablet's ability to sense tilt angle and twirl are lost on someone as new as I am to tablets.

In conclusion, the Intuos 4 M is an excellent tablet that lives up to the hype and positive reviews of others. However, for someone who is new to tablets, if I had to do it all over again I would likely save the $200+ and go with a Bamboo.

My only hope is that in time I will become more comfortable with the Intuos4 M and learn to appreciate it's unique features; if not, I suppose I can always put it up on Craigslist or eBay to recoup some of my hard earned dollars.

Regards!

Doc V.