Wacom Intuos4 Medium. This one has a roughly A5 drawing area (although with widescreen ratio).

People asking me which size tablet to get might have noticed that I have always been a bit skeptical of getting a larger graphics tablet board. I have used the smallest Intuos3 (A6 size), and before that the equally small Graphire for many, many years without ever feeling cramped or having lacked precision. But when this larger tablet appeared on Ebay for half the prize it was hard to resist. I will keep using my Intuos3 for travelling with my laptop.

To start off, it should be said that this is an extremely high quality product. Everything is top-notch quality-wise. The Intuos series is Wacom's professional range and there is a reason Wacom is the market leader. So it's a very good tablet, no surprise there. Also the Linux support is very good and is only getting better by the minute. However, since I had an Intuos3 (the previous generation of pro tablets) already before. I was interested in the actual differences to me.

Differences between the Intuos4M to my smaller Intuos3 (noticed so far):

• The Intuos4 is widescreen, which means it maps directly to my monitor. The Intuos3 was 4:3 which meant I had to remove a strip at the bottom of the tablet to match. Not a big effect actually, it didn't bother me before.
• More and better shortcut-buttons. The scroll-wheel is also a big improvement over the old strip. The buttons are also supposed to have LED images, but I've not set that up in Linux yet.
• Much better looking than the gray-ish Intuos3.
• Double the pressure sensitivity to the Intuos3. I'm not sure I can feel the difference, to be honest, but it's nice to know it's there.
• A slightly more coarse surface, for more paper-like feel. Again, I don't notice this much since I tape a plastic sheet over it anyway - I like my paint action fast and guaranteed not to hurt the surface.
• Not too fond of the cable placement. My desk would like it better if it was on the left like on the Intuos3.
• The larger area means I have to move my hand more. Will get some getting used to. Time will tell if this means higher precision, but I'm willing to bet no - this is what the zoom function is for anyway. There is a definite risk only a part of the tablet will see most of the action rather than me drawing on the full area.
• The larger area means I can actually use and fit french curves and rulers on the surface. Much more effective for drawing shapes and lines than using an in-program line-function once you get used to the particulars of eye-tablet-screen coordination.

To conclude, I will remain by my old recommendation for people to get the smallest tablets they can get rather than save up for a bigger one. I only got this one due to it actually being cheaper (used) than the smallest Intuos4. The larger surface is not of big importance since also small tablets have so high precision anyway - the only real advantage to me is an easier time using rulers. Plus of course the fact that I have two tablets and can keep the old, smaller one exclusively with the laptop now.
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Griatch

That is one heck of a large area for drawing Griatch. I don't use a pad myself, but I've heard feedback from many who do and some have complained that the large pads that they use were actually overkill and all that is needed was at most a 6X8 area pad. Personally, I think I would like big myself, but I'm a mouse/filter guy so what do I know. lol

This is a 6x8 pad though lylejk (well it's 6x9 since it's widescreen). I wouldn't even consider a bigger one unless it was a Cintiq (with the screen behind the tablet). My old one was 4x5.
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Griatch

Ahh; ok. I'm not good sometimes with measurements based on a picture (thought it was bigger; lol). 6X8 (6X9 in your case) looks to be a comfortable size if I were to use such a device. Still, it would be cool to have a Cintiq (wonder what the display quality of one of these devices is?).

Well that will keep you out of mischief. Have you tried it out yet Griatch?

And I was expecting and infant! Now we know how gullible I am! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

But nice gadget! I love gadgets!

Hah! ... I also was expecting a baby face.
Nice setup Griatch.I see many a work of art flowing out of that tablet in the future!

MrBiggz, I thought that too! gullible we are

I guess we all just want a baby!

Speak for youself Rod. lol

Grand Babies for me
I am all done with that diaper changing stuff.

Thanks for sharing this info man. I reall appreciate it. I've been hunting for a new Wacom for some time now and some inside info from someone I trust is nice.

You know, if I was speaking of a child I would probably title the thread something more personal than "My new baby" - for a human baby that title sounds pretty dry, like I just picked it up from the supermarket.

Glad this was of help to people.


Yes, played around a bit. Haven't done anything serious with it yet though, just lots of large multi-colour blobs.

The table looks bigger due to the perspective in the image too.

The Cintiq reportedly has very good screens, especially with reproducing colour. The Cintiq 24HD would be the thing to go for:

I'd get it in the blink of an eye ... if I had $3300 to burn ...
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Griatch

Now that's what you would call an expensive monitor Griatch. lol

Cool that it actually is quite color capable as well as being an awesome pad. I have to pass too though (not that I would ever get one anyway; lol).

I won't be getting one anytime soon either Lyle but I sure do love the music in the video.