I am looking to replace my old Wacom Intuos 2. I want a Cintiq, but they are massively overpriced. I guess their patents prevent anyone from competing because there is no other product out on the market.
I found some touch screens that were cheap, but most don’t make it clear if they are compatible with a stylus/pen at all.
If you look at the table below (at the link above), it shows that pretty much all touch screens are capable of working with pens. Even the iPhone has some styli available.
From there you can see that Wacom detects touch using Passive and Electromagnetic technologies.
Here is a few things I know:
Laptop manufacturers like Toshiba use Wacom technology in their tablet PCs, and users have successfully been able to use pens designed for Wacom tablet with these laptops. However, no one has reported specifics about how well they perform (pressure sensitivity, response, etc).
There are touch screens over $1000 cheaper than the Wacom Cintiq 21UX at the same size. They use other technologies, which I assume is because Wacom holds the patents to the better technology (I assume it’s better anyway).
http://www.nextwindow.com/index.html
There are companies like this who sell overlays for your existing LCD monitor to turn them into touch displays, the specs are good (9ms response, good resolution). The problem is although the list stylus support, they don’t mention anything about pressure sensitivity.
Anyone have a suggestion? I think Wacom is great, but their product is so overpriced. Even on ebay, the cheapest I’ve seen a cintiq 21UX go for is like $1800 used… and it’s retails for $2000. I’m not willing to spend that much.
I’ve ogled those new HP TouchSmart PCs, but it seems that as PCs go, they’re a bit anemic and not up to hard use with Photoshop or Illustrator. There’s just not enough RAM or GHz under the hood.
Reviews also indicate the TouchSmarts don’t have the same responsiveness as an Intuos tablet. I can’t imagine Wacom would let HP undercut its professional-grade tablets or the Cintiq - you can get a TouchSmart with a 22" screen for $1000.
Is the TouchSmart “half as good” as the Cintiq which costs twice as much? Unless you live and die by Adobe Creative Suite, it probably is, but graphics pros will probably find much to quarrel over. The main deal-breaker is probably that they’re not amenable to being picked up and held in your lap like a pad of paper - too heavy and too many wires.
Finally, keep in mind whether you’re dealing with a touch screen or a digitizer. The significant difference is that a digitizer will only respond when you touch it with the stylus. Touch screens will respond to your fingers, elbows, dangly bracelets, watch bands, etc. and will drive you completely mad.
ETA: I just found a reference that the TouchSmart has 256 levels of sensitivity - significantly less than an Intuos or Cintiq.
Yes, I would like a good touch screen with good pressure levels (priority). Not sure what you mean by pad though. I already have an Intuos 2 12x12. It’s good, but I’ve been able to try a 21ux where my uncle works and there is no comparison. Being able to draw directly on the display wins every time.
My graphics card is more than adequate (EVGA 8800GTX 768MB SLI x2).
10-bit color… I’m not sure what you mean again. If you’re talking about overall color-depth I’d want 24-bit. I do remember learning that most broadcasts and DVDs do 10-bit color, and per channel 32-bit displays actually only display 10-bits per channel. Something like that. Seems you are from the UK (coloUr) so I’m not if that’s a regional discrepancy.
I’m actually not so concerned with color, because composition is most important to me. I can do color correction on my callibrated NEC FE2111SB-BK when the time comes.
I think the HP TouchSmart tm2t is the cheapest tablet PC currently available that has an active digitizer (i.e. Wacom style pen input). Here’s a review:
It screen isn’t as nice as a high-end tablet PC though. (The view angle is no better than a typical LCD display, which can be an issue when it’s lying flat on a desk or in your lap.)
Yes, 10 bit colour is 10 bits per channel, for 30 bits overall. But given your other statements, I do agree that the Cintiq is probably the best for you.
For a pressure-sensitive, high-resolution display, I don’t think you’ve got any choice but Wacom: the other touch-screen displays are meant for fingers, and just don’t have the resolution (and usually no pressure sensitivity).
Once you’re there, you get either tablet PC (usually too underpowered) or Cintiq. I’ve been looking for a cheaper way around this for years, and not found one.
On the plus side, these things have been around for decades, so maybe the patents are close to expiring, and we can see some actual competition in this market.
N-trig also makes digitizers for tablets; I don’t know who uses them though. HP used to use them on their tablet PCs, but I believe they switched back to Wacom.
There are some powerful tablet PCs now; the Lenovo x201t has a Core i7 processor for example. It costs a bit more than the Cintiq though, and I don’t know how good its pressure sensitivity is.
I might buy a cheap 15" LCD, buy a used Intuos 3 9x12, and make a DIY. It seems relatively simple to do.
Can anyone recommend a good alternative brand for LCDs? I usually buy Samsung, NEC, or Sony when I buy LCDs. They stopped making 15" displays a while ago apparently and I can’t find anything good.
Horizontal Viewing Angle : 70°
Vertical Viewing Angle : 55°
Anyway if you’re willing to settle for a 15", why aren’t you considering the Cintiq 12? There isn’t a huge difference between 12" and 15".
I use a Genius tablet. The only real difference, AFAIK, is that the pen needs its own batteries whereas the Wacom proprietary transponder tech lets them do away with these. The resolutions are pretty much of a muchness, and the pressure levels, ditto (1024 levels - although it’s like megapixels, it’s not how high, it’s what you do with it). And they’re* a lot *cheaper.
That’s not the same thing at all. The Cintiqs are actual screens with the digitizer built in (so you see that you’re drawing under the pen like on paper). The Genius tablets, unless I’m missing something, are just entry tablets, closer to the Bamboo or Intuos than a Cintiq.
Very cheap @ $68, but only 2000 LPI vs the 5080 of a Wacom Inutos 3. Still, I wonder how much of a difference it makes considering there are only 85 lines of resolution per inch on a 15" display (768p/9").
They can either leave it as “ink” (i.e. a graphic of the text you write), or translate it to actual text via handwriting recognition of variable accuracy. In the latter case, you can use it anywhere you could use a keyboard (word processor, web form, dialog entry, whatever).
It sounds neater than it is – for most people, handwriting accuracy will be low enough that it’s not practical for long data entry. There are options that can make it better (a mode where you write letters one per “square,” for example), and on Windows the programmer can assist by “hinting” what they’re looking for, but it’s still a lot slower than typing for almost everybody. (It does allow a keyboad-free environment for things like slate tablet PC’s, though, which are nice for artists and a few other situations where text data entry is rarer than other uses).
